Self-checkout is frustrated, manual service may disappear, can AI shopping carts regain their strength?
With the development of technology, self-checkout systems have become widely used in Australian supermarkets. This new type of checkout has undoubtedly brought great convenience to customers, but it has also caused some controversy and questioning. Some people worry that the self-checkout system will cause human cashiers to lose their jobs, while others are skeptical about its operational experience and accuracy. In this context, the AI shopping cart came into being, which is seen as a solution to many of the problems existing in self-checkout systems.
The popularity of self-checkout systems in Australian supermarkets is already quite high. Walking into many large supermarket chains, you can see that the self-checkout area takes up quite a bit of space. This checkout method does bring great convenience to customers, especially during peak business hours, which can effectively relieve the pressure on the manual checkout counter and avoid customers waiting in line for a long time.
The self-checkout system also has some obvious flaws and deficiencies. First of all, the user experience is not very user-friendly, especially for customers who are older or less familiar with new technology. They may have difficulty scanning goods, paying for settlements, etc., and may even need to seek help from staff. The accuracy of self-checkout systems has also been questioned. The barcode of some items may be misrecognized, or the customer may accidentally press on other items while placing the shopping bag, resulting in a deviation in the final settlement amount.
More worryingly, the proliferation of self-checkout systems could lead to a large number of manual cashiers losing their jobs. One of the main purposes of a self-checkout system is to reduce labor costs. Some supermarket chains have begun to cut the number of human cashiers in favor of self-checkout areas. This undoubtedly brings great pressure and survival problems to those who have been engaged in cashier work for a long time.
There are also some supermarkets that choose to keep the manual checkout lane to meet the needs of customers who prefer to interact with a human cashier. Human service not only provides a more thoughtful experience, but also detects and corrects errors that may occur in the self-checkout system. Therefore, the supermarket of the future is likely to adopt the parallel model of self-checkout and manual cashier, providing customers with more choices.
In addition to self-checkout systems and human checkout services, AI shopping carts are seen as a new solution. This smart shopping cart uses computer vision and artificial intelligence technology to automatically identify the items in a customer's shopping cart and calculate the total price in real-time, eliminating the need for customers to manually scan the barcode.
The AI shopping cart works by taking an image of the item when a customer places it in the cart, and then transmits the image to the cloud for identification and pricing. Once recognized, the product name and price are automatically displayed on the display of the shopping cart. At checkout, customers simply select a payment method and don't need to scan and check the item again.
Compared to self-checkout systems, AI shopping carts have significant advantages. It eliminates the need for customers to manually scan each item, greatly simplifying the checkout process and increasing efficiency. The accuracy of AI recognition is also higher, which can effectively avoid billing bias caused by scanning errors. The AI shopping cart can also provide customers with personalized shopping suggestions and offers to enhance the shopping experience.
The AI shopping cart is still in its early stages, and there are still some technical difficulties to be solved. For example, how do you accurately identify products with similar packaging? How to deal with special circumstances, such as a customer who decides not to buy certain products at short notice? But as technology continues to advance, these problems will be solved.
In the future, supermarkets are likely to adopt self-checkout, manual checkout, and AI shopping carts at the same time. Different customers can choose the most suitable checkout method according to their preferences and needs. For those customers who are looking for efficiency and convenience, the AI shopping cart is undoubtedly the best choice; For those customers who value more humanized service, manual cashier is more attractive; Self-checkout can be a compromise option to meet different levels of needs.
The coexistence of the three models can not only meet the preferences of different customers, but also help promote the diversified development of technological innovation and service models. It is believed that in the near future, AI shopping carts will definitely become the mainstream trend of supermarket cash register systems, bringing unprecedented convenience to customers.