Sainsbury’s has removed SmartShop from all its convenience stores more than six years after the scan & shop service was first introduced to its Local shops.
The supermarket offers SmartShop, which allows customers to scan and bag items as they shop, in all its full-size supermarkets. Until now, it was also in most of its 885 convenience stores.
However, following wider updates to the Sainsbury’s app and a review of the offering in its Local stores, the service will only continue to be available in the grocer’s full-size supermarkets, either through the SmartShop handsets or using SmartShop within the Sainsbury’s app.
The standalone SmartShop app was retired this year, with the service integrated into the Sainsbury’s app. The move brought together SmartShop with the retailer’s online grocery orders, and its rapid delivery service Chop Chop. Sainsbury’s said this would create a “simpler, smoother shopping journey” and means customers can “access more of Sainsbury’s services through a single app, without needing to switch”.
A Sainsbury’s spokeswoman told The Grocer: “As we bring more of our services together through one Sainsbury’s app, we’re making some changes to where SmartShop is available, while continuing to look at how we can provide the best experience for customers across our stores”.
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SmartShop was first introduced in 2016 as a trial, before rolling out more widely in larger stores. In 2020, the retailer began a rapid expansion of the service in its convenience stores.
At the time, Sainsbury’s said that SmartShop accounted for more than half of sales in some supermarkets and it has continued to see positive results from the service in its larger stores.
In the year to February 2026, Sainsbury’s extended SmartShop to an additional 100 full-size stores, as it said the service was “driving operational efficiency and supporting bigger basket trolley shops”.
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