Lidl trials Scan&Go function through app

German discounter Lidl is testing a Scan&Go functionality, allowing customers to use their smartphone to scan groceries and avoid a traditional checkout. If successful, it may well be implemented abroad as well.

Store trial

Shopping quickly at your own pace, without having to unload and repack your groceries at the checkout: Lidl is looking to make that possible. In a branch near its Neckarsulm headquarters, the discounter is testing a new self-scanning function in its app, Lebensmittel Zeitung reports. Lidl has tested handheld scanners before, such as those used at sibling company Kaufland, but apparently CEO Kenneth McGrath has decided to go for the app.

Shoppers have to activate the scanning function in-store: a geolocation function then ensures that offers valid only in the affected shop are correctly registered. Shoppers scan the bar code on the packs, not the shelf labels. For pastries and fruit and vegetables by piece, the retailer provides QR codes; for products by weight, there are scales that print labels. Shoppers pay at self-service checkouts: a code on the cash ticket opens the anti-theft gates. Monitoring and spot checks are carried out, just like at other retailers. LZ reports that the Scan & Go feature may be rolled out further internationally, but more details are not yet known.