#Target checkout how to#

“Rather, if a customer wishes to return an item, he or she must do so at a point-of-sale terminal that is operated by an employee of the retail facility.” “Even with the advances in technology and the benefits of self-checkout stations, retail facilities have not adopted a similar model for returns,” the patent documentation explains. The first, “Systems and Methods for Self-Returns,” would do just as its name suggests – allow you to return items at self-checkout, instead of at a staffed customer service department.

#Target checkout how to#

Walmart has its own ideas on how to improve self-checkout, which it describes in two additional patent applications. And if the item happens to be out of stock, you won’t have to go to another store or do without – you could add it to your order to pick up later or have it delivered. This would “provide customers with convenient options to still purchase those items without having to run around the store to retrieve them,” Target explains. If you add milk to your order as you’re checking out, an employee can be notified to grab it for you and bring it to your self-checkout lane while you’re still scanning the rest of your items.Īlternatively, you could choose to have the item delivered to your home, or set aside for pickup at a later time. This would allow those recommendations to be made early in the checkout process, giving an employee time to help out. That’s all well and good, but how are you going to get that milk if you’re in the middle of scanning your stuff? Target describes a system where cameras can peek into your shopping cart and sense what products you’re planning to purchase even before you scan them. “For instance,” the patent application explains, “a customer has multiple boxes of cereal in his/her physical shopping cart but does not have any milk.” The system can suggest that you might consider buying milk as well, in case it slipped your mind. On the one hand, you could find it annoying to have a self-checkout machine pester you to buy more stuff, but it could also save you a trip to another store, by letting you buy additional items you forgot or couldn’t find in the aisles. The system would recommend relevant products to you while you’re checking out. Its “Point of Sale System With Customer-Facing Device and Product-Sensing Devices” could be described as an automated upselling service. One of Target’s ideas seems the most ambitious of the bunch. And if implemented, they could all change the way you engage with self-checkouts at a store near you. Together, Walmart and Target have described several new self-checkout systems in recently-published individual patent applications. So two of the country’s largest retailers are working on improvements that could make self-checkout more convenient for you – and perhaps more lucrative for them. Love it or hate it, there are certainly benefits to self-checkout.