AEON POS Express app

I like a lot to wander around a grocery store, browsing the shelves and thinking at the tasty dishes I could turn all those ingredients into. One thing I don’t like is queuing up at the cashier, which usually is a long endeavour as people (at least here in HK) expect the cashier to both scan their items and bag them, collect the payment, etc etc…

So I was very pleased to find out about a feature in the mobile app of a known supermarket chain in Hong Kong.

The AEON app is not a modern app, by all means. Not particularly curated graphically, a bit cumbersome in the navigation… it has a killer feature hidden in it: POS Express.

First, you need to tell the app where you are. It can recognise it almost automatically (see “GPS”), but you have to tap a couple of times each time you use it anyway, as it does not remember the previous setting nor it auto-recognize your location.

Shop

After that, you’re all set with a personal shopping cart. All you have to do is scan the barcode on each product you pick, confirm the quantity, before putting it in your bag… the cart gets populated as you go, similar to an online shopping cart.

It works for all products in this big department store-like chain, not only in the supermarket. It works on fresh produce too, which is not bagged and does not have a specific barcode.

Sometimes the app takes a while to communicate with the server after a barcode scan. It doesn’t help that the 4G reception is very poor inside the shopping mall, and that the in-store wifi is weak in some corners… you may find yourself in front of the dairy isle looking at this message quite often :) Lesson learned… better in-store wifi, and beef up those servers!

Checkout

When you’re done with your shopping, and all your grocery are already bagged and ready to go, you can tap on the “checkout” button (the cart icon), confirm the order, and you are presented with a number of e-payments options:

You select one (in my case, I chose one of the e-wallets options, so I am being redirected to the wallet app installed on my phone - and warned as such), and in a couple of clicks you see a confirmation screen… which looks like a receipt, but it’s not quite one (more below).

e-Receipts?

Although one can pay online, there is always the option to go to the self-checkout counters (the “In-store payment” option), scan a QR code from the app (identifying your shopping cart), and pay using all payments methods available in store (on top of all cards that you can use online, just Octopus card).

I am sure one could just walk out of the door with its grocery after paying online, and be all set, and the payment confirmation screen looks a lot like a valid receipt…
…but you may want to drop by the self-service kiosks and print that paper receipt just in case, because…

Even better if

Not all departments cash registers are linked up with the new app. If I buy anything in the non-supermarket area and want to exchange/refund, I have to go to the service center and get a printed receipt first. Most cash register in the store can’t recognize/scan the barcode of the in-app “receipt”, and the staff claims that what I see in the app screen is not a valid receipt. Maybe just a staff training issue, perhaps? Something to look into.

In summary

Absolutely killer feature inside an otherwise unassuming app!
I love that I can just shop at my own pace, and when I’m done, pay with a couple of clicks on my way out, without having to queue.
The suggested improvements (e-receipts recognized storewide, wifi connectivity, infrastructure capacity) do not detract from what is a fantastic experience… AEON won a loyal customer here! :)