“Walmart and its big-box warehouse subsidiary Sam’s Club accused rival retailer BJ’s Wholesale Club in a lawsuit filed Tuesday of stealing technology that powers a popular self-checkout option in the Sam’s Club mobile app. The suit, filed in federal court, claims Walmart worked for years to develop Scan & Go, a feature that lets Sam’s Club customers ring up purchases on their smartphones while walking through the store, allowing them to avoid a checkout line.”

“To use the service, customers first need to download the latest version of the retailer’s app. When shopping at a participating 7-Eleven store, they open the app, tap ‘Get Started’ and then scan the barcode on the items they select to add them to their basket. When they have completed their shopping, they check out on their mobile phone. Once payment has been made, a QR code is displayed in the app that they scan at a confirmation station to confirm they have paid for their purchases.”

“The rise of Amazon Go has put the spotlight on cashierless checkout technology over the past year, but retailers could face real dilemmas as they seek to implement and scale up these solutions. Consumers are intrigued by the technology and appreciate anything that removes friction from the in-store checkout process, but cashierless checkout has so far been largely limited to the convenience and grocery verticals. Additionally, the solutions’ current cost structure, as well as the overall disruption they bring to store operations, remain big challenges.”

“A year ago, the e-commerce giant opened a cashierless convenience store called Amazon Go, marking its biggest effort yet to change the way people shop in the physical world. Today a fleet of companies are working to replicate elements of Go or invent other ways of streamlining store operations. Many are startups like Mighty AI, but established giants are wading in, too. Walmart has been testing Go-style technology, and Kroger and Microsoft recently announced a joint venture to bring elements of the e-commerce shopping experience to the grocery store.”

“MediaMarketSaturn, the largest consumer electronics retailer in Europe, is using MishiPay’s mobile self-checkout technology in its Hamburg store. The “scan, pay, leave” service lets consumers use smartphones to scan and pay for more than 100,000 products without having to get in a check-out line, according to a press release.”

“Self-checkout is frustrating in ways too diverse to name — the scanning mistakes, the messed-up barcodes, the odd rules. California state law changed in 2013, forbidding the sale of alcohol at self-checkouts, even those that stop the transaction and prompt an ID check by a store employee.”

“Mobile, Pay, Go is the simple way customers can pay for items without approaching a till. Customers simply open the M&S app, scan products as they go and then pay from their iPhone using Apple Pay or a saved card on their M&S.com account. It’s a seamless way to do a fast, seamless shop up to the value of £30.”