<p style="text-indent:0px; line-height:12px;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Bentonville, Arkansas-</span><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">By ANUK Staff<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">2.15.13</p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><p>Walmart is currently in the process of testing its new “Scan & Go” app, which allows customers to scan items as they shop and pay at the store’s self checkout. The innovative technology could reduce both checkout times and costs for retailers.<img src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacyWriterImages/walmart-scan-and-go-banner.jpg" alt="Walmart Tests Scan & Go App - IMAGES" />"All of the effort is to speed your way through the checkout so that we can reduce costs and improve the shopping experience," said Paul Weitzel, managing partner at retail consulting firm Willard Bishop, who said he had not seen Walmart's test. "With smartphones and improved technology we're only going to see more of this."<img src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacyWriterImages/walmart-scan-and-go-cropped.jpg" alt="Walmart Tests Scan & Go App - IMAGES" />The move could save Walmart millions of dollars. Chief Financial Officer Charles Holley said. Wal-Mart purports it can save $12 million a year for every second it can cut from the average checkout time at the Walmart chain in the United States, according to the Huffington Post.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">This could do much to assuage customer complaints of excessive checkout times at the retailer, due to understaffing at the front end.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"We're continually testing new and innovative ways to serve customers and enhance the shopping experience in our stores," said Walmart spokesman David Tovar.<img src="https://cdn.andnowuknow.com/legacyWriterImages/walmart-scan-and-go-cropped-2.jpg" alt="Walmart Tests Scan & Go App - IMAGES" />"This is probably the fourth technology that we've tried between shopping carts, RFID chips, the handheld scanners and now we've got smartphones," Weitzel said of the retail industry. "We're looking for ways to improve that experience as an industry."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.walmart.com/" target="_new">Wal-Mart</a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
