Love or loath the trend, self-service checkout lanes and kiosks are rapidly becoming as commonplace as half-price sales, with one industry watcher predicting that the value of such do-it-yourself transactions will approach the $1 trillion mark by decade’s end.
That assessment comes from IHL Consulting, a Franklin, Tenn.-based firm that has made a specialty out of tracking this particular commercial evolution. IHL president Greg Buzek says in a press release:
“We expect that expenditures made at self-service kiosks will rise by about 20 percent this year and another 18 percent in 2008,” Buzek said, adding that demand for self-checkout systems and other kiosks should push the dollar value of transactions to nearly $1.3 trillion by 2011. “Consumers enjoy self-service and increasingly seek out retailers that offer the technology. Retailers and other businesses are finding that self-service kiosks can significantly increase customer loyalty, as well as customer satisfaction.”
I’d like to see another survey backing up that blanket assertion about customers enjoying self-service. Call me skeptical. Personally, I remain a selective and somewhat reluctant user of the self-checkout lanes: yes, at a BJ’s Wholesale Club or Home Depot; not a chance at the grocery store, no matter how cheerfully the store manager urges me to give it a try.
Suspect I’m not alone there.
In raw dollars, IHL sees self-checkout transactions totaling $525 billion this year, up 20% from $438 billion in 2006.
Of course, the trend does have its downsides for retailers and they can go beyond potential customer alienation, as evidenced by this Buzzblog item from a year ago that inspired one of my personal favorite headlines: Seems you didn’t need that Slim Jim or National Enquirer after all. Translation: Shoppers are dramatically less likely to make impulse purchases at the checkout line when they are doing the checking out.
Nevertheless, this appears to be an unstoppable train. As Network World newsletter author Linda Musthaler notes here, the technology involved is finding its way into venues as diverse as bank branches and school cafeterias.
Who ever thought we’d long for the days of “Will that be paper or plastic?”
