Commentary

Cashierless stores slowly make inroads

Shoppers can now either use a mobile app, scan a receipt, or text in their payment allowing for a quicker, more efficient way of getting in and getting out.

Image courtesy of Cafe X.

July 15, 2019

Kelly Short is a sales and marketing assistant at PowerChord, which offers digital solutions for multi-location brands.

By Kelly Short

Thanks to new self-service technology, shoppers can now either use a mobile app, scan a receipt, or text in their payment, allowing for a quicker, more efficient way of getting in and getting out of a store.

Benefits to the brand or the retailer include:

Points of sales in new places.
Reduced overhead costs.
Ability to gather shopper data.
Improved efficiency of inventory management.

One store I visited recently on a trip to Europe was Albert Heijn in Amsterdam. Shoppers could walk in, use their "tap to go" card to register the items they chose to purchase, pay on their smartphone app and walk out.

After arriving back in the States and back to work, I took a deep dive into learning about the "cashierless environment" and found several brands already practicing this idea. In the U.S., Amazon Go has opened several unattended stores since 2017.

Here are a few of the most interesting I found.

Zippin

Zippin, which opened its cashierless store in San Francisco in 2018, is very similar to the Albert Heijn store. What really blew my mind about this company was their use of AI and machine learning allowing them to effectively track inventory within the store by using sensors and ceiling- and shelf-based camera systems. Not only do retailers know when something is out of stock, but customers are provided real-time updates as well.

Caper Inc.

The Smart Cart from Caper Inc. in Brooklyn, New York detects items as they enter the cart. All the consumer needs to do is toss them in and leave the store. The technology has the potential to present discounts and product recommendations. There are already plans to add recommendations based on what's in the customer's cart.

It is basically taking out any thinking the customer needs to do while shopping. That is a game changer. Half the time I forget what I came to the store for in the first place.

Cafe X

Café X, a robot that makes coffee, opened its first of three locations in San Francisco in 2017. One of their locations sits literally on the sidewalk of a highly populated corner within the city. The robot can deliver multiple drink sizes.

Customers who prefer using their smartphone can download the Cafe X app. Once the order is placed, a pick-up code is sent to them after they place the order. That code is then used to accept the coffee from the robot.