Wal Mart/Credit Card Use Tracking

[storewanderer]

In the past, Wal Mart would add "in store" purchases to my "purchase history" in their app if I paid with a credit card or debit card that was saved in my login. This was very convenient from a return perspective. I never kept receipts.

I had something I wanted to return and went into the app and found very few receipts. Like, only about 5 receipts from the past 4 or so months.

I figured out the situation. Any purchase I made using the self checkout since their upgrade away from NCR, does not show up on the app in purchase history. Any purchases I've made in recent months at a register other than self checkout DO show up in the app under purchase history as they always have.

This is interesting. I hope they straighten this out. I also wonder how this is impacting their data collection/tracking of customer purchases if those self checkout purchases are not being tracked to complete a customer profile the way they previously did.

[ClownLoach]

In the past, Wal Mart would add "in store" purchases to my "purchase history" in their app if I paid with a credit card or debit card that was saved in my login. This was very convenient from a return perspective. I never kept receipts.

I had something I wanted to return and went into the app and found very few receipts. Like, only about 5 receipts from the past 4 or so months.

I figured out the situation. Any purchase I made using the self checkout since their upgrade away from NCR, does not show up on the app in purchase history. Any purchases I've made in recent months at a register other than self checkout DO show up in the app under purchase history as they always have.

This is interesting. I hope they straighten this out. I also wonder how this is impacting their data collection/tracking of customer purchases if those self checkout purchases are not being tracked to complete a customer profile the way they previously did.

This is a common issue with different POS systems in the same chain. The back end for marketing/customer profiling works fine. These companies spend hundreds of millions on what they call "data lakes" so they can assemble these profiles and use the information across their enterprise. The POS is really the lowest form of technology in any of these companies.

[storewanderer]

In the past, Wal Mart would add "in store" purchases to my "purchase history" in their app if I paid with a credit card or debit card that was saved in my login. This was very convenient from a return perspective. I never kept receipts.

I had something I wanted to return and went into the app and found very few receipts. Like, only about 5 receipts from the past 4 or so months.

I figured out the situation. Any purchase I made using the self checkout since their upgrade away from NCR, does not show up on the app in purchase history. Any purchases I've made in recent months at a register other than self checkout DO show up in the app under purchase history as they always have.

This is interesting. I hope they straighten this out. I also wonder how this is impacting their data collection/tracking of customer purchases if those self checkout purchases are not being tracked to complete a customer profile the way they previously did.

This is a common issue with different POS systems in the same chain. The back end for marketing/customer profiling works fine. These companies spend hundreds of millions on what they call "data lakes" so they can assemble these profiles and use the information across their enterprise. The POS is really the lowest form of technology in any of these companies.

Here is another funny thing. I took a Wal Mart receipt survey. It asks you to rate the products you bought. I used self checkout for that receipt. The products it asked me to rate were not even products I bought nor are the products anyone in my household has ever bought...

Thinking it was a fluke I tried again with a different receipt from a different Wal Mart. I was really happy with a couple items I bought on that receipt and actually wanted to go in and give the products a 5 star review. Same thing- it asked me to rate stuff I've never purchased nor has anyone else in the household.

So something is definitely screwed up with this self checkout system and their customer purchase tracking. This also makes me wonder if their sudden initiative to deemphasize self checkout is due to some system issues with their tracking. Their tracking system is also supposedly why they refuse to implement Tap card acceptance.

I am going to pay extra attention to what the person in front of me buys next time I shop there, take the receipt survey again, and see if it is having me rate the products of the customer in front of me or what.

[ClownLoach]

In the past, Wal Mart would add "in store" purchases to my "purchase history" in their app if I paid with a credit card or debit card that was saved in my login. This was very convenient from a return perspective. I never kept receipts.

I had something I wanted to return and went into the app and found very few receipts. Like, only about 5 receipts from the past 4 or so months.

I figured out the situation. Any purchase I made using the self checkout since their upgrade away from NCR, does not show up on the app in purchase history. Any purchases I've made in recent months at a register other than self checkout DO show up in the app under purchase history as they always have.

This is interesting. I hope they straighten this out. I also wonder how this is impacting their data collection/tracking of customer purchases if those self checkout purchases are not being tracked to complete a customer profile the way they previously did.

This is a common issue with different POS systems in the same chain. The back end for marketing/customer profiling works fine. These companies spend hundreds of millions on what they call "data lakes" so they can assemble these profiles and use the information across their enterprise. The POS is really the lowest form of technology in any of these companies.

Here is another funny thing. I took a Wal Mart receipt survey. It asks you to rate the products you bought. I used self checkout for that receipt. The products it asked me to rate were not even products I bought nor are the products anyone in my household has ever bought...

Thinking it was a fluke I tried again with a different receipt from a different Wal Mart. I was really happy with a couple items I bought on that receipt and actually wanted to go in and give the products a 5 star review. Same thing- it asked me to rate stuff I've never purchased nor has anyone else in the household.

So something is definitely screwed up with this self checkout system and their customer purchase tracking. This also makes me wonder if their sudden initiative to deemphasize self checkout is due to some system issues with their tracking. Their tracking system is also supposedly why they refuse to implement Tap card acceptance.

I am going to pay extra attention to what the person in front of me buys next time I shop there, take the receipt survey again, and see if it is having me rate the products of the customer in front of me or what.

That is odd because I have not noticed any discrepancies on the new self checkout and the surveys. Something is definitely configured incorrectly at that store. I have done returns with credit card lookup no problem, text receipts no problem. And my closest store has the old NCR hardware but the new software still no problem. The new self checkout seemed to be a great improvement.

[storewanderer]

This is a common issue with different POS systems in the same chain. The back end for marketing/customer profiling works fine. These companies spend hundreds of millions on what they call "data lakes" so they can assemble these profiles and use the information across their enterprise. The POS is really the lowest form of technology in any of these companies.

Here is another funny thing. I took a Wal Mart receipt survey. It asks you to rate the products you bought. I used self checkout for that receipt. The products it asked me to rate were not even products I bought nor are the products anyone in my household has ever bought...

Thinking it was a fluke I tried again with a different receipt from a different Wal Mart. I was really happy with a couple items I bought on that receipt and actually wanted to go in and give the products a 5 star review. Same thing- it asked me to rate stuff I've never purchased nor has anyone else in the household.

So something is definitely screwed up with this self checkout system and their customer purchase tracking. This also makes me wonder if their sudden initiative to deemphasize self checkout is due to some system issues with their tracking. Their tracking system is also supposedly why they refuse to implement Tap card acceptance.

I am going to pay extra attention to what the person in front of me buys next time I shop there, take the receipt survey again, and see if it is having me rate the products of the customer in front of me or what.

That is odd because I have not noticed any discrepancies on the new self checkout and the surveys. Something is definitely configured incorrectly at that store. I have done returns with credit card lookup no problem, text receipts no problem. And my closest store has the old NCR hardware but the new software still no problem. The new self checkout seemed to be a great improvement.

This is two different stores, this week... one has the older NCR hardware, one has the newer units that I think are still NCR hardware but with the smaller profile/unattached printer.

I was getting surveys for products I actually purchased last week.

The new Wal Mart self checkout is excellent. This is part of why I am really annoyed they are closing them down, removing them in some stores, etc.

Whole Foods seems to be redoing its self checkout software also. They are still on NCR but it is like they are trying to copy the new Wal Mart self checkout interface. It is actually somewhat humorous. Still the usual clumsy clunky NCR self checkout software experience there at Whole Foods.