Smart Checkout: How RFID technology is revolutionizing self‑checkout systems

Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2022-05-22_Decathlon_supermarket_in_Sydney,_Australia.jpg

Update from 18.02.2025

RFID Self-Checkout: How Ergonomic Solutions together with Sunmi and Smartstore is revolutionizing retail 

RFID technology is fundamentally transforming retail by making self-checkout stations more efficient, faster and more secure. Customers simply need to place their goods in a checkout station – all items are recorded within seconds, greatly speeding up the payment process and reducing long queues. At the same time, RFID enables precise real-time inventory management, helping to avoid both overstocking and stockouts.

Another key advantage is improved theft prevention: RFID tags uniquely identify products and automatically trigger an alarm if they leave the store without authorization.

Successful partnership for innovative self-checkout solutions

With the Self-Checkout Kiosk SpacePole, Ergonomic Solutions offers a flexible, modular and customizable platform for various self-service applications. The solution is compatible with a wide range of devices and helps make the shopping experience more efficient and comfortable.

RFID technology makes consumer goods communicative and offers more service. In every respect.

Retailers know within seconds whether an item is in stock and where the customer can find it. And finally, RFID technology ensures that products can be tracked even over greater distances.

This is where radio-frequency identification offers far more possibilities than the barcode. With the barcode, contact with the scanner is necessary to capture the product and know its price.

RFID technology, on the other hand, can do this from a distance. More precisely, it enables contactless communication. This means the item no longer needs to be physically passed over a scanner.

For customers, this not only means that they can obtain information about product availability more quickly. Innovative self-service solutions are also possible thanks to smart tags – a blessing for customers in a hurry.

The wonderful world of RFID technology

Thanks to coupling in the high-frequency range of the electromagnetic spectrum, information transmission works without physical contact. This is made possible by the transponder, that is, the RFID tag filled with information, and the aluminum antenna for the high-frequency signals.

Radio-frequency identification makes it possible to scan individual products without visual contact. Even a very large number of products can be scanned within seconds. But RFID can do more than communicate over distances. RFID technology also stands for precision. That is why retailers benefit from the fact that there are fewer read errors.

The speed of RFID tags

But it is not only the retailer who benefits from always keeping an eye on their goods – or rather, always knowing that they are moving through the digital flow of daily sales. Thanks to the triumph of RFID technology, customers also benefit from intelligent self-service solutions that save them both time and nerves.

Working people know this all too well. They want to do some quick shopping after work. Or on Saturday. But of course, everyone wants that. Whether at IKEA or in a sports store, long queues form at the checkout during peak times.

But the customer doesn’t want to wait. Understandably. A way out of this dilemma is offered by the incredible speed of RFID tags and the possibility of reading the prices of many items at once.

The customer becomes emancipated

RFID technology is ideal for preventing customers from being put off by long waiting times. The intelligent self-service solution gives customers the choice of either standing in line and waiting because they prefer to interact with a cashier, or letting the tags be read and leaving the store quickly.

Consumer shopping behavior is changing rapidly, and retailers want to be part of this development by offering smoother and faster customer experiences. This makes the shopping experience much faster and easier. Most references can be found in Asia, where RFID-enabled stores have been positively received for their user-friendliness.

Dusty? Not at all!

Libraries sometimes have a dusty image. But they have been using RFID technology long before Decathlon and Neste. Self-service, for example, is a familiar service for book lovers around the world. Queues are avoided here too, and staff have a quick overview.

All books are equipped with smart labels, and several scanners are usually available. Here, customers can scan their library card, place their stack of books on the scanner, and all books in the pile are scanned at once. RFID is also used at airports, for example to locate checked luggage. Lost items can be found quickly this way.

Why RFID is worth it

Stores that are open around the clock should take note. But other retailers can also increase customer satisfaction. Do you have customers who don’t like standing in line? These and other reasons speak in favor of using self-service solutions with RFID, at least as a supplement to traditional checkouts.

These and other reasons speak for intelligent self-service:

• Secure and fast checkout increases customer satisfaction.
• With RFID-based self-checkout, all products are scanned simultaneously within seconds. This makes shopping quick and easy.
• As a retailer, I benefit from greater protection against shoplifting. Losses from recounting returns, fraud or theft of cash are also eliminated.
• By using RFID technology, more customers can be served. In addition, the space-saving self-checkout stations provide more capacity on the same sales area.
• And last but not least: There are always enough cashiers available in the store, even during peak times.

Do you also want to make your store intelligent and transform it into a smart store? Contact us – after all, we at Smartstore are named that for a reason, and together with our partner https://www.sydesoft.de/ we have realized countless projects from small to large and from simple to extremely complex.

The process described so far mainly shows the use of RFID technology within a unified system. Products equipped with RFID chips are automatically detected as soon as they enter the detection area. Identification occurs contactlessly and without an active scanning process. This means all corresponding items are directly assigned to a shared shopping cart or dataset.

This process can also be extended through combined use of barcode and RFID technology. In this case, the system can process both RFID chips and traditional barcodes in parallel. Products without RFID tags can still be captured manually via barcode, while RFID-tagged items are recognized automatically. Both identification methods are merged systemically and processed together.

This makes it possible for barcode-based and RFID-based products to be in the same shopping cart at the same time, without requiring separate handling. For downstream processes, it is irrelevant how the identification occurred, as all items are represented in a unified data structure. This supports mixed scenarios, especially in environments where RFID is only partially deployed or introduced gradually.

The extended approach allows existing barcode-based workflows to remain in use while integrating RFID functionalities. This way, automatic detection can be added without having to fully restructure existing processes. The process therefore describes an RFID-based core functionality that can optionally be supplemented by barcode scanning.

Do you have questions about this topic? Or would you like to send us your feedback? You can reach us via the contact form, by email at info@smartstore.com or by phone from Monday to Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at +4923153350.