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Self-serve checkouts could tempt shoppers into theft

Self-serve checkouts could tempt shoppers into theft

While businesses may be able to cut down on lines and make shopping easier by using self-service checkouts, they may also give thieves “ready-made excuses” for stealing products, according to a recent study.

The report, authored by professors Adrian Beck and Matt Hopkins of Leicester University, collected data through interviews with staff, security experts, app developers and visits to stores from four major retailers (two from the U.S., one from Belgium and one from Holland).

It also examined statistics on nearly 12 million shopping trips from the four retailers between December 2012 and February 2015.

The study indicated that the use of these self-service technologies and other apps used to make purchases lead to a loss rate of nearly four per cent, more than double the average.

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Losing revenue is never good news for a business, but it seems even worse in light of the fact that a typical profit margin among European grocers is three per cent.

This means that many businesses that are employing these technologies are engaging in a “largely unprofitable exercise,” said the authors.

Self-service checkouts were invented in the 1990s and have become popular in with retailers worldwide. There are now roughly 200,000 machines worldwide and that number is expected to balloon to 335,000 by 2020.

The technology replaces the job of a cashier by having customers scan barcodes, input products such as produce themselves and place them into a bagging area. There, the weight is cross-referenced against previously stored data on the items.

“From the retailers’ perspective, the benefits seem obvious: less investment required in staff and checkout technologies, with the former being the biggest expense they face. For the shopper it could mean the end of checkout queues as product scanning and payment can, in theory, be performed anywhere in the store at their convenience,” Beck said in a press release.

“To borrow a well-worn ‘Top Gear’ phrase, ‘What could possibly go wrong’? Well, our research found that quite a bit could and does go wrong, with some potentially rather worrying long-term consequences.”

The problem with the process, according to the study, is that it removes human interaction from the equation, including the “most important” checkpoint -- where the payment is made, and could make it easier to tempt ordinarily law-abiding shoppers into theft.

The researchers say self-serve checkouts could lead to increase levels of shoppers skipping scanners either because of an intent to steal or because they were absentminded, distracted or a problem with the technology.

The study said there were also concerns about thieves creating and placing fraudulent self-scan labels on products.

To make matters worse, self-service checkouts could also give thieves “ready-made excuses” because they can blame the system, barcodes, their absentmindedness, or their lack of technological proficiency for walking out with unscanned items.

According to the study, staff were “more than willing” to accept these explanations as a defence and proving intent is “difficult. “

Retailers also have trouble deciding whether or not to prosecute because it can be a “legal and customer-relations minefield.”

The paper said this, in turn, could make catching thieves “highly unlikely.”

In fact, the researchers said all these factors together could results in “long-term rewards” for thieves, as many could begin to perceive stores that utilize the technology as “easy targets.”

In an effort to offset this effect, the study offered several suggestions for retailers to cut down on theft.

Many of these involve further technological innovations, including product tags, such as RFIDs, that can communicate with their environment; sending customers messages via an app to reduce anonymity when they start shopping and alerts indicating if products have not been scanned; CCTV systems to conduct age-restricted checks; and location-based monitoring to ensure payment has been secured once customers have left a certain area.

The researchers also suggested some old-fashioned methods to crack down on theft such as putting more employees on the floor and stressing vigilance, as well as employing security guards.