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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Amazon Go

Amazon Shrinks Go Store to Go After Hungry Office Workers

Amazon is looking to grow its burgeoning Go store experience by thinking small. Reuters reports that Amazon has created a smaller version of its cashierless convenience store that can fit inside existing high-traffic areas like office buildings.

Like so many of Amazon’s products, the first such mini-Go is already in place in one of Amazon’s office buildings in Seattle. Coming in at just 450 square feet, this Go-lite sells snacks and salads to hungry Amazonians.

Word of the micro-Go comes just days after a report that Amazon was in talks to put its regular Go stores in airports. Putting the pieces together, we can see Amazon’s plans for its Go store rollout take shape: just put them everywhere.

In all seriousness though, the checkout line-less Amazon Go store experience is perfect for high-traffic areas like airports and busy office buildings. Shrinking the footprint down and reducing the inventory to real grab-and-go items like snacks lines up with the lifestyle of harried workers looking for a fast bite.

My first thought upon reading the news of the li’l Go store was how it would impact other tiny convenience stores coming to the market. Deep Mind builds similar small cashierless walk-in kiosks to create retail environments inside office lobbies and such. But its technology is hampered by the fact that it can only service one purchaser at a time.

Then there are companies like Byte Foods and Stockwell (formerly Bodega). Byte makes smart office fridges that vend food, while Stockwell makes credenza-sized mini-marts that employ similar grab-and-go technology for populous spaces like apartment buildings. How small will Amazon go with its Gos? Both could feel the heat if Amazon ratchets this tiny Go initiative, and there’s no reason to think that they won’t.

Amazon seems to be hitting the accelerator when it comes to Go, as the company is hiring like crazy to grow the Go team. Amazon is a trusted brand name that deeply understands delivery and fulfillment, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone if Amazon turns little shopping stores into a big business.

Why Amazon Go’s Reported Move Into Airports Would Make Sense

Amazon is reportedly targeting airports as future locations for its cashierless Go stores, according to a report in Reuters.

The Reuters story doesn’t have many details other than the Los Angeles and San Jose airports being specifically contacted by the retail giant as possible Go locations. However, airports are a natural location for Amazon’s convenience store chain.

First, airports are busy places where lots of people want speed and efficiency — the perfect audience for Amazon Go. Having a cashierless checkout store where you walk in, grab what you want and leave without standing in line seems like the best kind of retail experience for an airport’s high-traffic setting.

Airports are actually a pretty common target for automated retail experiences. Briggo’s coffee robot launched in the Austin airport earlier this year, and Cafe X has said airports are a natural fit for its coffee robot as well.

In addition to a potentially robust sales channel with a captive audience, for Amazon, there is always data to be mined. As Reuters points out, 350 million people got on flights at the country’s 12 top airports last year. That’s a lot of regional sales data, and data around what travelers purchase, but also travel data about individual account holders could be used to feed Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa. Knowing how often you go to airports or tying your calendar with upcoming trips into Alexa, gives Amazon a deeper understanding of you, which could be used to sell you more stuff.

Amazon’s move into airports isn’t guaranteed, and as Reuters says, many airports are public, which would require the famously secretive Amazon to share terms of any proposed deals publicly. That may turn the company off the notion.

However, we know that Amazon is on a massive hiring spree for its Go stores, so a big rollout beyond its existing seven stores is on the way. Chances are good that you’ll be shopping at one on your way to a future vacation or business trip.

Amazon Go is On a Massive Hiring Spree, and Not Just in the U.S.

Amazon Go, the retail store that uses cashierless technology so you can walk in, choose your items, and walk out without stopping to pay, has 338 open listings on its job site (big h/t to Sean Butler).

There are a few takeaways from this, but most notable is the sheer amount of investment in engineers on both the software and hardware side. There are a whopping 130 positions in software development, and 44 in hardware development.

But that’s just the start. While the majority of the listings are for Software Engineers, listings also include everything from Data Collection Technician to Creative Director to Security Engineer to Senior Vision Research Scientist. There are even 7 listings for real estate and construction positions, Whew!

They’re also searching for a Specification Technologist to join the Amazon Meal Kits team and help out with product development. Meal kits are already some of the most popular items at Go stores, so it’s not surprising that Amazon is looking to amp up its offerings, especially as they expand into new cities.

Many of the jobs are quite recent, and were either posted or updated within the past month. Which means that Amazon is poised to make some serious Amazon Go expansion moves in the new year, and willing to invest some serious man (and woman) power to do it. Good thing too, since the company is considering a plan to open 3,000 Go stores by 2021.

It’s also worth noting where the Go jobs are located. While the locations don’t necessary indicate where Amazon will set up future Go stores, it’s a good data point to learn where they will base R&D and development of their cashierless technology.

In the U.S. there are openings in Seattle (duh), Westborough, MA, San Francisco, and New York City. Abroad, there are listings in two cities in Israel: Tel Aviv and Haifa.

Perhaps most eye-catching on the list is Westborough, MA. That’s the home of Amazon Robotics, a subsidiary which works on Amazon’s mobile robotic fulfillment systems. According to job descriptions, that’s also where Amazon is building an Advanced Projects Group, which will develop “new technologies that go well beyond the current state of the art.”

The location is certainly strategic from a hiring standpoint: Westborough is less than an hour outside of Boston, making it an easy way to recruit tech-savvy post-grads from MIT and Harvard. I’m speculating here, but the Westborough job listings, with its proximity to Amazon Robotics, could also indicate plans on Amazon’s part to add more robots to its Go store experience.

Outside of the U.S., Amazon Go is hiring in Israel. This could simply be a way for Amazon to take advantage of Israel’s flourishing AI landscape and hire some top-notch computer scientists. But it could also indicate that Amazon is ready to expand its Go stores internationally.

It wouldn’t be the first company to bring cashierless tech Israel. Trigo Vision recently partnered with Israel’s largest supermarket chain Shufersal to implement its checkout-free tech in all locations across Israel. However, Trigo Vision and Amazon aren’t direct competitors: Trigo licenses out its tech to existing retailers, while Amazon builds its Go stores from the ground up.

Of course, even outside of Israel Amazon still has plenty of competition in the cashierless tech space. Microsoft has been working on its own version and has reportedly been in partnership talks with Walmart. In San Francisco, Aipoly is developing its own walk-in-walk-out store solution and Standard Cognition recently opened up a store in San Francisco to show off its technology.

Which is all the more reason that Amazon needs to grow fast if it wants to keep up its unique value proposition in the food retail space. The high number of job listings, and their wide geographic reach, show that when it comes to Go stores (and most things grocery, in fact), Amazon isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Now we just have to wait and see when they launch a cashierless Whole Foods.

Thanks to Sean Butler, who posted on his Linkedin about Amazon Go’s massive open jobs list. Do you have a tip for us at the Spoon? We’d love to hear it. 

Israel’s Shufersal to Implement Trigo Vision’s Cashierless Tech Across all its Stores

Trigo Vision announced today that its cashierless checkout technology, which delivers Amazon Go-like experiences at retail, will be installed in every location of Shufersal, Israel’s largest supermarket chain.

Technically, the two companies have signed an agreement to adopt Trigo Vision‘s technology, but the two still need to go through a pilot in one store first over the next year, and then roll out to the rest of the chain’s 272 locations.

Trigo Vision says that one of benefits of its technology over Amazon Go is that Trigo Vision can be retrofitted into any retail store of any size. Amazon Go stores are built from the ground up to house Amazon’s high-tech cameras and sensors and are typically smaller, hovering around the 2,000 square foot mark. Trigo Vision’s system uses basic off-the-shelf connected cameras, computer vision and machine learning to be able to identify products people put in their cart in a way, the company says, that can accommodate any lighting condition or store set up.

Being able to accurately identify more than 2,500 SKUs in a store has been a challenge, Trigo Vision CEO, Michael Gabay and COO, Jenya Beilin told me in a phone interview. Part of the issue with using computer vision for product identification is that the algorithms must be able to understand subtle shifts in branding, like for a special promotion or a seasonal flavor. But Trigo Vision claims that its technology has automated this process, and now it will go into broader real world use courtesy of the Shufersal partnership.

The competition to bring cashierless checkout tech to the grocery masses is fierce. Amazon is rolling out its Go stores at a fast pace across the country. Sam’s Club just debuted its first cashierless retail store. And Microsoft has long-been rumored to be working on cashierless tech with Walmart: the two giants recently expanded on an existing cloud partnership, which includes working on the internet of things and IT modernization. It makes sense that including a cahsierless retail component could be a part of that relationship, especially when so much data around how people shop and what they purchase can be mined from such a store.

Based in Tel Aviv, Trigo Vision raised a $7 million seed round earlier this year. The company says it’s expanding quickly and will have 20 – 25 people on their team by the end of the year. In addition to Shufersal, Trigo Vision has one other pilot happening right now with an undisclosed European grocer.

Study: When Do People Go to Amazon Go? (And You Won’t Believe How Long They Stay)

Amazon is reportedly going to split its forthcoming new co-headquarters across two cities. If that report turns out to be true, you can rest assured that each of those towns are guaranteed to get their own Amazon Go stores. And if past is prologue, according to a news study shoppers will treat those Go’s more like a restaurant than a grocery store.

InMarket recently studied shopper behavior at Amazon Go stores in Seattle and Chicago over September and October. Here’s what they found:

  • Peak visits to Amazon Go happen during business hours. Noon, 2 p.m., and 1 p.m. bring in the most visits, followed by 8 and 9 a.m. InMarket concludes that customers are stopping by for breakfast and lunch.
  • Wednesday was the busiest day of the week, followed by Thursday and Friday. It should be noted that three of the five locations studied are closed on weekends. InMarket said that even adjusting for this did not change the weekday peak.
  • For those Go stores open on weekend, during Saturday and Sunday traffic plummeted and was a fraction of what foot traffic is for the average grocery store in the U.S. on those days.
  • Of those that shop at Amazon Go, 44 percent do so multiple times, indicating a pretty good retention rate for the burgeoning chain.
  • The median time in an Amazon Go store is 27 minutes. Have you ever spent a half hour in a 7-Eleven? For a store that is only around 2,000 square feet, that’s a pretty big chunk of time. InMarket says the reasons for this could be either because people are staying and eating, or because they’re apprehensive around the grab-and-go, no cashier checkout.

Given our own experiences with Go stores, it’s not that surprising to see how people are using them. The fresh sandwich and salad options are really quite good at the Go, and the experience of shopping there is seamless. It makes for an easy way to grab a quick (yet satisfying) bite during lunch.

Additionally, the traffic bump in the evening suggests that Amazon meal kits could become a hit with busy office workers looking for a fast solution for family dinner.

Hopefully InMarket will re-visit these numbers soon, as Amazon is opening new stores at a pretty rapid clip. Will frosty winters in Chicago impact how often people go to the Go? How much time will busy New Yorkers spend inside the store? Looking further afield, how will Amazon Gos impact other convenience stores? (7-Eleven is already trying its hand at cashierless technology.)

One thing is for certain, no matter where its next HQ(s) is/are, Amazon continues to spur innovation across the food retail sector.

7-Eleven Launches Scan & Pay Pilot to Keep Up with Amazon Go

Storied convenience store chain 7-Eleven launched a new Scan & Pay pilot program today that lets shoppers use their mobile phone for self-checkout.

The new feature launched in 14 Dallas area 7-Eleven stores, and the press materials describe the Scan & Pay process as follows:

  • Install the 7-Eleven app on the Android or iOS phones and register for the 7Rewards loyalty program
  • While shopping, customers scan the barcodes of items they want to purchase
  • Customers put their purchased items into clear plastic bags at the Scan & Pay station
  • Customers can pay using Apple or Google Pay or a traditional debit or credit card at a Scan & Pay station
  • Once they pay, customers scan a QR code that appears on the confirmation screen at the Scan & Pay station and show it to the cashier as they leave

The press release was a little vague on details: Is the Scan & Pay station separate from the checkout line? What if the cashier is busy as you try to leave? Do Slurpees have a barcode?

So I reached out to 7-Eleven for more details. But even with further clarification, it’s easy to see that Amazon Go is light years ahead of its competition when it comes to cashierless checkout, and putting the “convenience” in convenience store.

7-Eleven’s Scan & Pay is reminiscent of Walmart’s “Scan and Go” feature in more than just naming conventions. Both require the use of mobile phones to manually scan items that you want to purchase. Amazon Go, on the other hand lets shoppers walk in, grab something and walk out.

Both Walmart and 7-Eleven are large, legacy corporations and getting them to turn into a digital future is like asking an aircraft carrier to come about. It takes time. Amazon Go’s have the advantage of just now rolling out and only have five locations, so they can be architected from the ground up to accommodate all of the high-tech gadgets and gizmos required to create a truly frictionless shopping experience.

Will customers find convenience in 7-Eleven’s Scan & Pay scenario? We’ll soon find out, as the company plans to expand the service into more cities next year.

Sam’s Club to Open Cashierless Concept Store Next Week

Walmart-owned Sam’s Club will open up a new store in Dallas next week that will feature a high-tech take on grocery shopping with cashierless checkout, in-store search and augmented reality. The move will also escalate Walmart’s innovation battle with rival Amazon and its cashierless Go stores.

Dubbed Sam’s Club Now, the new store concept will feature the company’s Scan & Go payment technology. Members who shop at Sam’s Club Now will now be required to use the Scan & Go app to scan and pay for items and serve as the foundation for other features such as:

  • Smart shopping lists. Using machine learning and purchase data, Sam’s Club Now will automatically generate a shopping list for users and automatically update it as items are purchased.
  • In-store navigation. Search for an item and the app will navigate you to its location in the store. Eventually, the app will create an optimal route for shoppers based on their smart shopping list.
  • Augmented Reality. This doesn’t seem to be fully baked yet, but from the company’s corporate blog post: “We’ll bring items to life in the club by sharing new ways to use them, and we’ll work to integrate stories that highlight cool features, including how items are sourced. We also have plans to use augmented reality to transform members’ digital carts into pirate ships. Or maybe you’d prefer a rocket? More on that soon!”

The use of Scan & Go will also mean a new role for us humans. Sam’s Club is creating a new position called the Member Host, which the company wants you to think of like a “concierge of the club.” Instead of just ringing customers up, they will help guide and inform shoppers. This is actually a common theme among companies implementing automation. From Cafe X’s robot barista to Walmart’s shelfbot, the repetitive tasks are taken over by apps or robots and humans are kept around to provide service, expertise and perform higher level tasks.

The launch of this newfangled Sam’s Club Now is a shot across the bow of Amazon, which has been rolling out its Amazon Go stores at a rapid clip, recently, opening up three locations in Seattle, two in Chicago and one in San Francisco (with more to come).

Sam’s Club Now and Amazon Go aren’t exactly analogous to one another. Go stores don’t require any manual scanning, instead relying on banks of cameras and sensors to know what you purchased. And the two stores are going after different markets. Sam’s Club Now takes up 32,000 square feet and is more of a full grocery shopping experience as opposed to smaller, more convenience-like Go stores, which typically hover at around ~2,000 square feet and are meant for grabbing things quickly.

However, they are both pushing a technology-driven change in the way we shop for our food. Between the advancements these two giants are making, as well as the work of startups like Trigo Vision and AIpoly, among others, 2019 is shaping up to be a watershed year for the cashierless retail revolution.

Amazon Go Opens First of Two New Stores in San Francisco Today

Amazon Go is finally expanding into America’s tech capital, as the first of two locations for the cashierless convenience stores opens today in downtown San Francisco.

Today’s launch follows Amazon Go openings in Seattle and Chicago. The new 2,300 sq. ft. SF Amazon Go is located in the Financial District at 300 California St. And it won’t be alone, as Amazon is prepping a second San Francisco Go store to open this winter at 98 Post St.

In what’s basically a digital-era take on the 7-11 concept, Amazon Go stores employ the use of high-tech cameras and sensors to track what you purchase and automatically charge your credit card as you walk out the door, without you ever having to interact with a cashier.

Of note for this particular launch is that Amazon has an actual cashierless store rival in SF. Standard Market opened up last month featuring its own take on the automated, grab-and-go shopping experience.

Many startups and stalwarts are exploring cashierless checkout technology, including Trigo Vision and AIPoly. Even Microsoft is rumored to be in talks with Walmart over implementing such a service. Amazon, however, continues to outpace the competition. For those keeping track, here’s a list of Amazon Go Stores:

  1. January 22, 2018: Seattle, 7th Ave. – 1,800 sq. ft.
  2. August 27, 2018: Seattle, 5th Ave. – 1,450 sq. ft.
  3. September 4, 2018: Seattle, Boren Ave. – 2,100 sq. ft.
  4. September 17, 2018: Chicago, S. Franklin – 2,000 sq. ft.
  5. October 8, 2018: Chicago, Clark St. – 1,200 sq. ft.
  6. October 23: San Francisco, California st. – 2,300 sq. ft.

Chicago will soon get a third location, and we now know the upcoming NYC location will be across from the World Trade Center.

ChicaGO! Amazon Opens Latest Cashierless Store in the Windy City

Amazon Go opened today in Chicago, marking the company’s first cashierless convenience store outside of its hometown of Seattle. But Amazon isn’t letting its growing store chain wander off too far on its own. The new Amazon Go is located on the first floor of the office complex where Amazon’s Chicago office located.

For those keeping track at home, this is the fourth Amazon Go store to open. In order, Amazon has launched:

  1. January 22, 2018: Seattle, 7th Ave. – 1,800 sq. ft.
  2. August 27, 2018: Seattle, 5th Ave. – 1,450 sq. ft.
  3. September 4, 2018: Seattle, Boren Ave. – 2,100 sq. ft.
  4. September 17, 2018: Chicago, S. Franklin – 2,000 sq. ft.

Amazon opened up three locations in less than a month, and we know it has plans to expand into both New York and San Francisco. We can expect the pace of openings to accelerate as the company gains more experience and more data.

The company’s growth strategy is important to track as it is leading the way in implementing cashierless stores at scale. The literal grab-and-go technology allows you to quickly shop for what you want and leave the store without going through a checkout line.

The Go stores have the potential to disrupt not only traditional corner stores, but also urban grocery stores, and with its prepared food and meal kit offerings, Go could disrupt local restaurant business wherever they set up.

Amazon will need to establish a strong beachhead, both geographically and technologically, as there are many upstarts vying to be the leader in the cashierless store space. Microsoft is reportedly working on its own version of the technology and has been talking with Walmart. Israel-based Trigo Vision says its cashierless tech can already work at supermarket-size scale. Startup Standard Cognition opened up Standard Market in San Francisco last week to showcase its cashierless technology. And Aipoly is developing its own cashierless store solution.

If you go to see Go in Chicago, drop us a line and let us know.

Dirty Lemon’s New “Drug Store” is Part of a Convenience Store Revolution

Dirty Lemon, a startup that sells fancy water infused with ingredients like charcoal, CBD and collagen for more than $10 a pop, made The New York Times today with its new pop-up store in New York that puts you on the honor system when you pay. While this is probably a gimmick to get attention (it worked!), it does illustrate how the traditional notions of convenience stores are being upended left and right.

Located in Manhattan and dubbed Drug Store, Dirty Lemon’s small retail shop has no cashier or checkout. For Spoon readers, this will immediately bring to mind Amazon Go, which uses an array of advanced computer vision and sensors to monitor what people put in their bags and then charge their account automatically as they leave the store.

There is no such high-tech gadgetry at Drug Store. As the Times reports, customers walk in, grab their Vitality Booster (+matcha) beverage and walk out:

In the store, customers are expected to text Dirty Lemon to say they have grabbed something. A representative will then text back with a link to enter their credit card information, adding, “Let us know if you need anything else.”

This pay-by-text is actually already a big hook for Dirty Lemon, which has customers use SMS to re-order product. According to the NYT Article, Dirty Lemon has 100,000 customers, and half of them order at least one case (6 bottles) a month. With cases starting at $45, that’s at least $2.25 million in sales each month.

Pay by text for Dirty Lemon water

Dirty Lemon CEO Zak Normandin told the Times that he wasn’t worried about theft at his pop-up store and had plans to use its $4 million digital ad budget to open up more cashierless brick and mortar locations.

This idea of focusing on real world spaces in our digital age actually sits at the crossroads of two trends we’re seeing in food-related related retail:

First, there is a reinvention of the traditional convenience store going on. You could say that Amazon is driving a lot of this change with its aforementioned Go stores. Amazon has opened three Go stores in Seattle with plans on the books to expand to San Francisco, Chicago and New York.

As we’ve experienced firsthand, Amazon Go puts the convenience back in convenience stores. The grab-and-go technology is seamless and makes shopping for everyday quick items or even fresh-made sandwiches and meal kits fast and easy. Other technologies from places like Trigo Vision and Aipoly are popping up to enable similar store experiences.

Elsewhere along the west coast, we recently visited The Goods Mart, which is trying to create a healthier version of 7-11. Featuring kombucha slushies, organic treats and imperfect (ugly) fruit, The Goods Mart also gives back to its community by donating tips and holding community dinners.

Doing away with the store space altogether is Stockwell, the startup which started life as the much-reviled Bodega. Stockwell’s idea is to outfit high-traffic buildings (like apartments) with high-tech cabinets filled with sundries and snacks. Like Amazon Go, you grab what you want and go back upstairs, presumably still in your jammies.

The other trend Drug Store is capitalizing on is the retail-as-experience renaissance. Kitchen tech startups Fellow, Brava and Anova have all built, or are building, brick and mortar locations where people can come in, see products in real world settings, and learn how to use them properly.

Who knows if Dirty Lemon will have staff on hand to explain the benefits of drinking collagen water, but what Drug Store will do is establish a direct connection/relationship with any of the consumers that choose to stick to the honor system and make a purchase. Dirty Lemon will have a marketing channel directly to a customer’s phone, where impulse orders can be made with a simple text.

For Dirty Lemon, opening up more physical locations in high-traffic areas could be pretty sweet.

Amazon Opens Second Go Store Amid Rising Cashierless Competition

Amazon is opening is second Go store in downtown Seattle this morning. The new Go will be slightly bigger smaller (UPDATE: initial reporting on the second location was incorrect. Turns out the store is smaller.)than the first location, and will feature the same cashierless. technology that allows customers with the Amazon Go mobile app to walk into the store, grab what they want and leave without having to wait in line or stop to pay.

We loved shopping at Amazon Go and even named the store as one of our FoodTech 25 companies that are changing the way we eat. The seamless experience points to an inevitable future where high-tech cameras, sensors and computer vision all work together to make every grocery trip faster and checkout line free.

While Amazon would still be considered the leader in cashierless shopping, the landscape for the technology is more crowded since the first Go store launched in January. Cross-town rival Microsoft is reportedly working on such technology and chatting with Walmart about putting it to use in the retail giant’s stores.

Then there are smaller startups coming to market hoping to disrupt Amazon’s disruption. Zippin just unveiled its cashierless software platform and is set to open up in San Francisco next month. Israel-based Trigo Vision is piloting its software, which the company said can already scale to a full-size grocery store. Others such as Caper and AI Poly are also launching their own solutions.

Cashierless checkout certainly isn’t a zero sum game. There are plenty of retailers in the world looking to create a more efficient (and profitable) buying experience for customers. But for the time being, Amazon is definitely the pioneer. Its first-mover status gives it plenty of data and real-world experience to iterate faster than its competition.

In addition to the two Seattle locations open now, Amazon is opening up new Go stores in San Francisco and Chicago. And, lest we forget, Amazon owns Whole Foods, giving the company access to a network of full-sized retail locations in which to experiment and scale.

For those in Seattle who want to shop at the new Go store, you can find new the Seattle Central Library at 920 Fifth Ave.

Trigo Vision’s Cashierless Tech Isn’t Just for Shoppers; It Provides Insight for Stores, Too

When we talk about Amazon Go-like cashierless stores, the conversation mostly focuses on the shopping experience from the customer’s perspective. The ease with which you can walk into a store, grab what you want — and just walk out. But as Israeli-based startup Trigo Vision points out, there are plenty of benefits for the retailer as well.

Trigo Vision (pronounced tree-go vision) is one of several companies using computer vision and AI to help retail stores re-create the Amazon Go cashierless experience. Trigo Vision works by installing cameras in the ceilings of stores, and the AI is trained by having people (customers or employees, if need be) pick up and handle each item off the shelf in the store so the computer can “see” and learn what it is.

Jenya Beilin, COO of Trigo Vision, told me that using this approach for data collection is better than using synthetic data or existing images of products, because it trains the AI to recognize items under all the existing lighting and background conditions in that store. The result, according to Beilin, is that the technology is able to track purchases with greater accuracy.

The most obvious beneficiary of this computer recognition is the consumer. Trigo Vision’s system sees what you are putting in your cart (and putting back), tallies up your total and automatically charges you on the way out the door.

The same cameras that make it easy to leave also make it easy to track shoppers through the store. The result is that Trigo Vision’s system can provide retailers with useful information on consumer behavior: Where do they buy first? What items are they picking (and returning)? What items are purchased together? Etc.

One obvious benefit of Trigo Vision’s system is inventory management. Sorry, shelf-bot, but your days of manually scanning the aisles looking for gaps in inventory are probably numbered. Trigo’s platform can keep track of how many items are bought and when something needs to be re-stocked.

Digging into the consumer data a little deeper, stores can use the platform to understand how they can better present items to customers. Trigo Vision can help a store realize (in real-time) if a particular product is popular and should be highlighted, or if an end-cap promotion is attracting attention and/or sales.

This type of data is, in turn, helpful for CPG companies. For example, Coca-Cola could gain insight into whether people are buying more sodas in the aisle or at the checkout line. Armed with this data, grocers can even re-architect their shelves and store layout to take advantage of how people are shopping and the order in which they see inventory.

Unlike the bodega-sized Amazon Go stores, Trigo Vision says its platform can scale up to full-sized stores. Right now, the company, which has raised $7 million in funding, is in one pilot program with an unnamed European store. Beilin says they are in talks with more retailers, with the goal of opening in a full store in Europe within twelve months.

Trigo Vision is facing some stiff competition, however. Standard Cognition announced a deal with Paltac Corporation to put its cashierless tech in 3,000 stores in Japan before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. AIPoly also touts its data insights for retailers as well. And in June it was revealed that Microsoft, which is no slouch when it comes to AI, is working on similar technology and is talking to retailers like Walmart about a potential collaboration.

All of this activity means widespread adoption of cashierless technology is not that far off —and will soon be so commonplace that we won’t even be talking about it at all.