Highlights. While 95.9% of consumers have used self-checkout machines, statistics show theft increases by up to 65% at self-checkout compared to a traditional checker.
- Nearly 40% of grocery store registers in the U.S. are self-checkout kiosks.
- 73% of consumers prefer self-checkout over traditional staffed registers.
- Over 20 million Americans have stolen from a self-checkout kiosk.
- 15% of consumers admit to using self-checkout to steal; 44% of them plan to re-offend.
- The North American self-checkout systems market is worth $2.68 billion as of 2024; projections indicate it will exceed $6 billion by 2030.
Retailer Self-Checkout Adoption Statistics
The number of retailers using self-checkout systems increases every year despite widespread claims that self-checkout is a ‘failed experiment’.
- 75.5% of self-checkout kiosks are installed in retail stores.
- 96% of grocery stores offer self-checkout.
- Early estimates indicate that 10,000 global retailers have installed self-checkout systems as of 2024.
- Projections indicate that by 2030, over 24,000 stores will offer self-checkout.
- The North American self-checkout systems market represents 44.4% of the global market.
Self-Checkout Theft Statistics
While self-checkout lowers labor costs and may reduce risk for employees, data show increased opportunities for shoplifting.
- 20.1 million Americans have stolen from a self-checkout kiosk; 8.85 million plan to do it again.
- 69% of consumers say it’s easier to steal from a self-checkout kiosk than from a cashier.
- 33% of self-checkout shoplifters have been caught.
- 6.6% of American consumers have stolen from self-checkout and plan to again.
- 21% of self-checkout thefts are accidental (i.e., the shopper fails to notice when an item does not scan).
- The average value of items stolen at self-checkout in one trip is $60.
- Shrink rates with self-checkout represent 3.75% of average retailer inventory.
- Self-checkouts see up to 4 times as much shrinkage* as traditional cashiers.
- Shoppers born between 1997 and 2012 (often referred to as “Generation Z”) are more than twice as likely** to steal from self-checkout compared to the average consumer.
- Millennial shoppers (born 1981 to 1996) are 40.0% more likely to steal from self-checkout.
- 31% of Generation Z and 21% of Millennials have shoplifted using self-checkout.
- Compared to traditional cashiers, self-checkout tills are 10 times less likely to be robbed.
*“Shrinkage” refers to the difference between recorded inventory and actual inventory; many factors beyond consumer theft may contribute to shrinkage, including machine/cashier error, employee theft, administrative error, etc.
**Gen Z and Millennials also prefer self-checkout by a 23.3% larger margin than the average consumer.
Consumer Self-Checkout Adoption Statistics
Most consumers use self-checkout at least some of the time and plan to use the service more often.
- 79.3% of consumers use self-checkout regularly; among them, 61.4% use it for most or all purchases.
- 128.6 million American consumers have used self-checkout at least once.
- 48.7% of American consumers (65.3 million) use self-checkout all or most of the time.
- 30.6% of consumers use self-checkout regularly or for half of their purchases.
- Between 29% and 55% of grocery transactions were via self-checkout in 2022.
- 43% of consumers prefer self-checkout to a traditional cashier.
- 53% of consumers aged 18 to 44 years prefer self-checkout.
- 85% of consumers say self-checkout is faster than a traditional cashier.
- 16.6% of consumers use self-checkout every once in a while (for 25% of purchases or less).
- 59.6% of consumers increased their usage of self-checkout over 12 months.
- 52.8% of consumers plan to use self-checkout more over the next 12 months.
Self-Checkout Market Statistics
The self-checkout systems market depends on consumer and retailer adoption.
- Projections indicate that the North American market will have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.5% between 2024 and 2030.
- From 2021 to 2024, the U.S. market had a 18.2% CAGR.
- The global market for self-checkout systems is valued at $6.02 billion in 2024; projections indicate it will climb to $13.5 billion in 2030.
- The value of the global market for self-checkout systems increased 14.4% between 2023 and 2024 (from $5.26 billion).
Self-Checkout Abandonment & Rejection Statistics
While Walmart removed self-checkout from some stores in New Mexico last year, the company has no plans to remove self-checkouts nationwide.
- 3.0% of American consumers say they never want to use self-checkout.
- 1.1% of consumers don’t use self-checkout for other reasons.
- 67.3% of consumers report using a dysfunctional self-service kiosk.
- 41.8% of consumers who avoid self-service checkout do so because they experienced a slower checkout or believe the process to be slower.
- 25.1% of consumers who avoid self-service checkout do it because they’ve tried to use one that didn’t work.
- 19.9% of consumers who avoid self-service prefer interaction with an employee.
Sources
- Statista, Industry Overview
- Fox 5 DC, Nearly half of shoppers who stole using self-checkout machine say…
- The Food Industry Association
- Raydiant
- CBS News, Nearly a third of Gen-Zers steal from self-checkout aisles…
- AL.com, Walmart says it’s not removing self-check out in 2 states
- Fortune Business Insights, Self-Checkout System Market…
- Wharton Business School, Is Self-Checkout a Failed Experiment?
- ABC News, The state of self-checkout
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys
- NCR Voyix, More than half of Gen Z and Millennial Grocery Shoppers Prefer Self-Checkout…