The leading German drugstore operator is paving its store network with self-checkouts. 3,000 devices from Pan Oston are already in place at dm stores and the rollout is continuing at full speed. Hardly any other retail company has ever introduced as many self-checkouts into its stores in such a short time as dm – at least in relation to the number of its stores. While the success of the ongoing introduction of devices from Dutch specialist Pan Oston is exceeding all expectations, self-scanning with shoppers smartphones is as good as dead at dm.
“The usage rate for self-scanning with the dm-App is less than two percent, even in the country where we have introduced it nationwide,” reported Steffen Göhrig, product manager for self-checkout solutions at dmTech, last week at the EHI TechDays in Bonn. The country in which dm has introduced scanning with the app nationwide is the Czech Republic, where dm has around 260 stores.
But also in the two stores in Germany, in Stutensee and Karlsruhe-Oststadt, where the drugstore operator has been testing self-scanning with customers’ smartphones since last year, the usage rate has remained below two percent. “If we pursue the topic of self-scanning during shopping at all, then it will be with smart shopping trolleys or, under certain circumstances, with proprietary mobile scanners,” explained Steffen Göhrig in Bonn.
Self-checkouts already in 1,000 stores
Since the launch of the introduction in 2022 (The Retail Optimiser was first to report on it), the leading German drugstore operator has installed over 3,000 Pan Oston devices in around 1,000 of its about 4,100 stores across Europe. Numerous sales outlets now have just one staffed checkout, while the first stores have installed ten and many have eight self-checkouts.
In some stores, the utilisation rate is already at 70 per cent, says the product manager: “Our expectations have been completely exceeded.” Among the reasons for this success are certainly the space-saving and elegant design of Pan Oston’s devices and the user-friendly interface for customers, which dmTech developed itself based on its Gebit checkout software.
Same hardware components for SCO and manned checkout
Pan Oston enables dm to equip the devices with the same hardware components that are used at the staffed checkouts. This saves the drugstore operator considerable costs in purchasing and maintaining the hardware.
The roll-out of self-checkouts at dm is far from over and continues at full speed. According to an official statement from dm, it is expected to be completed in 2027. However, the introduction of self-checkouts has not yet begun in five of dm’s 14 country operations.
Huge usage rates for self-checkouts
“90 per cent of our stores now want self-checkouts,” Steffen Göhrig reported last week in Bonn. dm had not expected the enthusiasm for the solution within the company and the high usage rate by customers. Asked by The Retail Optimiser, dm managing director Sebastian Bayer confirmed that customer feedback on the self-checkouts is “very positive”, especially for smaller purchases and during periods of high customer traffic in the store.
The success comes as a surprise to dm. The first concepts for self-checkouts at dm from 2018 were never implemented – the conclusion at the time was that they were too expensive. At the time, dm had much higher hopes for self-scanning with customers’ smartphones. However, initial attempts with Snabble as technology partner in 2020 were also put on hold. The reasons were the same as today: the usage rate did not exceed two per cent, Steffen Göhrig revealed at EHI TechDays.
Success through simplicity
But even when the current self-checkout solution developed with Pan Oston was tested in the first stores in 2021, the branches were cautious and the employees sceptical, reports Steffen Göhrig. Today, the situation has completely changed. The success of the self-checkout solution is certainly linked to its simplicity and reduction to the essentials. However, this also comes at a price. Firstly, customers cannot pay in cash at dm’s self-checkouts.
Secondly, there are no checkweighers and, to date, no cameras that could supply vision recognition software to identify no-scans and mis-scans. Without providing specific details on the extent to which inventory discrepancies have increased since the introduction of self-checkouts, dm Managing Director Sebastian Bayer told The Retail Optimiser: “We rely on trained staff and technology such as video systems and merchandise security. It is always important to us to maintain a balance between prevention and a trusting, open shopping experience.”
Problems with theft from SCOs
Steffen Göhrig confirmed last week in Bonn that inventory discrepancies caused by self-checkouts are a major issue at dm: “I get calls almost every day from stores and area managers complaining about their problems,” said the product manager. The increased inventory discrepancies did not “undermine the economic viability of self-checkouts, absolutely not,” but their share was so large that it hurt when looking at the overall economic viability.
