Can you tell us about your background and role?

Stance brought me onboard in 2015 to accelerate their direct to consumer growth and create a brand platform where customers can interact with the brand, shop, and connect with Stance partner retailers around the globe. Prior to this, I was an SVP at Lululemon leading US retail and ecommerce since 2012, and also had global ecommerce roles at Columbia Sportswear and Ralph Lauren.

 

What’s a project you are really excited about right now?

We have a lot of exciting things going on at Stance. We launched a subscription service late last year, that has been a hit with our customers. This year, we are doubling our store count, and putting a lot more resources and effort into retail growth. But one project that i’m really proud of is our new self checkout offering. It allows our guests to completely skip the lines in our stores and checkout on their own phones, no app download required. Research shows that retailers lost out on almost $40 billion over the last year due to lengthy waits in line. We think we have a solution, and its something that can work for almost any retailer. I’ve been watching the self checkout evolution over many years, and there are some good solutions out there in apps (Apple, Macy’s, and WalMart, who recently decided to shut theirs down). However, the app download barrier takes away the convenience factor. Recent changes on the major phone OS platforms allowed us to jump on a browser based solution, no app download required.

 

How does it work?

Super simple. The customer navigates to a URL, scans the UPC barcodes on our products, and then pays via ApplePay, GPay or a credit card. Its critical that we kept the swipes and taps to a minimum, so we kept it as lean as possible. ApplePay and GPay are the fastest for consumers – they can easily get through a 2-3 item purchase in under a minute. A credit card takes slightly longer, as it adds 21 keystrokes, but still pretty quick using an integration with Stripe. The digital purchase receipt is unique in order to discourage theft, through a time stamp/date stamp, and a color-changing number of items purchased bar. Our store team does a quick scan of the receipt matched up to the product as a guest leaves the store, and they’re good to go. We also decided to use a different colored shopping bag, so our team can identify who is using self checkout as they shop.
Here’s a little blog post we threw up to show a video and some screenshots of what we built – http://s.stance.com/the-thread/self-checkout/. That may help your readers visualize the solution.

 

Who did you partner with?

Our amazing in house UX team did the user interface, and we’re really happy with it. The self-checkout tool was built on and by Moltin, a lightweight, API-first eCommerce platform. They have been amazing partners, and they developed and deployed this customized tool for us in under 7 weeks. They don’t specialize in self checkout, but their solution was perfect for what we wanted to accomplish. And now, any retailer could go to them to roll out a similar solution, using what we built as a starting point.

 

What are some considerations before undertaking a project like this?

I’d say that retailers should make sure they have the right business and store model to support it. I can see why Walmart walked away from theirs with their store size, layout and operational model. It works for us, because our store size and layout, our staffing levels and the fact that we don’t run a lot of promotions. I’d also recommend a pilot before rolling it out. We have an employee store on campus, and tested it there before rolling it out to our other stores.

 

How easy was it to get buy-in from store staff? Was there any resistance?

There was no resistance at all as they loved the idea of being an early mover in something innovative. Once they saw how easy self-checkout is, they were fully invested. And this in turn allows them to spend more time on the floor educating guests on our amazing product. A lot of people have asked me if this was an efficiency play – a way to reduce staffing levels, and the answer is absolutely not. As I said, it allows us to spend less of our time stuck behind the POS.

 

Any early obstacles that you had overcome?

Getting the browser scan settings right was our biggest initial challenge, to achieve a balance between speed and accuracy. But overall it’s been a straightforward implementation. If I had to do things differently, I would build a prototype of the UX before we built out the main application, so that we could have learned about usability upfront. But overall we’re really happy with the outcome.

 

It sounds like all of this is making the customers life easier, but is it making your life easier too?

I can share an early metric with the Insiders group from our employee store, in which self checkout has been up and running the longest – more than 15% of our current sales are coming through self-checkout, with minimal in store signage and marketing effort so far. The customers who use it once are usually the ones who come back and use it again. As with any new technology, there is an adoption curve, and not everyone is willing to give it a go. I know this number will increase as we get into holiday season – as soon as there is a line, adoption will go up, as customers begin to see the utility and convenience of it.

 

What does the future hold?

I’m bullish on self-checkout. It combines the richness of a physical retail store visit with the convenience of eCommerce; it provides a sweet spot to give our guests the best experience possible. As more retailers implement solutions like this, it will become a consumer expectation. I found myself waiting in a 7-10 minute line at a self checkout kiosk at Target the other day, and I wanted Stance self checkout type solution so I could get on with my day! I’m sure it will take many different forms, and will get easier, faster and more convenient, but we think this is a simple place to start for many retailers.