Raina Raval

Checkout is the last impression a store makes, and often its worst. On a typical peak-hour shift, 15-minute queues were the single largest driver of cart abandonment and in-store complaints. As Lead Designer and Innovation Strategist, I took this one end to end, from research through deployment, and designed a self-checkout experience that lets shoppers scan, pay, and exit without a staffed line. The tricky part: trust, speed, and error recovery all had to work with no employee standing there to catch a mistake.

First the store floor and the people on it, then the market around it. In a survey of 54 shoppers, 63% said they shop both in store and online, and not one said they'd be unlikely to use a phygital service. Then I compared eight grocery brands on finding products, fast checkout, real-time stock, and omnichannel. Nobody gets real-time stock right inside the store. The one brand that does, BigBasket, has no store at all. It all boiled down to one question: how might we reduce the checkout time and increase footfall in store?

The answer lives on the trolley handle. Scan the cart's QR code with your phone and your app cart comes along, allergy flags included. Type a search or just ask, pick an aisle and the cart walks you to it, and out-of-stock items say so before you make the trip. Drop something in and the total updates on the spot. When you're done, you pay right there on the cart. No line required.

Checkout wait time dropped by 26%, directly improving store throughput during peak hours, and 19% of customers chose self-checkout within a month of launch. The work also drew attention from major retail players and became a strong proof point for the company's retail capabilities. I grew into Lead Designer mid-project and finished as the sole designer, which taught me when to drive decisions, when to align with partners, and when to step back and let other functions move fast.

Raina Raval 2026 © All rights reserved

Description A phygital Smart Cart that walks shoppers to the shelf, keeps a live total, and lets them pay right on the cart, cutting checkout time by 26% for a global retail giant. Timeline Jan 2025 – Jan 2026