Newbies challenge big hitters in booming self-checkout market

Momentum in the self-checkout revolution kept up in 2020, with shipments booming by 25% globally, according to research from RBR.

There are more than 20 vendors present, ranging from international suppliers to local players, as well as some retailers building their own solutions.

NCR is the world’s largest self-checkout supplier, accounting for a third of shipments in 2020.

It delivered more than 55,000 terminals for the second consecutive year, working with major retailers worldwide including Walmart across various countries, UK supermarket chains Sainsbury’s and Asda, and Australian grocery giant Woolworths.

Toshiba has the second largest share and delivered more self-checkout terminals to the USA than ever before. It also leads in its home market of Japan, where it supplies the country’s largest convenience store operators, 7-Eleven and Family Mart.

Diebold Nixdorf grew its share of the market by two percentage points, with shipments up by more than 70%. Its international customers include discount grocery chain Lidl and global home furnishings firm Ikea.

Consumers love #selfcheckout! That is, until there's an interruption that slows down the process. Smart assistance #retailtechnology handles #SCO interventions adequately and conveniently—and drives optimal #customerexperiences every time.

Learn more: https://t.co/M1dsmWHwja pic.twitter.com/0eO2GRMoOb
— Diebold Nixdorf (@DieboldNixdorf) August 12, 2021

Chinese vendors Hisense, CCL Technology and Wintec all delivered more units in 2020.

While most of their customers are based in their home market, all three have expanded overseas, with projects in countries such as Ukraine and Poland.

Likewise, Japanese firms Fujitsu and NEC also expanded their activity, working with retailers in North America and Japan respectively.

Retailers do it themselves

Several large retailers have opted to build their own self-checkout solutions, including US firms Home Depot and Dollar General, as well as Russia’s X5 Group.

These chains operate more than 35,000 stores between them and are rolling out in-house self-checkout technology across their networks.

Global self-checkout installations will exceed 1.5 million by 2026.

RBR’s Alan Burt comments: “As retailers across the world continue to embrace self-checkout technology, they are looking to find the solution which best fits their business needs and customer expectations, providing huge opportunities for suppliers.”