US supermarket chain Giant Eagle has installed checkout-free technology at a GetGo Café+Market store in the Greater Pittsburgh area, enabling customers to simply walk into the store, select the items they wish to purchase and checkout via their mobile phone... More
Self-checkout
Amazon unveils self-checkout shopping trolleys
Amazon has unveiled Dash Cart, a smart shopping trolley that automatically tracks the items shoppers place in their trolley as they shop — and then lets them simply exit the store when they have completed their shopping, with no need to visit a physical checkout... More
Decathlon rolls out mobile self-checkout to 81 stores across Germany
Sporting goods retailer Decathlon is rolling out its Scan & Go mobile self-checkout solution to all its stores across Germany, in response to the spread of Covid-19... More
Munich Airport uses NFC shelf-edge labels to let passengers self-checkout from retail store
A solution that uses NFC shelf-edge labels to let passengers self-checkout and pay for their shopping using their mobile phone is undergoing pilot testing at Munich Airport... More
PicWicToys lets shoppers skip the checkout lines
Toy retailer PicWicToys, which took over the French stores of Toys ’R’ Us last year, has introduced a mobile self-checkout solution designed to ease the strain of shopping with children, by letting customers avoid waiting in a queue to check out and pay for their purchases... More
Ahold Delhaize brings mobile self-checkout to US supermarkets
Shoppers at 30 US supermarkets operated by Netherlands-based retail giant Ahold Delhaize will be able to use their mobile phone to scan items as they shop and then self-checkout and pay by the end of this year... More
Amazon to make its cashierless Go technology available to other merchants?
Amazon is in talks to bring its cashierless Go technology to airports and movie theaters — CNBC — “Amazon is in talks to bring the cashierless technology that runs its Go stores to other retailers like airport shops and movie theatres, according to people familiar with the matter… The idea is to start installing the technology working for customers in the first quarter of 2020 and have hundreds of these stores working by the end of 2020, two of the people said. One person said Amazon hopes to have the upgrade process take just two weeks.”
New York Mets pilot biometric payments kiosk
New York Mets fans attending games at the team’s Citi Field home field can now purchase snacks and beverages at a self-checkout kiosk that uses a biometrics-based identity verification system to process payments — and check that buyers of alcoholic drinks are of legal drinking age... More
Ahold Delhaize to roll out NFC shelf edge labels in supermarkets across Europe
European supermarket group Ahold Delhaize is to equip its stores in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Greece, Czech Republic, Serbia and Romania with NFC-enabled electronic shelf edge labels that shoppers can tap to obtain more information about a product — and then add the items to their shopping basket so that they can self-checkout on their mobile phone... More
Albert Heijn opens cashierless supermarket in the Netherlands
Dutch supermarket giant Albert Heijn has opened an autonomous mini supermarket that lets shoppers use their bank card to gain entry to the store, select items valued at up to the contactless card limit of €25 and then self-checkout — without the need to first download an app... More
Sainsbury’s halts cashierless supermarket pilot
Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has added a manned till and two self-checkout stations to the London store it opened in April as the UK’s first checkout-free supermarket... More
Lojas Americanas opens checkout-free automated convenience stores in Brazil
Lojas Americanas, Brazil’s largest retailer, has opened the first of a series of Ame Go convenience stores that use a combination of smart shelf sensors, overhead cameras and QR-enabled entry and exit barriers to remove the need to install physical checkout stations... More
Co-op extends mobile self-checkout trial to 30 UK supermarkets
Co-op Group expands till-less payment tech to more stores — Co-op Group — “The retailer is extending its pay-in-aisle technology trial, with time-pressed shoppers able to access the easy to use app on their phones and devices in over 30 Co-op food stores… It enables customers to scan products on their own device as they walk around the store, with the cost of the shop deducted from their Apple or Google Pay account with the touch of a button. Without the need to visit a till.”
Giant Eagle trials scan-free self-checkout in US supermarket
US supermarket chain Giant Eagle is piloting a checkout-free shopping and payments system that uses a network of cameras and sensors to let customers enter a store, select and place items in their shopping basket as normal, check out from their mobile phone and then simply walk out of the store... More
Chinese retailers shutter unmanned stores as ‘novelty wears off’
China’s unmanned store boom ends as quickly as it began — Nikkei Asian Review — “Across China, shops once considered the future of retail have been shutting their doors for good… The Chinese IT companies that entered the market used technology to remove the need for workers but may have overlooked other parts of the equation.”
Singapore pop-up store allows customers to buy mobiles in ‘truly unmanned’ environment
Asian communications group Singtel has opened a cashless, unmanned pop-up store that uses face recognition and personalization to let customers select, purchase and leave with high-value goods including new phones and accessories... More
Decathlon to introduce scan and go to all stores in the Netherlands
Customers at sporting goods retailer Decathlon in the Netherlands who don’t want to line up at a physical checkout can now simply scan their goods, pay and leave — without setting off alarms — thanks to the introduction of a mobile self-checkout solution... More
Sainsbury’s opens UK’s first checkout-free supermarket
Supermarket chain Sainsbury’s has launched the UK’s first till-free grocery store, with the pilot being used to help develop the company’s SmartShop Scan, Pay & Go technology which allows shoppers to pay via their smartphone... More
Aeon to identify customers with face recognition at 80 self-serve stores
Aeon to use facial recognition at 80 China self-serve stores — Nikkei Asian Review — “Aeon, Japan’s largest retailer by sales, will soon debut a chain of self-serve smart stores in China that can anticipate what a customer will buy upon entering the establishment… Facial recognition technology installed in the stores will identify shoppers. Customers’ smartphones will then display recommended items and coupons based on purchasing habits and digital payment history.”
Sainsbury’s: Mobile self-checkout drives higher shopper spending
Behind Sainsbury’s in-store Mobile Pay solution — Essential Retail — “We have an average basket spend in store and we were expecting it to be slightly lower than that, but actually it’s coming out higher… If they go into store and see a queue, they want to be quick and grab two things to get into the queue as quickly as possible. But now they take their time and buy three or four things.”