Problem: Long lines at stores are often caused by low check out.
Subscribe here to get access to the first 500 ideas from our blog. For just one coffee a month, you can have access to more than $500 billion dollars of ideas. What's not to love?
Solution: This business would create innovative ways for consumers to check out of grocery stores, retail stores, and other brick-and-mortar stores quicker. It would focus on finding optimizations such as weighing goods, using beacon technology, or optimized scanning mechanisms (beyond the barcode) to significantly improve the checkout process. Inspired by Twitter, this business would eliminate lines, labor costs, and the lament that people have while wasting hours of their life behind someone at a store.
“But why not just create online stores?” you may ask. I’m a believer that experiences in purchasing products are all that matter. At times, these experiences are best delivered through an online store for the sake of 1-day or 2-day delivery. However, if an in-store experience is so exciting, unique, and novel that it inspires individuals to leave their homes then consumers may be willing to pay more (either in time or money) to get a piece of the action. Imagine going to a store and being fully immersed in holographic AR: since consumers couldn’t experience this at home, the trip to the store would seem (at least in part) “worth it.” Not to mention the additional benefits of shopping with friends, being surrounded by strangers, and the often helpful concierge services (I’m looking at you Glossier).
Of course, for these stores to make a comeback they must also have an optimized checkout experience. According to Grandview Research, “The global self-checkout systems market size was valued at USD 2.8 billion in 2019 and is expected to register a CAGR of 13.3% from 2020 to 2027. The increase in the influx of retail consumers and a consequent rise in their waiting time during the checkout process is a significant factor driving the adoption of self-checkout systems.” By improving checkout processes, there’s an opportunity to open an entirely new market with business models based on usage rather than material cost purchasing.
Monetization: S
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)