The retail world is changing fast. New technology is transforming how customers pay in stores and widening the range of experiences brands can offer to set themselves apart. Today, there's a wide range of new solutions to make shopping easier and faster in brick-and-mortar retail environments.
From self-service returns and exchanges to mobile point-of-sale systems that let you sell from anywhere in the store, let’s explore seven checkout trends that retailers are using to keep customers happy and encourage more sales in-store.
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The future of checkout: trends for 2025
1. Self-serve returns and exchanges
Retailers are seeing a significant shift towards self-service options, with self-serve returns emerging as a key trend in improving the post-purchase experience.
Data from NICE’s 2022 Digital-First Customer Experience report, which surveyed over 1,320 respondents, shows that 81% of consumers want more self-service options, yet businesses underestimate this need.
Rather than requiring customers to contact support teams directly, retailers now enable shoppers to initiate and manage their own returns through their online accounts.
For customers, this means immediate access to return options, simple digital processes, and the ability to track return status. For retailers, it automates communications with customers and reduces the cost of returns.
Platforms like Shopify offer built-in self-service return capabilities. Retailers can customize the experience with their branding, set specific return rules, and even automate shipping label generation for approved returns.
2. Email carts
Omnichannel trends are changing the future of checkout. Customers want online and offline experiences that blend together, which means your retail checkout experience should cater to these demands.
Shopify POS' email cart feature is a great way to do this. When chatting with a customer on the shop floor, retrieve the products on your POS system to create a cart and capture their email. Send this personalized cart link to shoppers to complete checkout online.
This way, they don’t have to wait in line to complete their purchase. Once payment is confirmed, the customer will receive a receipt via email and the completed order will appear on your Orders page in Shopify, ready to fulfill.
Customers are completing their carts online at a later time, but the attribution of the sale will go back to your retail locations, helping you report on the performance of your retail stores.
3. Showrooming model
Another trend that’s merging the brick-and-mortar experience with the convenience of online shopping is “showrooming” (also known as low or no inventory stores or endless aisles). Essentially, customers come to a store to check out merchandise and get a feel for it offline, then place an order for it online or in-store and receive the inventory via a shipping order.
While this is a checkout trend that’s worried some physical retailers, showrooming can benefit both customers and brands. It’s the perfect blend of the online and offline shopping worlds.
Warby Parker is a great example of a major brand that brought its online product into the offline world with a showroom model. While the brand began selling glasses entirely online, eventually it made sense to open brick-and-mortar locations in selected cities to offer customers the chance to try on frames in person.
At these retail locations, customers touch, feel, and try on frames, then order their glasses through Warby Parker’s website, with either the assistance of a staff member or on their own.
The showrooming model helps retailers that can’t afford to rent out a huge space to accommodate a full store’s worth of inventory. They can show off their goods in a small space, take full advantage of foot traffic, and still garner the sales benefits of a full-sized brick-and-mortar retail operation.
Showrooming also allows customers to have a convenient shopping experience and have products shipped straight to their doorstep.
4. Ship-to-customer
You don’t have to send customers to your ecommerce site when they visit your retail store and find a product they like that’s unavailable to take home there and then. That’s risky business: you’re relying on the customer to make the effort again after exiting the store.
Alternative fulfillment options like ship-to-customer take payment from the customer whilst they’re in your store. You ring up the order on your POS system as usual, but ask the shopper to enter their home address to arrange delivery.
Once paid, the customer receives their receipt and their order comes through to your Shopify Orders tab for your team to fulfill and ship to their home. This fulfillment can happen either from your store (when inventory is replenished) or a retail warehouse for maximum operational efficiency.
5. Retail apps
Some 46% of shoppers use a company’s or brand’s mobile app when browsing or shopping on a smartphone because they can get rewards or points, shortly followed by the option to view personalized coupons and promotions.
While creating a custom retail app might be too large an investment for smaller retailers, large chains like Starbucks and Walmart are using them to major success. These apps combine features of in-store navigation (where applicable), ease of purchase, a decrease in waiting times, and customer loyalty rewards all in one app.
Walmart’s mobile Scan & Go, for example, lets customers ring in items via the company’s app while they shop in-store. By the time they’re done putting everything in their cart, all they have to do is press Pay and head home with their merchandise.
6. Contactless payment methods
The future of retail is contactless. Tap-and-pay technology accounts for two out of every three transactions, according to one major bank. Why? Because contactless payments are faster than pin and chip transactions, and oftentimes more secure.
Future-proof checkout experiences must also integrate with any programs that you’re offering to customers, including loyalty schemes or gift cards you’re running through apps.
Shopify unified all of this data in a single platform with customizable POS UI extensions to access data from third-party apps at the checkout—even displaying this information on a customer-facing display.
In the context of a POS loyalty program, for example, shoppers can see the products they’re buying, their price, the order total, and any loyalty points they’ve converted into discounts.
7. Self-checkout technology
Self-checkouts are increasingly common in grocery stores and fast-food restaurants. A recent report by PYMNTS found that 84% of consumers prefer self-service kiosks, with two-thirds of them actively choosing self checkouts over staffed checkout desks for convenience and efficiency. This figure is even higher for Gen Z (84%) and Millennials (76%).
We can see this checkout trend in action with restaurants that have technology to cut down on customer wait times. Fast food vendors like McDonald’s give customers the option of ordering the old-fashioned way or through large self-serve touch screen kiosks located near their traditional checkout lines.
The issue that retailers face, however, is inventory shrinkage. Cameras and weighing scales can partly verify that shoppers scan and pay for inventory they’re taking, but it’s not foolproof. Some 81% of retailers station employees beside the checkout to deter theft and offer assistance to those who’ve opted for self-checkout machines.
8. Mobile checkout
You’re probably already familiar with Apple’s mobile checkout strategy. Customers might wait for a member of the sales staff to become available and assist them, but they never have to wait in line to pay. Each store associate is equipped with a mobile checkout device, so customers can check out with the same person who helped them.
With the proliferation of mobile-based point-of-sale systems like Shopify POS, it’s now possible to equip every retail employee with the power to check out customers anywhere in your store.
Mobile software like Tap to Pay can transform smartphones into a POS, which means there’s no need for a stationary checkout area. These types of mobile POS systems can also be used for cash on delivery programs.
Not only does this system eliminate checkout lines by stationing mobile POS systems throughout your store, it also helps employees offer a more informed customer experience. With information about product specs and current stock at their fingertips, employees are better equipped to answer any customer questions at checkout time. And without the added burden of a long line of waiting customers, staff can take the time to thoughtfully talk customers through their purchases.
Mike Esiobu, marketing manager at Unfinished Legacy, says: “We never want customers to have to wait in line. We want the checkout to be fast, so customers can choose how they spend their time. If they want to interact with our team, we’re all for it, but nobody appreciates waiting to pay.
“Tap to Pay on iPhone enables everyone on our team of five to walk around and accept payments on the spot,” Mike adds. “Payment is the last touchpoint we have with customers, and we wanted their experience at our pop-ups to end on a positive note.”
Why is it so important to get the retail checkout process right?
Retailers are attempting to innovate the retail checkout process—customers consistently report that making a purchase is the most painful part of the shopping experience. Long lines and lengthy wait times at checkout are major reasons that some customers have turned to online shopping.
The retail checkout experience is the last touchpoint a shopper has with your retail store before they leave. Giving customers a great last impression is crucial to gaining loyal customers who come back again and again.
Providing more checkout options can also boost customer satisfaction and reduce wait time. In turn, you’ll complete more checkouts, make more sales, and increase customer lifetime value (CLV).
How to create a retail checkout experience of the future
Pick the right checkout location
Checkouts generally sit on the left side of the store entrance. This creates a logical flow and caters to the right-turn—the typical route shoppers take throughout a retail store, ultimately ending up at the checkout.
But it’s not just the space on your floor plan that you’ve allocated to checkout—the surrounding area needs to be optimized too. Is it dark and dingy or bright and welcoming? Does it obstruct the traffic flow while customers are browsing products in your store? Make sure it’s easy to find, but not the main focal point of your retail store.
Make the queue entertaining
If customers have to wait in a long queue, they’re more likely to stick it out if there’s something nice to look at. The checkout counter is a great place to encourage customers to increase their basket size with impulse buys.
You can make a memorable (and shareable) statement with word art, inspiring messages, plants, or other low value items that compliment what’s in a shopper’s basket.
Train and motivate sales people
Involve your sales staff in your strategy to improve the checkout experience at your retail store.
You can gamify the process and set goals for the number of checkouts to be completed during a set period of time. For example, if you know your store is busiest from 6 pm to 8 pm on Thursday night, and the checkout process has slowed, set a goal of 25 checkouts per hour. If a sales associate reaches the goal, reward them with a commission on sales made during that hour.
Determine staff schedules based on traffic peaks
Over-staffing can impact your profits, and understaffing can leave you with dissatisfied customers.
Use Shopify apps like Dor to monitor foot traffic and determine when your store is busiest, then create rotas that ensure more staff are on the sales floor during those times. A balanced ratio of customers to staff reduces waiting time and speeds up the checkout process.
Similarly, if you have a mobile checkout system, make sure you have enough devices to enable more sales staff to process payments on the go. Put battery-powered mobile devices on charge when they’re not in use.
Remove friction at checkout
Don’t lose sales by making the checkout process complicated. The more you speed up the checkout process, the less time customers will have to reconsider their purchase or get distracted.
Speed up the checkout process by:
- Using barcode scanners to retrieve product information
- Integrating POS hardware, including receipt printers and card readers
- Customizing the POS interface to find most-used features without searching menus
📌 Pro tip: Shopify’s smart grid is completely customizable and offers POS UI extensions to pull data from loyalty, CRM, or discounting apps into your POS system.
Make gradual improvements
The main objective of improving your retail checkout experience is to provide a faster, more convenient, more enjoyable experience.
Set benchmarks you can review at the end of each day or week to determine whether your checkout process needs improvement. For example, during peak times, how many customers completed checkout in an hour? Set a goal, and if you’re able to reach that goal, you may not need to improve your checkout.
A few signs that you need to improve your retail checkout experience could be:
- Customer complaints
- A decline in sales revenue
- Customers drop merchandise and leave once they see the line
- Average basket size decreases (people want to pay as quickly as possible, so they buy less)
Embrace new checkout technology
Being open to new retail checkout technology will help you stay competitive and delight customers. If most retailers are offering staffed checkouts, contactless payments, or BOPIS options and your customers still have to queue, you run the risk of losing a handful of customers to your competition.
A great checkout experience starts at your point-of-sale system (POS)—whether it's in your store or on-the-go. A well-designed POS system should be easy to set up, simple to manage, and seamlessly unify your online and in-store payments, inventory, customers, and orders.
Shopify’s POS is purpose-built, meaning its countertop and mobile POS solutions are designed specifically for each selling scenario. This approach gives you the flexibility to design how customers move through your stores, get assistance, and check out in a way that feels true to your brand identity.
Join the future of retail by improving your checkout process
The future of checkout relies on convenience, speed, and an overall positive and memorable experience for customers. It’s no wonder why technology like self-service checkouts and “Just Walk Out” are rising in popularity.
But it’s impossible to test all these techniques at once. Try a few, gauge customers’ reactions, study the results, and improve as you go.
Use retail technology to adapt to consumer behavior and improve the checkout experience, so your customers stay happy and return to buy more.
Read more
- Impulse Buying: Why We Do It & 9 Ways to Encourage It
- EMV Chip Cards are Coming to the U.S. (Here's What Merchants Need to Know)
- What Is a Third-Party Payment Processor and How Does It Work?
- Cash on Delivery: How To Guide for Retail Businesses
- Merchant Account: Benefits, Types, and How to Open One
- How Do Mobile Wallets Work and What Are the Benefits of Accepting Them In-Store?
- Everything You Need To Know About Customer Facing Displays
- How to Create Gift Cards in Your POS and Use Them to Boost Sales
