Behavioral Shift Away from Cash: Could Digital Revive the High Street?

Analysis from one of Europe’s largest grocery retail chains showed that shoppers using the MishiPay scan & go platform came back to buy 33% more often, whereas non-MishiPay users came back 4% less often than the year before.

MishiPay, a mobile self-checkout solution deployed in 100s of stores across 14 countries, brings the best of the online checkout experience to physical stores, giving shoppers the ability to scan and pay for their shopping using their mobile phones.

Founded in 2015, the app has grown quickly and now serves its Scan & Go technology to some of the largest retailers in the world. It is the first scan & go provider worldwide to release data from a case-study based upon a clear A/B test.

The analysis from the European grocery retailer compared the behavior of their loyalty members. Three cohorts were tracked: MishiPay users and non-users at MishiPay enabled stores, and a third control group of non-MishiPay customers shopping in ‘mirror’ stores.

• Direct YoY analysis shows MishiPay-enabled retailer 33% rise in repeat frequency of loyalty shoppers -  thanks to MishiPay
• This resulted in shoppers using MishiPay spending 14% more

In order to accurately measure the impact of MishiPay on overall sales, the store visits and total spend of the three user cohorts were compared between Q4 2019 and Q4 2020, using the loyalty card number of the shopper. This gave a robust testing scenario, enabling the retailer to accurately assess the value that MishiPay generates for its business.

When comparing per user spending, non-MishiPay shoppers spent 11% more in the quarter than they did in the year before, a rise seen by the majority of grocery retailers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, in the same quarter, MishiPay shoppers spent 27% more than they did the year before. The only difference between these two cohorts was the use of MishiPay, and thus there is a 14% net YoY increase in spending attributable to MishiPay.

Further analysis also showed significant operational efficiencies in stores with MishiPay deployed, including 4.4 hours of checkout staff time saved per store, per week.

Referencing the analysis, MishiPay Founder & CEO Mustafa Khanwala said:

“We’re thrilled to see such clear evidence that retailers that have adopted the MishiPay scan & go payment solution are enjoying double-digit growth in footfall and sales.

Not only are retailers seeing a 33% increase in repeat purchases from the same shoppers but also a 14% increase in total spend per quarter.”

MishiPay Scan, Pay, Go tech enables shoppers to use their own phone to scan & pay for their shopping in physical stores, helping to tackle queueing; a problem that reportedly costs the retail sector billions.

Optimizing sales conversion

The MishiPay app, which can be used straight from the browser of the user, enables shoppers to scan their chosen items on their own mobile phone and track their total spending in real time as they browse the store.

This is a feature that seems to be really attractive to shoppers. It keeps the customer fully informed about their spending as they shop, rather than requiring them to complete their shopping and proceed to a checkout.

Khanwala describes how a growing number of retailers have deployed MishiPay during the coronavirus pandemic, reflecting a wider behavioral shift away from cash:

“Despite the challenges of Covid-19, we rolled out our technology with prestigious retailers across the UK and Europe including Flying Tiger Copenhagen, MUJI, Decathlon Deutschland, SPAR and Londis.

By the beginning of 2021 MishiPay was live in hundreds of stores across 13 countries. This soon became 14 when we launched our technology with Paradies Lagardère in the United States.”