How to develop a Scan & Go app for self-service stores
Karen Savage
Head of Sales at Anyline
These days, it seems like apps are popping up everywhere – to the point where virtually anything you want to accomplish is likely already available in app form. One of the most exciting of those, particularly for people in the retail space, takes the form of the Scan & Go app. As the name suggests, this is an app that allows customers to scan products on their own, at which point they can pay right for their phone and leave without needing to interact with anyone.
Of course, this poses the question – how do you develop one of these self-service apps of your own? What is the process? What technologies do you need? Read on to find out.
What are the hot trends in retail right now?
But first, it’s important to acknowledge some of the hottest trends in retail at the moment and how they may fit in with your vision for a Scan & Go app.
Chief among these are the self-service kiosks, the vending machine stores, the smart carts and similar technologies. These have become particularly popular over the last two years given everything going on with the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Self-service kiosks let a customer interact directly with a company, getting service at their convenience.
- Vending machines are more of a situation where someone may walk into a retailer like a supermarket, see walls of vending machines with various goods, purchase them directly and then walk out.
- Smart carts, on the other hand, literally scan items as they are placed into a shopping cart. That way, people are charged automatically and they don’t have to interact with personnel.
The easiest trend, however, is undoubtedly the Scan & Go app.
What is Scan & Go?
As the name suggests, Scan & Go is a technology that allows customers to scan items via their barcode on a smartphone, tablet or other type of mobile device. They can scan items as they pick them up and then, when they’re ready, pay for their entire order right from their phone. This is also commonly referred to as mobile checkout-less and it’s a way to both personalize and generally improve the overall customer experience that you’re able to offer.
What are the reasons to develop a Scan & Go app?
By far, the most important reason to develop a Scan & Go app has to do with the fact that it makes the customer experience better than ever before. Some people don’t have time to wait in a checkout line – they just want to get their items and go about their day. Scan & Go technology goes a long way towards guaranteeing precisely that.
But more than that, Scan & Go technology also allows retailers access to a massive amount of data analysis. Not only does it let you know what people are buying, you can also look back at historical data to see trends and patterns that otherwise may have gone undiscovered. You can see which items are hot at which types of the year and which items aren’t moving at all. You can better understand traffic patterns and seasonal fluctuations. All of this is insight that you can use to make better and more informed decisions, ultimately allowing your business to grow in all of the ways that you need.
Another one of the major benefits of Scan & Go technology comes by way of the fact that it unlocks significant promotional potential. Think about it like this: if you know which items are particularly popular, you can see where your promotional efforts should be focused to make the most impact. Along the same lines, once someone has the app downloaded onto their phone, you’ve essentially created an open communication channel with them. You can send them messages and coupons to keep them interested in your brand, all so that they keep coming back for more.
Scan & Go apps also allow businesses to embrace other techniques as well, including but not limited to things like customer loyalty programs, digital vouchers, micro campaigns and more. You can also experiment with things like dynamic pricing and you can even feature certain products as soon as someone opens the app.
What technologies does a Scan & Go app need?
One of the most important technologies that any Scan & Go or self-service app needs comes down to barcode scanning, which is usually handled by the phone built into someone’s mobile device. But equally important is OCR, or optical character recognition.
OCR allows the app to scan everything from barcodes to identification documents in an instant, pulling important information in a simple and accurate way. Anyline’s highly versatile solution, for example, reads numbers as well as multiple alphabets, including Latin, Cyrillic and Arabic and verifies everything for maximum accuracy.
How can Anyline be integrated?
Anyline’s solution can effortlessly be used to turn a user’s mobile device into a barcode and ID scanner by integrating mobile data capture to any app or website. It supports a plethora of different platforms thanks to a specially built SDK.
The Anyline software development kit is easy to integrate and is backed by support from a dedicated team of customer service professionals. Maintenance is easy and upgrades are effortless – allowing it to act as the rock-solid foundation upon which your Scan & Go app will be built.
To find out more information, or to get answers to any questions you might have, please contact the team at Anyline today.