M&S doubles checkout-free smartphone shopping enabled stores

• The option removes the requirement to stop at a manned checkout or self-service scanner

• M&S is also requesting customers don’t scan their Sparks loyalty cards in store and use an online tool instead

M&S has doubled the number of stores in which customers can scan items and pay on their smartphones to help reduce contact with staff.

Mobile Pay Go users scan barcodes as they walk round the aisles and fill their baskets, using a smartphone app. They then pay with a card saved in the app. The option removes the requirement to stop at a manned checkout or self-service scanner.

The supermarket rolled out Mobile Pay Go to a total of 50 stores in February, following an 18-month trial. This week it was made available in an additional 50 stores.

“Where it’s available we’ve been advising customers to use our Mobile Pay Go technology. It removes the need for a customer to visit a checkout and is a quick and easy way to pay for your essential food shop,” an M&S spokesman said.

It was one of several social distancing measures the supermarket had implemented “throughout the customer journey, including payment” the spokesman added.

The new slew of enabled stores is less London-centric than the initial 50, among which only one – Market Street, Manchester – was outside the capital.

Stores added this week include Leeds Central Square, Birmingham, Manchester Spinningfields Food Hall, Croydon and Reading.

As a further measure to reduce customer and checkout staff contact, M&S is requesting customers don’t scan their Sparks loyalty cards in store. Customers have instead been asked to use an online tool to automatically add the points to their account up to 90 days from their shopping trip.