Wal-Mart Is Testing Mobile Checkout

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Employees at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. WMT +0.48% are testing a new checkout system that allows shoppers to use their mobile phones to scan items as they walk through stores and pay at self-service kiosks, skipping the cashiers' lines.

Called "Scan and Go," the new mobile-payment application is the retailer's latest attempt to reduce long checkout lines; the company says it spends $12 million per second on cashers' wages in the U.S. The new system doesn't allow customers to pay with a mobile device, but is meant to make scanning easier for them.

The trial comes after Wal-Mart's chief financial officer, Charles Holley, announced plans in March to add more self-checkout lanes, where shoppers scan and bag items without the help of cashiers. About 1,600 of the more than 4,500 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in the U.S. include a traditional self-checkout option.

Wal-Mart confirmed it has asked employees to test the mobile self-checkout in one store in Arkansas. The service is not yet available to customers.

Retailers have been testing self-checkout lanes for more than a decade in an attempt to reduce labor costs and speed up transactions, but not all chains have been happy with their experiences. Companies including grocery chain Albertsons LLC and Swedish housewares giant IKEA Group are starting to eliminate self-checkout, citing lost revenue, theft and lack of interaction with customers. Many shoppers also complain the self-service systems are balky.

Read More: WSJ


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