Marks & Spencer has become the first UK food retailer to launch on-the-spot payments.

‘Pay With Me’ is going live across 200 stores to minimise queue checkouts in the last few days before Christmas.

The digital service allows M&S employees to pick out customers waiting in line to pay for just a few items and process their transaction via a handheld Honeywell device.

The rollout comes after a successful trial of the ePos machines at seven M&S stores.

The supermarket retailer has also installed 1,000 additional self-service tills and tolled out Scan & Shop.

M&S will also be rolling out Scan & Shop to 30 stores to help speed up the payment process for customers.

The supermarket chain has also announced it has expanded its checkout-free technology Mobile Pay Go to every one of its 573 UK stores, which enables M&S customers to skip the queues by paying for items with their smartphones.

M&S’s reservation-based shopping service ‘Sparks Book & Shop,’ which allows customers to reserve a shopping slot at a time that suits them, has also been put in place to minimise queuing in its stores.

“Throughout the year our teams have done a fantastic job of adapting quickly to serve our customers through challenging and changing circumstances. In preparation for Christmas, we have put in place extensive measures to make shopping quicker, easier and safer for everyone—from our longest ever opening hours through to digital queue busting solutions such as our new ‘Pay with Me’—now in over 200 stores,” Said Helen Milford, M&S stores director. “In these final few days we’re focused on delivering for our customers to help them make the most of their Christmas, however they might be celebrating.”

This year M&S will be offering its longest-ever opening hours, with two-thirds (over 400 stores) of M&S’s estate open until midnight across the busiest days of 21-23 December.

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