Nectar Prices on Self Checkout
Overview
Goal
Role
Nectar is Sainsbury’s loyalty program, which has 18 million shoppers on board. In 2023, Sainsbury’s launched Nectar Prices. A scheme in which Nectar users can benefit from lower prices. With Nectar Prices set to launch in-store and online, a brief was given to the XD team to deliver the scheme in a clear and consistent way that ensure value perception is delivered throughout the users experience
Deliver a clear, consistent, and user-centred experience for the rollout of Nectar Prices across in-store and online channels, ensuring that Sainsbury’s 18 million Nectar users can easily understand and perceive the value of the scheme throughout their journey.
Leading the Nectar Prices experience on self-checkouts
Discovery
The XD team are informed about Nectar Prices, and a working group is assembled. Nectar Prices on SCO’s begin.
Start
Discovery
April 2022
The art of possible on Sainsbury’s Self-Checkouts
Sainsbury’s self-checkouts are developed by a third party, making changes slow and challenging. Before starting work on Nectar Prices, we needed to understand what was realistically possible on the SCOs.
Timelines
Working with product managers and our SCO supplier, we confirmed that UI changes wouldn’t be possible for the first Nectar Prices launch due to an upcoming core upgrade. We needed to quickly understand what “no changes” meant and what we still had control over.
“No Changes” Means that when a Nectar Price item is scanned, it will appear as any other promotion does Today.
What can we control: The promotion name. But NOT the way the promotion is displayed -£2.00”
Will launching with No Changes work?
Now, knowing what the first version of Nectar Prices on SCO’s will look like. We wanted to do some testing to understand if customers understood the concept. Although the experience was essentially out of our hands, we wanted to make sure that people at least understood what was happening to their shopping as they checked out.
Test
Do customers understand the feedback we are giving them about the product they have Scanned.
GOAL
Can customers correctly highlight what promotion is attached to their product.
Outcome
We validated that over 76% of customer understood what promotion was attached to the product they had scanned.
What could “good” look like?
Although the first Nectar Prices launch won’t include a new SCO UI, we received approval to make changes for the second release. I organised a kick-off workshop with our supplier to quickly identify which UI elements could be changed, using a traffic-light system to assess effort and feasibility. With a clearer view of what was possible, we could begin design collaboration with the wider digital products team.
A rare opportunity
The workshop revealed some challenges but also a rare opportunity to update several parts of the self-checkout at once. Our SCOs were overdue a refresh, and while a full redesign wasn’t possible, we could still address key pain points. From the session, we identified opportunities to improve:
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Welcome screen background
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Voice-over
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Accessibility (contrast, font sizes)
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Product tiles
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Tone of voice
This diagram outlines the layers of the self-checkout and their owners, showing why updates are complex. With multiple teams and businesses involved, changing one area can easily create knock-on effects elsewhere.
Collaboration across digital products
Sainsbury’s customers can interact with Nectar Prices across multiple platforms—Groceries Online, the mobile app, SmartShop, SCOs, and main checkouts. Working as one squad meant being open about product constraints; while perfect consistency wasn’t always possible, we aligned on shared values and aimed for consistency wherever we could.
Throughout the project, XD collaborated on:
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Stakeholder mapping
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Ideation sessions
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Content audits
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Research and testing
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Brand guidelines
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Playback sessions
Managing expectations
I worked with the Product Manager to update stakeholders and share our discovery findings. To set clear expectations, I presented a visual overview of what was and wasn’t achievable for each phase of the Nectar Prices release, ensuring full transparency.
Core upgrade
Core upgrade rolls out. This
needs to be complete before
any changes can be made to
the Self-Checkout.
Release 1
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Nectar Price added into the system in the back end
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Nectar Price displays visually the same as any other promotion
Release 2
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Purple UI feedback for Nectar Price items (new logic)
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New background image
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Improved checkout summary
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Improved accessibility
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Updated voice over
Discovery overview
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Nectar Prices on SCO’s will launch with an inconsistent design compared to the rest of Sainsbury’s products
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Defined which elements of the self-checkout we can change
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Certain elements of the Self Checkout can not be changed due to time and tech complexities
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Close collaboration & stakeholder management with the SCO supplier will be a high priority
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Unable to test Nectar Prices with the customer due to the confidentiality of the project
Define & Develop
UX & UI begin collaboration on defining & developing
The Nectar Price experience on Self Checkouts
Discovery
Define & Develop
April 2022
May
2022
With expectations set and timelines agreed, we moved on to defining Release 2 of Nectar Prices.
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Sainsbury’s self-checkout UI hasn’t been updated in years, leaving us behind UK competitors. This phase allowed us to use Nectar Prices not only to improve the loyalty experience but also to enhance the overall self-checkout features.
Key design improvements
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New welcome screen
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Prompts to scan Nectar
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Introduction of surfacing Nectar branding on SCO's
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Clearing pricing mechanism for Nectar Prices
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Improved savings breakdown
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Surfacing the Nectar Prices in a compliant way
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Improve the way we display colleague discounts
Release 1
Release 2
Bringing Sainsbury's back in the game
As previously mentioned, due to slow development and tech legacy, Sainsbury's self-checkouts had fallen behind in the market, in terms of retail self-serve products. We didn't want to only deliver Nectar Prices on self-checkouts; we wanted to freshen up the whole experience.
Welcome
screen
Voice over
Accessiblity
We collaborated with our in-house branding agency to hire a food photographer to produce some new, fresh images for our welcome screen. We wanted a wide range of products that brought to life our orange branding.
The self-checkout voice-over had also become outdated and no longer matched our messaging. We used this opportunity to brief a new voice-over artist, going through sourcing and testing to find a clear, accessible voice that represents the Sainsbury’s brand.
Unable to create a complete accessible experience within this project, we wanted to improve what we could that can take us a few steps further towards an accessible SCO. We first focused on updating all of our CTA's to meet accessibility contrast standards.
Experience Alignment
Working with the Nectar, SmartShop, and Groceries Online teams, we ensured the experience felt cohesive across all touchpoints, from scanning with SmartShop to adding Nectar Prices online. We also aligned in-store communications, refining tone of voice, visuals, and how promotions are presented to create a consistent brand experience.
SmartShop
Grocories online
Instore shelf edge
Deliver
Launching Nectar Prices accross Sainsburys.
Discovery
Define & Develop
Deliver
April 2022
May
2022
April
2023
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Launching Nectar Prices was a major success, boosting digital engagement through self-serve. Post-launch observations showed most customers interacted with Nectar at the start or during checkout, validating our hypothesis and reinforcing confidence in customer loyalty and the proposition.
To be continued...
There is still so much potential to unlock within both loyalty and the overall checkout experience on our Self Checkouts. Not only can accessibility be improved, but as in-store technology continues to evolve, we aim to keep conducting customer observations, research, and testing to ensure we’re designing and developing experiences that not only support our business goals but also keep the customer experience at the forefront.