UK-based Sainsbury’s has launched its first “till-less” store, utilising smartphones and QR codes, the first in the country.

Shoppers at the Holborn Circus location will use SmartShop Scan, Pay & Go technology. Groceries are scanned as customers go round the store, they are paid for in the app and a QR code is scanned before leaving to reassure the customer that they have paid. Therefore, there is no need to queue or pay at a till.

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The location has been refurbished to remove the checkout area and tills, freeing up members of staff to help on the shop floor.

While there are no “tills”, there is a “helpdesk” for anyone who wants to pay with cash or cards. Currently, according to Sainsbury’s, 82% of transactions at the store are cashless.

The experiment will last for three months and the supermarket chain will listen to customer and colleague feedback.

Sainsbury’s Group Chief Digital Officer, Clodagh Moriarty, said: “We know our customers value their time and many want to shop as quickly as possible – technology is key to that. This is an experiment rather than a new format for us – it hasn’t been done in the UK before and we’re really excited to understand how our customers respond to the app experience. We’ll be with our customers and colleagues all the way over the coming months, iterating continuously based on their feedback before we decide if, how and where we make this experience more widely available.”

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Andrew Quartermaine, vice president, SaaS Solutions, ACI Worldwide, said: “The news that Sainsbury’s is trialling the UK’s first till-free store is a great example of UK high-street innovation. Changing consumer behaviour is prompting many retailers to improve their in-store experiences and one way of achieving this is making the payment experience as frictionless as possible. Consumers have grown used to options such as chip & pin and contactless, scan and pay is the next step in this evolution.

“Retailers should look at the shift in consumers’ preferences as an opportunity to change the format and concept of their physical offerings and create attractive and compelling reasons for us to visit shops. Sainsbury’s new way to pay is just one example of this, we’re seeing a number of bricks and mortar stores selling products in ways we could have not imagined a decade ago.”