Grocery Store Checkout Innovation

By Joseph Tarnowski

NOVEMBER 15, 2007 -- Every grocer wants to see customers smiling as they walk out the door, and will go to great lengths to win those smiles, including stocking huge varieties of fresh produce, sourcing hard-to-find specialty foods, installing walk-in health clinics, and, at the extreme, launching expensive total store redesigns to enhance the shopping experience.

But one thing's pretty much guaranteed to be underplayed, if not totally overlooked: the front end checkout area, which constitutes a shopper's final experience in the store and a retailer's last -- and, some might argue, best -- opportunity to wow a customer.

The design, offerings, and go-to-market strategy of the front end has remained essentially unchanged for the past 50 years. And while many studies in recent years have analyzed the assortment of products merchandised around the checkout, usually in an attempt to find some ideal mix, apparently none have taken the further step to question whether the front end itself could use some reinventing.

None, until now. To ask such questions is what Progressive Grocer, Wilton, Conn.-based management consulting firm Meridian Consulting Group, and Los Angeles-based design firm Shook Kelley have set out to do, with an extensive research project designed to determine the grocery store front end's contribution to a customer's overall shopping experience. The project will combine retailer and consumer research components to define the challenge, and then assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current trends in the physical layout of the total front end checkout and how the area is managed. Finally, the effort will culminate in a prototype front end concept designed to offer the industry innovation solutions.

The research project, aptly titled "Lasting Impressions" and sponsored by Parsippany, N.J.-based Cadbury Adams USA, will explore and analyze all aspects of shopper behavior at the checkout as it relates to movement within the front end's physical space, selection of products merchandised at the front end, interaction with checkout associates, and the nature and conduct of the transaction itself.

The full research project -- which will span several months, focus both on manned checkouts and self-checkouts, and also incorporate information from transaction data, customer intercepts, and in-depth interviews with grocery chain senior managers -- will be highlighted in ongoing coverage in Progressive Grocer.

"This survey is just the first step in our study to understand how innovative retail design can improve the checkout," says Michael Shinall, Meridian's c.e.o., of the groundbreaking project. "We're looking to see how every aspect of the front end can be reinvented to enhance the shopping experience and leave the customer with a 'lasting impression' of the store."

The end game is a new prototype front end, to be designed by consumer behavior firm Shook Kelley -- a template for reinventing the front end checkout experience that may well form a new and more positive lasting impression with shoppers as they exit the store.

The first component of this multipart project is a report, based on a survey of close to 300 retailers to collect their impressions and knowledge regarding current shopper perceptions, retail practices, and performance levels of the grocery front end.

To Read More Click Here.