Casino to open world’s first NFC-enabled supermarket

Shoppers at the French supermarket chain’s Les Belles Feuilles branch in Paris will be able to use shelf-edge labels equipped with NFC tags to obtain details of each of 25,000 products on offer, scan items into their basket and then checkout by simply tapping their NFC phone to a reader attached to the retailer’s cash register.

Casino Group, one of France’s largest supermarket chains, has announced plans to open the world’s first NFC-enabled supermarket.

This Casino supermarket in Paris is to be fully NFC enabled

From October, shoppers at the Les Belles Feuilles branch in Paris’s upmarket 16th district will be able to use an NFC phone and the supermarket’s app to:

  • Scan shelf-edge labels containing NFC tags to get details about any of the items on offer, including lists of ingredients, information on the supplier, videos, pricing and more.
  • Scan items placed into their basket into a virtual shopping cart within the mCasino NFC app.
  • Personalise the mCasino NFC app to reflect their preferences and buying habits as well as store their loyalty card and promotional offers.
  • View the contents of their virtual shopping basket as they shop, to check the total they have spent and add or delete a product.
  • Check out by tapping their phone to an NFC reader attached to the store’s cash register. At launch, shoppers will then pay by card or cash in the usual way, but mobile payments will be added before the end of 2012.

A video filmed at Casino’s head office store, where the service has been on trial with employees, shows how mCasino NFC will work for consumers shopping at the larger Paris store:

The service will then be extended, also in October, to the city of Lyon. Here, rather than a physical store, Casino will deploy “poster stores” at out-of-home advertising locations such as metro stations and bus shelters. Shoppers will be able to scan the items shown into their Casino shopping basket via NFC tags, QR codes and bar codes and then check out via the same mcommerce engine used in the Paris store. Consumers can then opt to collect their shopping from a local store or have it delivered to their home address.

Casino Digital Wall
CASINO DIGITAL WALL: Shoppers choose products from a large display and then pay using their phones. Click to enlarge.

During the fourth quarter of 2012, Casino will also introduce the “Casino Digital Wall”, a digital version of a poster store that includes a touchscreen display. Shoppers will be able to touch the wall to select products, discover more information about them and add them to a virtual basket. When they choose to check out a QR code is generated and displayed on the wall. They read the QR code with their mobile phone and check out using the mcommerce engine.

The mCasino NFC app has been developed by NFC specialist Think & Go NFC and will work on BlackBerry and Android NFC phones as well as with iPhones equipped with an NFC add-on.

Next: Visit the NFCW Expo to find new suppliers and solutions

3 comments on this article

  1. Is it? You are in a hurry, your child puts items in your cart or you forget to scan a product. It’s not on your list. You essentially steal the product.

    Self checkout lines are much better and more secure. Now the shopping list with totals and manufacturers coupons could be handy.

  2. It happems jeresta , butsimilar systems with bar code readers here in Sweden have random checks of shoppers baskets at check out, and the savings on checkout staff probably cover the risk of “theft” be it intentional or not

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