Tesco has avoided “falling behind” rivals with the opening of a checkout-free Express store, an expert has claimed.
GlobalData analyst Jemima Walker criticised retailers who ignored “this growing trend” and said Tesco had “ensured it is not a party to this failure”.
The supermarket unveiled its GetGo store in Holborn this month, having tested the technology at its Welwyn Garden City base since 2018.
However, Tesco was said to be “slow to enter the checkout-free race”.
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It is much less established in the space than Seattle-based Amazon, which has opened six till-free stores around the capital since March.
Morrisons is trialling a similar system at its Bradford headquarters, but both Sainsbury’s and Asda have been quiet on checkout-free offerings.
Walker said that Tesco’s move, before a “winter of pandemic-induced stress”, could be well-timed given the recent surge in coronavirus cases.
“Both the consumer and the retailer will acclimatize and realize the benefits of contact-free, frictionless shopping,” she argued.
Last week, the UK recorded its highest number of daily deaths since March.
It comes as Trigo, the Israeli tech firm behind Tesco’s GetGo store, agreed to create a checkout-free shop in Cologne for REWE Group.
The retailer reportedly operates around 6000 stores across Germany.
A study from last year claimed the value of sales through till-free technologies would reach $387 billion by 2025.
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