Sainsbury’s trials ‘till-free shopping’ at south London store

Supermarket giant Sainsbury’s is trialling a new ‘scan, pay and go’ scheme at its Clapham North Station Local store, enabling customers to pay for products using only their smartphone.

Customers at the trial supermarket will be able to pay for their items from anywhere in the shop, instead of a designated till point, using an updated version of Sainsbury’s Smartshop app that has been linked with Apple Pay.

The app is already in use in 68 Sainsbury’s supermarkets and allows customers to scan items as they go around the store, but requires them to complete the payment at a designated Smartshop self-checkout station. According to Sainsbury’s the new trial aims to speed up this process and offer customers another way to “pay conveniently in-store”.

Clodagh Moriarty, Sainsbury’s group chief digital officer, said: “Technology and changing customer shopping habits have transformed the way people buy their groceries. The latest version of SmartShop, with its new payment feature, will make it super quick for customers to get in and out of the store for those that want to scan, pay and go.

“Our teams are constantly working hard to bring new convenient shopping experiences to customers and we’re delighted to be the first grocery retailer in the UK to offer customers the ability to shop checkout-free.”