BYE BYE BEEP
M&S is testing a huge change to checkouts and items won’t need scanning
Checkouts will automatically tot up the price of items in a basket
MARKS & Spencer is trialling new smart checkouts that will tot up shoppers' baskets with no need for scanning.
In a huge change for shoppers, the checkouts will allow them to simply place their purchases on a till and receive their bill.
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The trial has been launched in the clothing and home departments of M&S' branch in Woking, Surrey, and, if successful, it could be rolled out to other branches.
The tills use chips embedded in price tags to automatically identify items with no need for scanning.
Prices are then totted up and shoppers are presented with their bill.
The tills are already used by a limited number of retailers including Uniqlo, to speed up checkout times and free-up staff time.
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M&S said it has seen a 40% reduction in transaction times at the new tills, compared to standard self-checkout tills.
An M&S Spokesperson said: "We help our customers to shop when, where and how they want by providing a choice of manned checkouts and self-service tills and we always offer customers the option to shop and pay with a colleague’s help.”
Consumers can expect to see an increase in technology in stores in the coming months.
However, it is understood there will still be staff available to help at checkouts.
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Companies are looking for efficiency savings to offset the upcoming hike in employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) and minimum wage.
Marks and Spencer is not alone in trialling these new checkouts.
Next chief executive Lord Simon Wolfson has said that the retail giant was going to start trialling the tills in February or March as part of its efforts to cut costs and reduce the need to raise prices.
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It comes as retailers are looking to reduce costs following hikes to NICs in the last Budget.
M&S chief executive Stuart Machin said the retailer wanted to pass costs on "as little as possible" but had been forced to tweak its business plan for the coming years.
He added any price rises would be "small and behind the market" but did not say how much exactly they would go up by.
Before Christmas, M&S warned that the combined rise in NICs and minimum wage would cost the company £120million.
The M&S boss, who took the helm in 2022, said he did not foresee big job losses following the Government's tax raid.
However, he said the retailer would have to be diligent on where it recruited new staff.
Many other retailers have issued warnings over the fallout from the government's Budget.
From April, employer NICs will be hiked from 13.8% to 15%, with a number of businesses saying this will be passed on to shoppers.
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Greggs, Halfords and Sainsbury's have all said prices may be hiked to cover the additional costs incurred from the tax raid.
Meanwhile, New Look is reported to be accelerating plans for mass store closures.
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The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
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