M&S to add self-checkouts to changing rooms

To eliminate the need for customers to wait in queue twice, M&S plans to install self-checkout kiosks in the changing areas of its 180 clothing stores. According to reports, fashion behemoth stated that it hopes to have the new equipment installed in over 100 stores by the beginning of 2028.

After a broader store makeover is finished, the technology will be implemented throughout its whole clothes estate.

“We would like customers to be able to enter the fitting room without having to wait in queue, try on the items they have selected, pay there and simply leave,” stated Sacha Berendji, director of operations at M&S.

According to the executive, the business now has one self-checkout per changing room space and plans to add more in response to customer demand.

The action was taken in spite of M&S chairman Archie Norman’s earlier warning that middle-class consumers were becoming more likely to shoplift because self-checkouts were not scanning their purchases. To make sure customers paid for their purchases, Berendji stated that the store would have employees “hosting” the changing rooms.