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SB Payment Service Corp. a subsidiary of SoftBank Corp. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Jun Shimba), conducted a survey on self-checkouts among both consumers and business operators. Below are excerpts from the survey results.

<Survey results>
94.1% of consumers have used self-checkouts. The adoption rate of self-checkouts in stores is 55.5%.

When consumers were asked about their usage of self-checkouts, 86.9% answered "I have used them in the past year," and 7.2% answered "I have used them more than a year ago," meaning that 94.1% of consumers have used self-checkouts.

Meanwhile, when business owners were asked about the introduction of self-checkouts, 22.2% answered "fully self-checkouts," 20.8% answered "semi-self-checkouts," and 12.5% answered "both fully self-checkouts and semi-self-checkouts," resulting in a self-checkout adoption rate in stores of 55.5%.

• Fully self-service register: Customers do everything from registering products to paying
  Semi-self-service register: The store clerk registers the product, and the customer pays the bill.

Looking at the adoption rate of self-checkouts by business type, we found that the adoption rate was particularly high in karaoke, rental shops, hot spring facilities, convenience stores, and supermarkets, at over 90%.

Consumers use self-checkouts at familiar places such as "supermarkets" and "100-yen shops," and the facilities that most want to install self-checkouts are medical and food-related.

Meanwhile, when consumers were asked which stores they had used self-checkouts at, the most popular answer was "supermarkets" (72.8%), followed by "100-yen shops" (56.0%) and "convenience stores" (37.8%). It appears that self-checkouts are being used in places familiar to consumers.

Furthermore, when consumers were asked which stores they would like to see self-checkouts installed, "pharmacies and drugstores" was the most popular answer at 20.4%, followed by "hospitals and clinics" (17.1%) and "restaurants" (13.2%). It can be inferred that consumers are hoping to be able to complete payment procedures quickly at medical and restaurant-related facilities, shorten waiting times and ease congestion.

When there are both self-service and manned registers, people in their 30s or younger tend to prioritize using the self-service registers, while people in their 40s or older tend to use them depending on the situation.

When consumers were asked which they would prefer to use if a store had both self-service and manned registers, 41.7% said they would "preferably use self-service registers," while 38.2% said they "use them differently depending on the situation." Looking at the results by age group, there was a tendency for people in their 30s and younger to give priority to self-service registers, while people in their 40s and older tend to use them differently depending on the situation.

When we asked each person why they prefer to use self-checkouts, those who prioritize using them gave reasons such as "the wait time is shorter," "I can do it at my own pace," and "I don't have to go through the trouble of repacking my items after paying," while those who decide which to use depending on the situation gave reasons such as "I use the manned checkouts when I'm buying a lot, and the self-checkouts when I'm buying small amounts," and "it's difficult when I have children with me, so I use the manned checkouts."

The most commonly used payment methods at self-checkouts was "Credit Card Payment" (47.2%), followed by "PayPay" (43.4%) and "cash" (34.0%).

When consumers were asked about payment methods they most frequently use at in-store self-checkouts, the top answer was "Credit Card Payment" (47.2%), followed by "PayPay" (43.4%), "cash" (34.0%), and "Rakuten Pay" (23.4%). This shows that in addition to credit cards and cash, QR code payment is becoming more and more popular.

Looking at the most frequently used payment methods by mobile phone carrier used by consumers, "credit Credit Card Payment" was the most popular choice for those using NTT Docomo (docomo, ahamo), KDDI (au, UQ mobile, povo), and Rakuten Mobile. In addition, "PayPay" was the most popular choice for those using SoftBank (SoftBank, Y! Mobile, LINEMO), and was also chosen in the second or third place by those using other carriers.

On the other hand, when business owners were asked which payment methods they use at their stores' self-checkouts, the top answer was "PayPay" (41.7%), followed by "Credit Card Payment" (36.3%), "Rakuten Pay" (33.6%), and "cash" (32.9%). Although the rankings were slightly different from those of consumers, the same lineup of options was at the top.

In addition to payment methods consumers frequently use at self-checkouts, there is also high demand for "transportation IC cards," "d Pay," and "WAON."

When consumers were asked payment methods they would like to see implemented at store self-checkouts, in addition to commonly used payment methods, choices included "transportation IC cards," "d Pay," and "WAON."

On the other hand, when we asked business operators who have installed self-checkouts in their stores which cashless payment methods they would like to introduce at those stations in the future, we found that in addition to the widely-used payment methods, they are considering introducing many other payment methods such as "Rakuten Edy," "transportation IC cards," "QUICPay," and "iD."

This survey shows that the introduction of self-checkouts in stores is progressing, consumers are eager to use them, and although cash is also used at self-checkouts, there is a trend toward cashless payment. Businesses that have not yet introduced self-checkouts should consider doing so, as they will also help alleviate labor shortages.

SB Payment Service Corp., Ltd. is a PSP agency that supports the introduction of self-checkouts and offers many payment methods essential for stores. Businesses that are starting a store business or want to expand their lineup of payment methods should contact SB Payment Service Corp.

Download the full survey results here.

https://www.sbpayment.jp/whitepapers/download/survey-selfcheckout.html

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・You may freely reproduce both the illustrations and text from this survey.
・The copyright of this survey belongs to SB Payment Service Corp., but permission for use is granted to those who meet the following conditions of use.

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