UK supermarket Sainsbury's is piloting an app designed to cut the duration of a weekly shop by guiding users around stores and letting them pay through their handsets.
Once they have downloaded the app, customers can create shopping lists which are used to help navigate them around the shop, guiding them to the items they want. As they make their way through the aisles, shoppers scan their goods with their phones and then pay with the app, avoiding checkout queues.
Sainsbury's says that, in testing, checkout time has been cut to seconds. Pilots with internal teams will now go ahead before a rollout to Nectar cardholders next year.
Jon Rudoe, digital and technology director, Sainsbury’s, says: "We know that customers’ weekly shop doesn’t start at our front door - they know what they like and they also like that search for a bargain.
"They still want to come into store - but with limited time, they want to be able to get their shop done quickly. That’s why we’re putting digital firmly at the forefront of our agenda, and putting technology in the hands of our customers."
Sainsbury's was recently unveiled as one of several big retailers to have thrown their support behind bank-backed Zapp, which is planning to bring real-time mobile payments - in store, online and through apps - to millions of Brits by integrating its system into bank apps and tapping into the Faster Payments rails.