Mashgin, which makes a cashierless checkout kiosk, announced today that its technology is now in use in nearly 500 locations worldwide and that it has processed roughly $100 million in sales transactions.
Unlike other players in the cashierless checkout space that are relying on in-store camera installations or smart shopping carts, Mashgin’s solution uses a countertop device that can sit anywhere in a store. Shoppers place items on the device where cameras and computer vision identify all of the products and tally up the bill. Up until now, Mashgin accepted credit cards for payment, but the company also announced today an integration with Glory to enable contactless acceptance of cash payments as well.
I spoke with Jack Hogan, Vice President of Partnerships at Mashgin by video chat this week. He said the sweet spot for Mashgin’s technology is in places like sports stadiums and convenience stores — locations where people are grabbing 1 – 10 items and want to get in and out of the store quickly.
In addition to identifying consumer packaged goods, Mashgin’s technology also identifies plated foods in settings like cafeterias. Users place there tray of food on the Mashgin device and the cameras can identify everything on the plate and charge accordingly.
Cashierless checkout has been one of the big news stories of 2021, as the pandemic accelerated retailer’s plans for more contactless shopping experiences. Throughout the year we’ve seen a number of cashierless checkout store launches with startups around the world including Zippin, AiFi, Imagr, and Trigo.
Hogan said that even though the pandemic has pushed retailers into more human-free checkout solutions, that’s not the biggest concern from partners. “The number one thing people have said is speed,” Hogan said, “Get in and out as soon as possible.” With cashierless checkout, retailers are able to kill two birds with one stone, providing line-free speed with a contactless experience. Mashgin said that deployments of its checkout kiosks grew more than 100 percent in 2021 and can now be found in convenience stores, airports and sporting arenas such as Mile High Stadium and Madison Square Garden.
Though the cashierless checkout space is crowded, Mashgin’s most direct competitor at this point is Caper. In addition to making smart shopping carts, Caper debuted its own computer vision-powered countertop kiosk last year. The small footprint of devices like Caper’s and Mashgin’s could prove attractive to c-stores and other locations where consumers aren’t buying a lot of stuff and want to get in and out of the store quickly. A countertop device doesn’t require retrofitting a store with cameras or buying new shopping carts, and can be set up with easily at a checkout stand.
It’s not hard to imagine that as part of the growth of cashierless checkout over the coming years, we’ll be seeing more players offer a similar type of kiosk as well.
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