Unattended Checkout: Where Do We Go From Here?

Unattended checkout isn’t dying, not by a long shot, but it’s in a period of transition. Although consumers like it, merchants need it, and payment trends favor it, some major merchants have scaled back their ambitions for unattended checkout as it exists today. 

What’s needed is a refresh that recognizes a new era for unattended checkout, bolsters the customer experience first and foremost, integrates alternative payment methods in ways that make sense on a merchant-by-merchant basis, seamlessly incorporates rewards, loyalty points, and discounting to drive customer satisfaction and retention, and engages in a deeper embrace of biometrics. The unattended checkout of the future will also make room for that adjective—“unattended”—to exist on both sides of the transaction. With major payment entities exploring artificial-intelligence-fueled agentic commerce, merchants will need to prepare to deal with the customer of the future, who might be sitting degrees away from where the payment happens.

Key questions discussed in this Merchant Payments report:

• How is unattended checkout evolving from past iterations of the technology?
• What are the elements of a satisfying customer experience through unattended checkout?
• What are the emerging applications of unattended checkout?

Companies Mentioned:

Albertsons Amazon, Culver’s, Dairy Queen, Dollar General, Mastercard, McDonald’s, NEC, PayPal, Target, Visa