Are Polish consumers open to purchasing revolutions?

Mastercard has published the results of a study entitled “Are Poles ready for shops without cash registers?” carried out in cooperation with the Maison & Partners research house.

• For half of Polish consumers, checkout lines are the most frustrating part of everyday shopping.
• 61% of respondents believe that if everyone paid without cash, the queues would be shorter. The same amount wants to be able to pay by card in every store.
• More than half of the respondents would like to use fully automatic stores, without cash registers and queues.

The aim of the study was to check the attitude of Polish consumers to new technological solutions in brick-and-mortar stores, serving to accelerate shopping. The respondents confirm that queues at the cash registers are a significant problem for them. However, they note that there are already ways to shorten them, such as contactless payments and self-checkouts. They also express interest in newly emerging solutions, e.g. self-scanning of products, as well as in future-oriented solutions, such as fully automatic stores without cash registers.

The readiness of Polish consumers for the technological revolution in stores results not only from their general openness to the use of the latest technological solutions, but also from the real benefits they provide, such as speed, convenience and safety.

Frustrating queues

71% of Polish consumers are dissatisfied with the queues at checkouts, and for almost every second (47%) it is the most frustrating element of shopping, mainly due to the waste of time. According to respondents, for larger purchases, the waiting time at the checkout is an average of 18 minutes. They indicate that the longest queues have to be faced at discounters (64%) and in hypermarkets (50%), and least often in supermarkets and deli (22%) and in small local shops (12%).

Standing in line is accompanied by negative emotions – apart from the feeling of the aforementioned loss of time (29%), the most common are impatience (35%, more often in the elderly) and boredom (25%, more often in young people). The respondents are also frustrated by rude (26%) and slow cashiers (25%).

Retailers who can handle queues can gain additional customers and revenue. 71% of those surveyed by Mastercard admit that they would not return to the store for the product if it meant standing in line again. Almost every second consumer (46%) has also given up shopping at all, seeing too long queues at the checkout.

“Queues used to have a social function – you would meet friends there, gossiping. But the days of long lines with social lists are a thing of the past. Today they are a burdensome necessity for us, says Tomasz Sobierajski, a sociologist at the University of Warsaw. “In recent years, we’ve got used to the idea that shopping can and should be easy. Poles are not perceived stereotypically as technology fans. Meanwhile, innovation in trade is welcomed by us with great openness because it brings real benefits to us. “

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Shorter queues thanks to fast payments

Consumers surveyed by Mastercard note that today there are ways to reduce queues. Such a solution are, among others contactless payments (by card or by phone). As many as 69% of respondents happened that the seller did not have change, and more than half (51%) that the seller refused to give the rest. It is not surprising then that 61% of respondents believe that if everyone paid cashlessly at the cash register, the queues would be shorter.

Consequently, buyers want to be able to pay cashless everywhere. 61% of them believe that paying by card or phone should be available in every store, as well as at fairs and bazaars. Meanwhile, 58% of respondents indicate that they have often wanted to pay by card, but were unable to do so.

“Our latest research confirms that almost every consumer is already familiar with card contactless payments, and the vast majority have also heard about contactless payments by phone,” says Kamila Kaliszyk, market development director at the Polish branch of Mastercard Europe. – Poles are enthusiastic about new purchasing solutions because they have managed to find out that they provide comfort and save time. Technology gives the consumer independence and power, providing him with better information about products and offers, as well as giving him the ability to independently manage the entire purchasing process. “

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Interest in self-scanning of products

More and more consumers want to use automated self-service solutions to avoid queuing. 51% of respondents point to self-service checkouts, well-known from hypermarkets, in which goods are scanned and payment is made on their own. However, new solutions appear on the market. Already three large retail chains in Poland are conducting or announcing pilot implementations of solutions for self-scanning of products in store aisles, which allows you to avoid spending time on this activity at the checkout.

38% of respondents in the Mastercard survey find self-service scanners an interesting solution, which indicates that it has a chance to hit fertile ground. The next step in the development of technology may be the replacement of the in-store scanner with your own smartphone with the appropriate retailer’s mobile application, where you can pay for purchases at the same time. Every fifth Polish consumer (20%) expresses interest in such a concept. As it can be assumed, it is especially popular among younger respondents, aged up to 24 (41%).

Future stores without cash registers and queues

Going one step further, the respondents expressed their interest in the vision of shops completely without cash registers, where the problem of queues would not exist. Prototypes of such solutions, where appropriate sensors automatically detect which goods have been put in the basket, are already being tested abroad.

Also in the case of payment, full automation is achievable if it is carried out without cash. This requires authorizing a trusted seller to charge the appropriate amount for purchases, without confirmation each time. It is already technologically possible, incl. thanks to the use of tokenization, i.e. digital equivalents of payment cards associated with the application on the phone.

Such automation of payments will allow you to enter an even higher level of speed, security and convenience. At the same time, it will give the consumer a sense of control over expenses, thanks to the possibility of defining various parameters, such as a list of trusted sellers, purchase value limits or the selection of transactions that will require additional confirmation. This is in line with Mastercard’s vision of delivering “invisible” digital payments that combine convenience and security.

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The results of the latest Mastercard study show that Polish consumers like this vision of the future. Already every fourth person (26%) has heard about the idea of ​​automatic shops without queues and cash registers, while almost every second person (46%) considers such an idea attractive. More than half (52%) would be willing to use a solution that they perceive as innovative and convenient. Among the biggest benefits of buying in stores without cash registers, respondents indicated time savings (61%), as well as convenience (25%) and a better shopping experience (23%).

On the phone for your brother

Both for product scanning and cashless payment in the future, consumers will most likely mostly use their own smartphones. Therefore, the fact that the respondents in the Mastercard survey are more and more willing to use the phone during their visits to the store allows us to expect that automated purchasing solutions will quickly gain in popularity in our country.

Almost one third of respondents (29%) use a smartphone in the store. 89% of them consult a shopping list with another person over the phone, and 78% read it from the phone. Other, frequent uses of a smartphone include checking information about products on the Internet (74%) and comparing offers available from other sellers (70%). Interestingly, 58% of consumers who use smartphones while shopping, read recipes on their phones, thanks to which they can check the ingredients necessary to buy. In addition, 47% declare that they pay mobile, using, inter alia, solutions such as contactless payments using a banking application (the so-called HCE standard) or the Android Pay digital wallet.

source: press release