Primark has brought self-checkouts from Itab to its UK stores such as those in Truro, Broughton Park, Oxford Street East, Chester, Llandudno, Harlow and the Irish store in Mullingar. The Irish fashion specialist had previously started to equip some of its stores in UK with self-checkouts from Swedish retail solution provider on a test phase in 2022. Primark is also upgrading in the Click&Collect activities.
Itab had designed a customised self-checkout solution for Primark, which won the industry award Popai UK & Ireland Award in silver in 2023. By analysing checkout data by time of day, season and basket size, Itab defines a store-specific ratio of attended and self-service checkouts for each Primark location. This enables the fashion retailer to improve its in-store workflows and increase operational efficiency across the entire checkout area.
Primark stores’ self-checkout areas are secured by Wanzl exit gates. To pass through these gates, shoppers have to scan barcodes on their receipts themselves. The roll-out of self-checkouts, which began in 2022, is progressing well, as Kerry Hooley, Project Retail Implementation Lead at Primark, explained in a LinkedIn post in August this year.
Primark picks up the pace with Click&Collect
Primark currently offers a Click&Collect service in 57 stores in England and North Wales. This includes a selection of women’s and children’s clothing and accessories – new categories and products, including home and lifestyle as well as menswear, are to be added gradually. The clothing retailer plans to expand the Click&Collect service to all of its 184 UK stores by the end of 2025. The fashion discounter initially launched the service in 25 of its stores in the North West of England, North Wales and Yorkshire in November 2022, before expanding it to other stores in and around London in autumn 2023.
Self-checkouts are also planned in two stores planned to open in summer 2025 in Germany, in Lambrechtshagen in the district of Rostock and in Regensburg in Bavaria, in addition to attended checkouts, as Primark Germany and Austria announced in a company news to its employees in mid-September. Primark also revealed that in order to remain competitive in the long term, the retailer is focussing on a new store concept with smaller sales areas and streamlined operational processes. The Group’s investment in the two new locations emphasises that Germany remains of central importance to Primark.
