Ten recommended ways to improve SCO customer utilisation

Retailer after retailer is rushing to deploy self-checkouts (SCO) in their stores, with many admitting that this is to mitigate the increase in costs that everyone across the industry is currently facing. However, rolling out is one thing; maximising the benefit is quite another.

In this article, BOXTEC Senior Industry Expert, Andrew Busby, takes a look at the different factors retailers need to consider in order to extract the most from their SCO deployment.

SCO systems offer speed, convenience, staff efficiency, cost savings, and increased customer autonomy across diverse retail environments – from grocery to pharmacy, apparel, fuel, and fast food. Maximizing their benefits hinges on improving system usability, queue management, design inclusivity, theft deterrence, psychological framing, and staff re-allocation.

However, there’s a trade-off: overdependence can alienate some consumers and heighten loss risk. However, AI is now able to drastically reduce theft, and by providing choice and achieving the right balance between automation and human interaction, retailers can boost engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately loyalty.

Optimal layout and configuration significantly boost utilisation and smooth customer flow. Key strategies to achieve this include strategic placement, thoughtful physical design, digital guiding aids, appropriate staffing, and spatial analytics. These interventions not only speed up interactions but also improve satisfaction and reduce congestion.

Ten recommended ways to improve SCO customer utilisation:

1. Strategic Placement & Proximity to Flow

Near exits with clear sightlines – SCOs should be placed along natural customer paths, close to exits but not in congested choke points, in order to encourage use and avoid crowding.

According to Gensler, SCOs should be located adjacent to traditional lanes or fitting rooms, co-location helps customers discover them and provides fallback options, easing navigation.

3D LiDAR or CCTV + computer vision can also be used to produce floor-level heatmaps of real-world customer movement, which can then be applied to SCO layout optimisation models.

2. Clustered Configurations & Space Allocation

Grouped kiosks reduce choice paralysis. By clustering SCO terminals together, an intuitive “zone” is created, reducing confusion about where to queue.

Added to this, adequate surrounding space is essential. Spacious environments around terminals – enough room for unloading, scanning, and bagging – cut delays and frustration.

3. Digital Signage & Spatial Guidance

Wayfinding aids improve flow. Digital or static signage directing shoppers to SCO areas cuts hesitation, queues, and bottlenecks. The newly refurbished Sainsbury’s store at Kiln Lane, Epsom, is a good example of this, where ceiling signage clearly denotes the different types of checkout available.

4. In-Line Impulse Merchandising

Strategic impulse zones, in other words, placing small items (snacks, gift cards etc.) near SCO terminals, leverage dwell time and increase revenue.

Towers, vertical displays, and free-standing display units (FSDU) close to SCO terminals can also capture attention, increasing last-minute purchases.

5. Physical Design & Accessibility

Use touchscreens at ergonomic heights with clear fonts and contrast to aid all users, including those less tech-savvy.

Comfort features such as provision for seating, side partitions, or bagging bays cater to elderly users or shoppers with large baskets, reducing stress and errors.

Ensure a seamless integration with hardware by having a cohesive alignment of scanners, scales, and POS hardware, ergonomically placed – minimizes physical awkwardness and delays.

6. Staffing & Real-Time Monitoring

The proximity of support staff is critical to the success of SCO deployments. Assigning staff nearby to assist with errors, age-restricted sales, or general queries improves confidence and speeds throughput. Consider posting a “greeter” at the entrance to the SCO zone in order to assist and speed the flow.

For even greater resilience, consider real-time monitoring using a tool such as inefi Spotlight to ensure that the SCO are continually monitored and ready for use. In a space where the SCO is worked hard and releases staff to work on other areas of the store, uptime is critical

Consider SCO automation alongside manual checkouts and use dynamic activation of the latter by monitoring SCO zones and open staffed tills as needed to alleviate queue pressure and maintain flow.

7. Spatial Analysis & Flow Modeling

Simulation-driven placement by using footfall analytics identifies bottlenecks, and layout simulations (grid, loop, diagonal) test the best SCO placement.

Wi‑Fi/Bluetooth fingerprinting uses sensors to collect device movement and dwell-time data in different zones. Transforming this into movement paths enables the identification of high‑traffic areas and bottlenecks.

As one luxury department store found, adjusting the layout and positioning, ie. having a flexible configuration approach in response to flow changes and seasonal traffic, can have a significant impact on flow rates.

8. GIS & Geofencing Analytics

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping and geofencing, though mostly used for macro-location, these tools can also help understand store aisle flow and entrance-to-SCO routing efficiency.

For example, IKEA Southeast Asia used location-based analytics in a compact concept store to analyse customer catchment, dwell times, and interactions with self-pay areas, comparing purchase behaviour versus large-format stores.

9. Gravity & Flow Modelling

Gravity models predict flows between zones based on attractiveness and distance, applied to queue management, including SCO layout. Using such models, simulated annealing algorithms can be used to reconfigure zones, placing popular ones along perimeters to reduce congestion, resulting in reduced queue overlap, lighter congestion, and better zone utilization.

10. Simulation & Scenario Testing

Queue simulations using digital twins can be used to model customer behaviour under different SCO configurations – varying kiosk counts, cluster layouts, queue types – to estimate wait times, usage rates, and throughput.

Key Takeaways for SCO Layout Optimization

Conclusion & Recommendations

As Harrods found, their initial SCO installation configuration resulted in longer queue times and crowding in their food hall. By observing and monitoring customer behaviour using some of the techniques documented here, they changed the layout and configuration of their SCO, resulting in significantly improved flow rates over the busy Christmas peak trading period.

To optimize SCO layout for peak utilization and smooth customer flow, retailers should:

1. Position SCO zones along key traffic arteries with clear visibility and adjacent manual checkouts.
2. Cluster terminals with generous bagging and queue space.
3. Employ signage and virtual queuing to guide and inform shoppers.
4. Incorporate impulse zones with appealing fixtures.
5. Design ergonomic, inclusive stations with full hardware integration
6. Station staff nearby and monitor flow dynamically.
7. Use spatial analytics to refine placement, adapting to changing patterns.
8. Collect user feedback, targeting pain points in layout and signage.

A holistic, customer-centric layout – combining design, tech, and people, turns SCO and the retail floor into a seamless experience, increasing throughput, satisfaction, and profitability.

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