87% Of Shoppers Prefer to Shop in Stores With Touchless or Robust Self-Checkout Options During COVID-19 Pandemic

Shekel-Sponsored Consumer Survey Details How Social Distancing is Changing Shopping Habits

KIBBUTZ BEIT KESHET, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nearly two-thirds of consumers are changing their grocery shopping habits in response to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent consumer survey from Shekel, pioneers in advanced weighing technologies. And 87% of shoppers say they would prefer to shop in stores with touchless or robust self-checkout options. The survey, executed in the U.S., found that more than two-thirds of consumers are now using self-checkout, touchless self-checkout or frictionless micro-markets to pay for groceries, while less than one-third of respondents are ordering groceries online.

Survey key findings include:

• More than 70% of shoppers are using touchless, robust self-checkout options or shopping at frictionless micro-markets, compared to nearly 29% that are shopping online.
• Exactly half of consumers are aware of touchless self-checkout options, where items are automatically scanned and recognized without needing to touch a pad or screen to enter their names.
• Self-checkout options remain popular with nearly 75% of shoppers using self-checkout to pay for groceries frequently.
• 90% of respondents were between the ages of 18-60.

“We’re facing difficult times and consumers are taking every precaution to protect themselves and their families,” said Shekel CEO Yedidia Yossef. “It’s imperative that consumers have the ability to checkout using unattended shopping for their health and safety, as well as the health and safety of tireless grocery workers.”

“Getting back to normal routines will take time and require different habits and retail solutions,” said Udi Wiesner, General Manager of Retail Innovation Division which provides Autonomous Micro Market solutions for Shekel Brainweigh. “Consumers will look for touchless shopping experiences whenever possible while keeping social distancing rules, especially if another wave of pandemic occurs. We expect significant growth of unattended Autonomous Micro Markets in convenience store format in urban areas and public facilities.”

Shekel provides weighing solutions to the highly regulated retail and healthcare markets via global giants such as Toshiba, Fujitsu, Diebold Nixdorf and others. Shekel Brainweigh Retail Innovation Division provides Autonomous Micro Markets solutions to improve store automation and operational excellence - including overstock and understock issues, loss prevention and enhancing the consumer experience. By leveraging IoT load sensors, Product Aware shelves technology , AI and deep-learning algorithms, Shekel enlightens retail shelves into actionable insights. Shekel’s touchless self-checkout solutions assist retailers in loss prevention by alerting shoppers and associates that they failed to add a product in the cart to the shopping basket.

About Shekel

Publicly traded as Shekel Brainweigh Ltd. (ASX:SBW), Shekel is a well-established technology market leader revolutionizing the retail industry for more than 40 years. Following the last years of disruption in the retail market, the company has reinvented itself embracing the newest technologies of IoT and data analytics to enhance and enlarge its retail market offerings, enabling retailers to adapt to the dramatic changes taking place. For more information, visit https://theshekelgroup.com/.