Warning over Coles and Woolworths major checkout change: 'It's how we shop now'

Warning over Coles and Woolworths major checkout change: ‘It’s how we shop now’

Posted by Admin January 19, 2025 Shopping

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Professor Paul Harrison believes supermarket smart trolleys could be the way of the future. (Source: Supplied)

Our phones and watches are smart. Our homes are getting smarter and so are our cars. It was only a matter of time before our supermarket shopping experience got smart too and now both Coles and Woolworths have introduced trolleys that will make that happen.

The big two are currently in trial phase with Coles unveiling an AI-powered smart cart and Woolworths launching a Scan&Go trolley fitted with an ipad-style device.

The idea is to make shopping quicker and easier as well as “modern and innovative,” according to Woolworths.

The trolleys being trialled are slightly different but provide the same solution, namely the ability to scan and pack your bags as you go and not have to queue and unload your shopping at the checkout.

At Woolworths, customers will use their Everyday rewards card to unlock a tablet-style device from a charging wall and attach it to their trolley.

They can then scan their shopping on the tablet and, when finished, head to a self-serve checkout to pay. The ability to pay at the trolley will also be rolled out soon.

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The Coles Smart Trolley is cleverer in that it automatically scans and weighs items as they are put into it. Once your shopping is done you can click checkout and pay on the trolley.

This technology is not new and it’s been used by supermarket chains in the UK, Europe and US over the last few years but this is the first time we’re getting to see it in action in Australia.

“In the UK and US some people use them and some people don’t but it becomes the norm and people accept it’s how we shop now,” Paul Harrison Professor of Consumer Behaviour and Marketing at Deakin University told Yahoo Finance.

And while there are currently only a handful of trial stores, both supermarkets expect it could become the new way to shop here too.

“We are still collecting feedback from our customers and team with the view to introduce Scan&Go trolley in more of our supermarkets nationwide,” a Woolworths spokesperson told Yahoo Finance.

There’s no denying that queueing to pay and then unloading the shopping you’ve just packed into your trolley is a waste of time. It means the supermarkets are keen to press convenience as the major benefit of the new trolleys.

But, while the supermarkets couch the introduction of the new shopping method as all about helping the customer Harrison cautions against thinking it’s all for our benefit.

“There’s a level of naivety in thinking the supermarket cares about us. They’ve framed it in the context of being helpful and convenient but they’re not your mum. The supermarket’s objective is to make money and they want customers spending on products with the biggest margins,” he said.

And it’s not hard to see how they will do this.

The major Aussie supermarkets could be changing the game with smart trolleys. (Source: Supplied)

Coles new trolley screen will be able to point out offers and promotions and even direct you to the correct aisle so you can snap them up.

“It’s the more sophisticated version of the sale sign or sticker on the floor,” Harrison said.

“It’s subtle stimuli that influences the decisions you make and tries to shift you away from your habitual purchases and towards the brands that benefit them.”

The Chinese tech company behind the Woolworths trolleys, Hanshow, said the smart trolleys are designed to increase the “chances of impulse purchases” and have the capability to send personalised ads to customers depending on their shopping habits.

The Woolworths trolleys don’t currently feature any product advertising but Hanshow said on its website: “Leveraging data and customer insights, our system presents relevant advertisements and promotions to customers as they shop.”

The supermarkets say the new trolleys can save you money and, being able to see your spend as you shop, you might be less inclined to add those extra few products after you reach your budget.

Equally, though there will be encouragement to spend that bit more with devices like the Coles trolley “spin the wheel.”

This in-built gamification gives customers a chance to win additional discounts on their total shop but it’s only available for Flyby customers and only if they spend over $50 in one shop.

“Getting every customer to spend even 50 cents more doesn’t seem like a lot but it has a significant effect,” Harrison said. But, gamification comes with a risk.

“Some people are drawn to it, it pisses some people off,” he said.

“It’s not the seller everyone hoped it would be. It’s an example of a solution looking for a problem.”

According to Woolworths, the trial has been “overwhelmingly positive” but the response on social media is more varied.

“Self serve and scan trolley no. I like customer service and seeing people being employed,” said one comment on a TikTok video demonstrating the new Woolworths trolley.

It’s a popular theme but the supermarket is quick to explain it’s designed to complement its other options, including being served by a team member at an assisted checkout.

Other commenters are concerned their movement around the store will be tracked and that it’s an invasion of their privacy, both things the supermarkets deny are issues with the technology in its current form.

Whether it works long term and becomes Australia’s new norm remains to be seen.

Aldi is trialling smart trolleys, called Caper Carts, in Europe but no announcement has been made here. And 7-Eleven has introduced ‘Pay & Go’ on its app, which allows customers to scan the items they want in the app, hit pay and skip the checkout.

“Supermarkets are looking at how to get customers to spend more money and come more often and an ipad on a shopping trolley isn’t going to solve that problem,” Harrison said.

“But they [Coles and Woolies] have seen other countries doing it and we don’t know what’s going to happen here until we try it.”

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