Most retailers lose thousands of dollars every month right at their checkout lanes and never even know it. Customers wait in line with their wallets out and are ready to spend more. At most checkout counters, the cashier scans their items, processes the payment and hands them a receipt.
Every single one of these moments is money that could have been made, and across hundreds of transactions each month, it can come out to thousands in lost revenue.
Let’s talk about how to turn that checkout line into an opportunity to make more money.
Perfect Items for Your Register
The checkout line has been one of the most profitable places in any store for impulse purchases, and it’s been that way for as long as retail has existed. Grocery stores figured this out decades ago and that’s why the checkout lanes became filled with magazines and candy bars. Store owners made these decisions very deliberately. They wanted products that shoppers could grab without thinking twice and items that would add some extra profit to every transaction.
The secret to making it work is what retail stores call the “grab zone.” That’s the space between waist height and eye level – the exact area where customers look as they’re waiting in line. Position your impulse items inside this zone and customers will see them without even trying.
Batteries are a perfect checkout staple because they fit in just about any store. Phone chargers and charging accessories are another solid option in this category. Most customers actually need them but don’t remember to grab them until they see them at the register. Candy has always been one of the most reliable picks since each piece costs so little that customers don’t question it. Seasonal products do especially well at checkout because they tap into whatever customers already have on their mind.
Products that do well at checkout all share a few common characteristics. The price needs to be low enough that buying it seems like a no-brainer – customers shouldn’t have to debate if they should buy it. On top of that, they solve a quick problem or give customers something they want right then. And these items usually have better profit margins than your standard inventory does.
It’s recommended to rotate your checkout products every week or two. Fresh product arrangements are going to catch customer attention much better than the same exact setup each time they walk in. Some retailers have watched their impulse sales climb by 20% to 30% just from changing up what’s on display every couple of weeks.
The best impulse items for your store depend on who your customers are and what they’re interested in. A hardware store would want mini flashlights and work gloves up front. Bookmarks and reading lights near the register make much more sense for a bookstore. Watch what your customers are already buying in the main aisles and then find smaller related products that would work well at checkout.
Smart Checkout Screens That Improve Sales
Modern technology has changed checkout counters everywhere. A customer picks up a box of pasta and the system quickly recommends a jar of marinara sauce to pair with it. Another shopper grabs a new device and the tablet prompts them to add some batteries.
Big retailers like Target have reported some pretty strong numbers on this. Stores that added these recommendation tools to their checkout process have seen their average transaction values jump by 15% to 25%. Those kinds of gains should grab your attention if you want to increase revenue without expanding your physical space or piling up even more inventory.
Prompts at checkout give you something that traditional staff recommendations just can’t match. Customers see a suggestion on the screen and get the time to think it over without a person standing there and waiting for an answer. There’s no employee hovering nearby, so all that awkward social pressure disappears completely. The tablet shows an option and shoppers can make their choice in peace.
Looking at the dollars and cents, these systems work well for businesses of all sizes. Tablets and integration cost some money up front – nobody’s going to pretend otherwise. Most businesses can get that investment back in 6 to 12 months just from the sales bump. You don’t need to go all-in right from the start. Basic tablet stands cost a few hundred dollars, so it’s easy to test it out before redoing your whole checkout area.
Balance is the main key for making this technology work well. Customers need to feel like they’re getting helpful reminders about products they might actually want – not like they’re being bombarded with a dozen random upsells. One or two recommended items per transaction is plenty. The suggestions also need to make sense for what’s already in the cart. Dial this in just right and customers will actually like the recommendations instead of feeling like you’re trying to squeeze extra money out of them.
Train Your Team for More Sales
Your cashiers can bump up sales when they change how they talk to customers during checkout. The best strategy is to teach them a handful of simple techniques that come across as normal conversation – not a rehearsed script that sounds forced or fake.
The assumptive close is one of the best techniques for warranty options at checkout. Your cashier doesn’t need to ask if the customer wants protection on their new laptop – they can just say something like “I’ll add the 2-year protection plan for this.” Most customers will either agree right away or they’ll ask about what’s covered. Either way works out well because you’ve started the conversation and the whole interaction stays smooth without any pressure or awkwardness at the register.
The “by the way” method works well for membership programs. After the cashier has scanned everything, they just bring up the program like it’s no big deal. Whole Foods used this same tactic at checkout to grow their Amazon Prime memberships, and they would just work it into the normal conversation. Customers responded well to it because it never felt like a pushy sales pitch.
Checkout is the perfect time to make these offers and it all depends on how your customers think when they’re ready to spend. They’ve already decided to buy something and pulled out their wallet or card. At that point, their whole mindset is in a spending mode.
If your cashiers practice these conversations ahead of time, it builds their confidence before they do it for real. Mock customer interactions work well for this – just have employees swap between the cashier and customer roles. This lets them get past some of their early nervousness in a low-pressure setting so they’ll be much more comfortable when a customer asks about it.
Incentive programs help a lot too. Small bonuses for successful conversions usually work well or you could set up a recognition program that shows off your best performers each month. Employees are going to push much harder at the register when they know there’s actually something tangible in it for them.
A lot of employees worry they might sound pushy or annoying when they mention extra products to customers. What helps is to reframe these interactions as customer service instead of sales. All they do is let customers know about programs that could save them money or protect something that they just bought. Once your team realizes that they’re helping customers out, that anxiety usually goes away. It’s not a sales pitch at all – it’s just trying to help out.
How to Improve Your Checkout Revenue
Units per transaction tells you how many items each customer buys when they come into your store. It’s one of the first metrics you should track. Average transaction value is another important one to watch – it tells you just how much money each sale brings in. Checkout conversion rates help you see how many shoppers who make it to the register actually complete the sale and leave with their items.
You can run some solid tests without any special tools or complex equipment. Pick one impulse display arrangement and run it for 2 weeks as you track how it performs and then try a different arrangement for the next 2 weeks. Then compare your average transaction values between the two periods to see which one came out ahead. Just make sure to account for any seasonal shopping patterns or big events that could push your results in one direction or the other.
Calculate your return on investment when you add up what you spent against the profit that you gained from the changes. Look at the obvious costs first. Make sure to include the less visible costs too – like the time that you spent on staff training or the extra effort it took to adjust your checkout process. Divide your extra profit by those total costs and you’ll have a solid sense of whether the investment was worth it for your store.
Your basket data will show you the patterns in what customers usually buy together on the same shopping trip. Shoppers who grab a particular impulse item usually wind up with a higher total when they check out. Product placement near the register matters quite a bit too – some items are going to reliably drive extra sales and others just sit there and don’t move much.
Watch for signs that your changes aren’t quite working out the way that you wanted them to. If checkout times get longer after you add in new display setups, that’s a big problem you should fix fast. If customers abandon their carts more than usual, or if employees seem confused and frustrated with the new setup, something needs to be adjusted. A merchandising strategy can look pretty solid on paper and still create problems when you roll it out on your sales floor.
Convert Your Foot Traffic Into Extra Revenue
Small changes at the point of sale can increase your revenue substantially, and the effects compound pretty fast over time. What you’re doing is creating hundreds or thousands of future transactions to generate more income for your business without much extra effort. Even if you only try out two or three of these ideas, you should see a noticeable bump in your monthly revenue. And you don’t have to change everything overnight – just get in a few adjustments and build from there.
Most retailers do better when they start with just one low-cost change first. Product placement tends to be a great option since it costs almost nothing to test, and you’ll get immediate feedback about what your customers actually want. After you see the results from your first change, you can add in technology upgrades or put money into staff training with much more confidence.
Many retailers make a big mistake at the checkout counter and view it as the end of a transaction when it’s actually just the beginning of the next sale. Every customer at your register has already committed to a buy, so the door is wide open for talking about other products that could help them out or make life easier for them. Don’t waste that opportunity! Pick a way that fits well with your store, test it out this week and track what results you get. Wins like these add up over time, and that’s how you build growth that actually lasts.
A partnership with ecoATM can help you bring in more foot traffic through your doors and add new revenue at the same time. Our kiosks take in unused devices and turn them into value for your customers and your business. When customers can trade in old phones at your location, they have a genuine reason to visit and spend time browsing. We’ve helped businesses like yours to process millions of devices and connect with thousands of customers every day. It’s simple to add a kiosk to your space, and we also have wholesale device options for your team. Contact us to learn how ecoATM can fit into what you’re building.
