Zippin announced today the launch of a checkout-free convenience store in the Yokohama Techno Tower Hotel in Japan. It was done in partnership with Fujitsu and the Koyo Group, and Zippin says this is the world’s first cashierless checkout store within a hotel.
The Green Leaves Plus store sells pre-packaged food, drinks and fresh bento boxes. It opened earlier this year as a pilot and is accessible to the public. Customers must first download the Green Leaves Plus mobile app and register their credit card information, after which they can then enter the store with a QR code displayed on the app. Customers can also use the biometric authentication that links palm vein and facial recognition with the mobile app. After this is submitted, users just need to swipe their palm to gain entrance to the store.
Once inside, shoppers just grab what they want and go. Zippin’s combination of cameras and shelf sensors automatically keep track of what people take and automatically charge them upon leaving the store. Zippin said that based on early analytics shoppers are spending an average of just 113 seconds inside the Green Leaves Plus store.
Zippin and Fujitsu announced their partnership back in December of last year. Fujitsu is the exclusive distributor of Zippin’s cashierless checkout system, and adds its biometric authentication layer.
This first Green Leaves Plus store in the Yokohama Techno Tower could be just the beginning for Zippin in Japan. In addition to hotels, the Koyo Group operates convenience stores and restaurants in more than 500 hospitals, and from the press announcement emailed to The Spoon, Green Leaves Plus is part of Koyo’s multiphase expansion plan to create new c-store concepts for hospitals.
Zippin isn’t alone in bringing cashierless checkout to Japan. New Zealand based-IMAGR has partnered with Japanese retailer H2O to install smart shopping carts at three locations across Tokyo and Osaka.
The pandemic has pushed retailers towards cashierless checkout solutions as they look to reduce human-to-human contact. As such, we’ll be seeing a lot more cashierless checkout stores opening around the world.
