Lidl is rolling out new self-checkout machines to all of its stores, which play back ‘VAR-style’ footage to customers of them scanning products.
The machines will appear in all new stores and gradually retro-fitted into existing ones. In many stores, manned checkouts have been removed to expand the space dedicated to self-checkout machines.
The new machines have a built-in overhead camera that captures video of customers scanning their items; vertically mounted large-format screens; and LED lights to alert staff when a customer needs help. Customers must scan a receipt printed by the machine at a gate to exit the self-checkout area.
“They are designed to be more customer-friendly, enhancing the shopping experience while boosting efficiency,” a Lidl spokesperson told The Grocer.
The machines have been designed in-house by Lidl’s parent company Schwarz Group, The Grocer understands. They are the same type being rolled out by Schwarz across its hundreds of its Lidl and Kaufland stores in Germany, where the company is working with multiple technology partners on the project including Itab, 4POS and Diebold Nixdorf.
Shoppers described the machines as “very futuristic” and “fancy pants”.
Although not yet live at the stores The Grocer visited, the overhead camera built into the machines gives Lidl the option to roll out the “non-scan detection” technology it trialled in 2025, and has since been adopted by several major supermarkets.
Lidl has had self-checkouts in urban stores for a number of years but only rolled them out widely across its estate in 2024. The new machines are the latest in a slew of new self-checkout options the discounter has been rolling out of late.
In November, The Grocer revealed the retailer was preparing to roll out scan and shop handsets in stores, with the filing of a trademark in Europe and the UK for ‘Lidl & Go’, to apply to digital payment systems including “customer-operated electronic terminals available on-site in retail stores”.
The option for customers to scan items with their phone as they put them in their shopping basket is rolling out to scores of stores, having been made available to the public at an initial seven stores in May this year.
Lidl said the new technology was part of it’s increased investment in digital innovation, “aimed at making shopping easier, more convenient and more flexible for customers, while ensuring that traditional payment methods and staffed tills remain available across its stores”.
No comments yet