Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

grocery shopping

Noka’s Smart Shopping Baskets Lets Customers Walk Out Without Going Through the Check-Out Line

According to Omnico’s US Retail Report, 74 percent of consumers believe technology will make shopping easier and remove sources of annoyance, like long lines at the register. A start-up called Noka recently introduced its cashierless technology for grocery stores and supermarkets.

What sets Tbilisi Georgia-based Noka’s tech apart from simple self-checkout is its smart shopping baskets. When customers enter a store equipped with Noka’s technology, they grab a basket and touch a sensor button (not a fingerprint sensor). They are then let in the barrier separating the entrance and main store area.

Once in the store area, customers grab items and fill up their baskets. Noka’s baskets identify the shopper and track the items placed into the basket. All products are located behind fridge-like doors which cannot be opened unless a customer has their hand on the basket. Shelves within the store are equipped with weight sensors that recognize how many products are picked up from the shelf.

Introducing NOKA Technology: Shopping experience in the first cashierless store

If a customer decides to put an item back, it is automatically subtracted from the order. At checkout, they simply press the sensor button again and pay with a credit card or Apple pay. After payment is complete, the customer can exit out the two-way barrier.

According to David Topchishvili, the CEO of Noka, “Unlike Amazon Go, Trigo, AiFi and other competitors, NOKA technology doesn’t use recognition cameras, we don’t need large servers for computing, and it can be easily scalable.”

Although Noka does stand apart with its smart shopping baskets, there are still a lot of companies in this space. A company that has a similar concept to Noka, is Israel-based Shopic, which has created smart shopping carts. Amazon was one of the first to debut its cashierless tech in 2018, with its first Amazon Go. Other companies in the cashierless space include AiFi, Mashgin, Grabango, and Trigo.

Noka unveiled a prototype of its system in August 2020 and trialed it at an experimental store with 100 SKUs in November 2020. In September 2021, the company’s deployed its baskets for the first time in an actual store environment in its home country of Georgia. In this first real-world deployment, the company’s baskets can identify up to 1,000 product SKUs.

Google and Albertsons Partner for Shoppable Maps, Predictive Grocery Lists and More

Google and Albertsons announced a wide-ranging, multi-year partnership today that will see a range of high-tech features added to consumer grocery shopping across more than 2,200 Albertsons stores.

According to the press release, Albertsons has been working with a number of different teams across Google over the past year. In a corporate blog post, also released today, Google outlined new grocery delivery and pickup features that have been integrated into Google Search and will be coming to Google Maps later this year:

Delivery and curbside pickup have grown in popularity during the pandemic — they’re convenient and minimize contact. To make this process easier, we’re bringing helpful shopping information to stores’ Business Profiles on Maps and Search, like delivery providers, pickup and delivery windows, fees, and order minimums. We’re rolling this out on mobile Search starting with Instacart and Albertsons Cos. stores in the U.S., with plans to expand to Maps and other partners.

Other fruits of this partnership weren’t specified, but the companies said forthcoming innovations include: Shoppable maps with dynamic hyperlocal features, AI-powered conversational commerce, and predictive grocery list building.

That Albertsons has hopped into the virtual shopping cart with Google actually makes a lot of sense. The pandemic pushed record numbers of people into online grocery shopping last year, and while those online sales figures have cooled recently, grocery e-commerce is predicted to hit $250 billion by 2025. So integrating high-tech features from a trusted and ubiquitous brand like Google to grab more of those online dollars is a no brainer.

As a result of all this money flowing into grocery e-commerce, retailers are locked in a fierce battle to be your grocer of choice. A partnership with Google isn’t a nice to have — at this point it’s a need to have for Albertsons. Albertsons is up against deep-pocketed giants like Amazon, which is building out its own chain of physical supermarket stores, and Walmart, which is expanding its delivery options and adding more automated fulfillment. Albertsons could also find it is getting squeezed on the smaller end by a cohort of new, urban grocery startups that promise delivery in 10 minutes.

But Albertsons isn’t being caught flat-footed. It has proved itself to be a very tech-forward retailer, and its innovation has only accelerated since the pandemic. The grocer is expanding the use of automated micro-fulfillment, piloting smart lockers and robotic curbside pickup kiosks, and is even testing out remote controlled grocery delivery robots.

For its part, Google continues to be a bit of a sleeper in the foodtech world. Over the past few years, the company has been rolling out a number of features that transform the way we find, order and get our food delivered.

While we don’t know the full extent of what its partnership with Google will bring, these first steps are a smart play by Albertsons. By getting inserted into Google Search and Maps results, Albertsons can more seamlessly integrate with consumers’ everyday routine, and create a more frictionless shopping experience for customers.

Fridge No More Raises $15.4M for 15-Minute Grocery Delivery in NYC

Fifteen minutes is the new hour, or so it seems in the grocery delivery game. New York City startup Fridge No More announced today that it has closed a $15.4 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by Insight Partners with participation from existing investors including Altair Capital.

Fridge No More operates small, hyperlocal delivery-only grocery stores and currently serves the Williamsburg, Park Slope and Gowanus neighborhoods in Brooklyn. Typical Fridge No More stores are roughly 2,000 – 3,000 sq. ft. and house just 2,000 SKUs. The delivery radius for each store is approximately one mile, and done on scooter or bike by actual store employees. Orders are placed via iOS or Android app and are manually picked, packed and delivered to the customer within fifteen minutes.

In addition to providing super fast service, there are no minimum orders and no delivery fees. Fridge No More is able to do this because they don’t spend a lot of money on the stores themselves. Since dark stores don’t service in-person customers, they can be tucked away in cheaper locations like basements or other odd spaces, there is no checkout that needs to be set up and there are no cashiers to pay.

Another benefit of creating these smaller stores is that they can tailor the inventory to that particular neighborhood. Fridge No More doesn’t need to stock everything, it can figure out which items sell the most and stock those.

Fridge No More’s approach is similar to that of both Weezy in the U.K. and Gorillas over in Germany, both of which also raised significant funding this year.

As we’ve covered previously, the online grocery sector has been getting a lot of love from investors this year. Online grocery related startups around the world are raising lots of money. In fact, this is our second grocery e-commerce related funding announcement today (Stor.ai raised $21 million).

As we’ve also covered before, the big reason for this is the pandemic, which forced a lot of people to shift from in-person shopping to more contactless online grocery shopping. And with online grocery sales projected to reach $250 billion by 2025, I’m sure we’ll be covering a lot more announcements over the rest of this year.

One aspect worth noting is Fridge No More’s name. Obviously its hyperbole, but if these types of super-fast grocery services catch on, how will they change grocery shopping (at least in dense urban areas where a one-mile delivery radius contains a ton of business). Will people stock up on less and just have speedy delivery on speed dial? Will they just make multiple orders throughout the day if they forgot or suddenly need something?

More New Yorkers will find out soon enough as Fridge No More will use its new funding to scale up operations in that city, before moving into more locations on the East Coast.

Rosie Raises $10M Series A for its Local Grocer E-Commerce Platform

Rosie, which provides an online marketplace for local grocery stores, announced today that it has raised a $10 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by Avenue Growth Partners and brings the total amount raised by Rosie to nearly $12 million.

Founded in 2012 and based in Ithaca, NY, Rosie is an e-commerce platform that allows smaller and independent grocers to sell their wares digitally. Users download the Rosie app and select from local grocery stores available in their area. Customers shop for groceries as they would through any such app and schedule a time for either pickup or delivery (this option seems dependent on the retailer).

According to the press announcement, Rosie works with “hundreds” of retailers across the country. The company said it experienced a 900 percent increase in the number of stores signed up for the service during the pandemic.

Rosie is certainly raising money at the right time. Grocery e-commerce experienced massive growth last year thanks to the pandemic. With various levels of quarantines and lockdowns happening over the past 12 months, digital grocery shopping has become a new habit for many U.S. consumers. Online grocery is projected to be 21.5 percent of total grocery sales by 2025.

Because of this boost in e-commerce, we’ve seen all the big players make moves to grab more of your grocery dollars. Walmart, Amazon, Target, Albertsons and Kroger have all made major moves to expand shopping options, increase pickup and delivery, and speed up order fulfillment.

There are a number of startups, however, working to help make sure smaller grocers don’t get left behind. Similar to Rosie, Mercato is another platform that gives independent stores the ability to sell goods online. On the delivery side, Dumpling is building out a network of small business, independent grocery delivery services.

Rosie’s news comes on the heels of online grocer Good Eggs announcing a $100 million fundraise earlier this week. Given the growth in e-commerce, expect a steady stream of similar funding announcements throughout the year.

Cooler Screens Raises $80M for its In-Store Electronic Display Doors

Cooler Screens, announced today that it has raised more that $80 million in Series C funding (TechCrunch was first to report the news). This latest round from Verizon Ventures, Microsoft M12, Great Point Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank among others, and brings the total amount raised by Cooler Screens to more than $100 million.

The aptly named Cooler Screens replaces the plain glass doors traditionally used on coolers in stores with active electronic displays. These big, bright displays not only show the products and prices of what’s inside the cooler, but can also change to become dynamic ad spaces.

These ad spaces can highlight specific product or price promotions or literally act as a giant TV running a commercial. Cooler Screens also announced today that it’s technology is up and running in 50 Walgreens across the Chicago area, with plans to roll out to 2,500 Walgreens locations across the U.S.

In a recent phone interview, John Clavadetscher, President and CCO of Cooler Screens told me that when Cooler Screens hits that 2,500 mark, its screens will have a viewing audience roughly the same size as the Super Bowl every month. That’s a lotta eyeballs.

This knowledge of what you’re picking up can also create more upsell opportunities. Grabbing a six-pack of beer may prompt the screen to bring up an ad for frozen pizza, for example.

Cooler Screens isn’t the only company bringing more dynamic digital signage to stores. Outside the cooler section, AWM Smart Shelf installs digital displays on store shelves to create the same time of real-time advertising and upselling as well as power cashierless checkout.

With companies like Cooler Screens and AWM bringing their digital screens to stores, shopping for groceries is going to be a lot more like shopping online.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this article said that Cooler Screens was working with Grabango. While both technologies are being used by GetGo Market+Cafe, they are not working in unison. We regret the error.

Chinese Online Grocer, MissFresh, Adds $495M in Funding

MissFresh, a Chinese online grocer, announced yesterday that it has raised a $495 million funding round led by China International Capital Corp., with participation from new investors ICBC and the Abu Dhabi Capital Group, as well as existing investors Tencent, Goldman-Sachs ans Tiger Global. This brings the total amount raised by MissFresh to $1.4 billion.

That is a lot of money, even by today’s frothy standards, and reportedly gives MissFresh a pre-money valuation of $3 billion. For comparison, here in the U.S., grocery delivery startup Instacart has raised a total of $2.1 billion with a valuation of $13.7 billion.

This funding also highlights how online grocery shopping isn’t just big business in the U.S. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced lockdowns around the globe, spurring massive adoptions of online grocery shopping. In the U.S. online grocery shopping has experienced month after month of record customers and sales since the pandemic began, hitting $7.2 billion in June.

It’s worth pointing out MissFresh’s business model, which foresakes big, centralized warehouses in favor of smaller distribution centers. There are 1,500 of these smaller distribution hubs located closer to residential areas allowing for faster delivery and a a reduction in cold chain costs. We see this type of centralized versus distributed distribution models playing out between companies like Kroger, which is building large robotic fulfillment warehouses that cover large geographic areas, and Takeoff Technologies, which builds micro-fulfillment centers inside existing supermarkets, closer to where people actually live.

The question now is exactly how much consumer behavior around grocery shopping has permanently changed because of the pandemic. Will convenience and lingering fears over the virus continue to push grocery e-commerce even higher? MissFresh, at least, now has the money to find out.

Basket is like Waze for Local Grocery Price Comparison

In these uncertain economic times, it’s more important than ever to get the most for your money, especially when it comes to groceries. But comparison supermarket shopping isn’t exactly easy in the time of COVID. We’re supposed to be limiting our trips to the store, not adding more of them to see where we can get the best deal on eggs.

That’s where Basket comes in. It’s an app for iOS and Android currently in beta that lets users compare the prices of items across multiple grocery stores in their area before leaving the house.

So for instance, after downloading the app I enter my location and select from stores nearby (Walmart, Target, Trader Joe’s, etc.). I compile my usual grocery list, and once I’m done, Basket tells me how much my list costs at each store. That way I can know where I’m getting the best deal and go to that store.

Andy Ellwood, Co-Founder and President of Basket, told me by phone this week that Basket users save an average of 20 percent on their orders.

But Basket also figures that money isn’t the only thing that is valuable to people. In its results, Basket highlights both the cheapest and the nearest store options because you may not want to drive 10 miles out of your way to save five bucks.

The app gets its pricing information from people, called shoppers, who use the Basket app to upload pricing information on a variety of items across the store. Ellwood said that Basket has had around 50,000 of these shoppers over the life of the app, which launched a beta in 2018. On an ongoing basis, the app has a couple hundred to a couple thousand price shoppers per month.

Much like Waze, where Ellwood once worked, many of these shoppers do it just to be a part of the bargain hunting community (read: volunteers). But Basket does engage some “Commerce Moderators” who log a lot of prices, and rewards them with a variety of prize incentives to seek out and upload even more pricing information.

The Basket app is free to download and use, and the company has raised $10 million in funding so far. Basket makes its money by providing pricing data to manufacturers who want to better understand how much items cost at any given time in different areas.

One thing Basket does not have is an e-commerce tie-in. So once you’ve assembled your grocery list, you can’t buy everything at a selected store through the app. You still have to go out and into the store to actually grocery shop. Ellwood said this is type of integration with delivery or curbside pickup is on the Basket roadmap.

Given how the pandemic has created record levels of online grocery shopping, Basket may want to fast-track that type of functionality. Granted, we don’t know how much of that record-setting traffic will become the new normal, but if Basket is supposed to help make my grocery shopping more cost-effective, it should be able to make my trip to the grocery store more efficient.

The Basket app will officially launch out of beta later this summer.

Survey: Spurred by COVID-19, Online Grocery to Grow by 40 Percent in 2020, Hit $38B in Sales

It seems obvious that mandated sheltering in place because of a global pandemic has been a big driver of online grocery sales. But thanks to a new survey from Coresight Research, we now have some numbers to back that obvious assertion up, and show how big grocery e-commerce is getting.

In its US Online Grocery Survey 2020 (subscription required), Coresight predicted that the online grocery sector will grow by roughly 40 percent this year. The report states “That would equate to almost $38 billion of online food and beverage sales in 2020, or around 3.5% of the total market.” That’s up from 2.6 percent in 2019.

As you can probably guess, the coronavirus has spurred this surge in e-commerce. Coresight’s survey found that 49 percent of respondents said they started buying or were buying more groceries online because of the outbreak. It should be noted that this survey was conducted in mid-March, relatively early on in the mandated shelter in place orders. Those numbers may have actually gone up in April as the virus continued to spread.

In addition to more people buying groceries online, people are buying more types of items (produce, meat, alcohol) online. Coresight found that people are buying across an average of five different grocery categories online, up from 4.4 categories last year. Coresight says this indicates people aren’t just buying one-offs, but doing full-basket shopping online.

And finally, it looks as though demand for online commerce could remain strong over the next year. Coresight found that while 52 percent of respondents said that they had bought online groceries in the past 12 months, 62.5 percent expect to do so in the next twelve months.

Coresight’s numbers add to a growing body of market research that illustrate just how online grocery shopping has accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this month, Brick Meets Click reported that grocery e-commerce sales hit $5.3 billion in April. NPD Group found that third-party grocery delivery sales jumped nearly 300 percent in April alone. And last month, a C+R Research study found that 60 percent of US shoppers were “fearful” of physically going into the grocery store.

Grocery stores have been considered essential since the start of this pandemic, so they have remained open the entire time (thank you, grocery store workers!). But even though some states are relaxing their stay at home restrictions, grocery stores are implementing new measures to help curb the spread of the virus. Going forward, grocery shopping isn’t going to be what it was just a few months ago. Plexiglass shields at checkout, fewer people in the stores, masks worn by employees and customers. The in-store experience may just make shopping at home online more attractive.

Survey: 60 Percent of US Shoppers “Fearful” of Shopping Inside Grocery Stores

If coronavirus has you a little nervous about buying your food at the actual supermarket, you’re not alone. Results of a new survey from C+R Research shows that 60 percent of American shoppers are “now fearful” to shop at grocery stores, with 73 percent saying they are shopping less at physical stores.

Not surprisingly, C+R’s survey also found that grocery delivery has shot up 3.5x during the pandemic. Whereas consumers used to take an average of 2.3 weekly trips to the grocery store before the COVID-19 outbreak, they now average 1 trip a week.

While we’ve seen previous studies on the surge in online shopping, C+R’s survey highlights the emotional reactions people are having. In addition to being fearful of grocery stores, C+R found that 60 percent of respondents feel a sense of panic or anxiety when shopping, and 45 percent disinfect groceries when they get home.

This is actually completely understandable. Whereas grocery shopping used to be somewhere between fun and banal, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed all that. Aside from forced sheltering in place limiting our non-essential movements, the coronavirus grocery store is a far cry from what is was just a few months ago. Salad and hot bars are removed, workers and shoppers wear masks and gloves and there are plexiglass shields up around cashiers. This dystopian aesthetic, combined with a legitimate fear of catching a deadly virus, should cause a certain amount of fear.

The C+R survey reached 2,012 consumers from March 27 to March 28, 2020 via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. As the pandemic continued domestically throughout the month of April, the question now is how deeply embedded have these fears become and will there be a new normal for grocery shopping? The virus may recede, but how long will its effects last on the way we interact with other people in public? If fear of supermarkets is making online grocery shopping the new normal, perhaps more grocery stores should go dark and just act as fulfillment centers for e-commerce.

People will always need to shop for food, so I’d be curious to see C+R follow up this study on a regular basis to check-in on how people continue to cope with the ever-changing world.

Thank You, Walmart and Safeway, for Keeping Us Fed. Now Fix Your Confusing and Misleading E-Commerce

Grocery stores have been a bright spot in this otherwise dark time of global pandemic. Store workers are braving an on-edge public and risking infection to stock shelves or come out to our homes to deliver groceries. I appreciate and thank them for all their hard work.

So it’s not on the front lines where grocery stores have an issue right now. Instead, it’s on the back end, in the way big grocery retailers manage and communicate about e-commerce orders, where the problems seem to be happening.

Like millions of others, my family has been self-isolating for a couple of weeks, which means more grocery shopping online. I’ve used Safeway for delivery and Walmart for curbside pickup. Both have problems with the way they relay information about out-of-stock items.

Before going off on too much of a rant, I should note that I’m extremely lucky. My wife and I are still employed, we are sufficiently stocked with food, and if need be, we can easily and safely go to an actual grocery store. But there are a lot of people in worse off situations, and those people need a consistent and reliable method for ordering groceries from home.

I also understand that we are in unprecedented times, and as such, people are stocking up/hoarding, so some items are just aren’t available. I have yet to find toilet paper anywhere online, and evidently everyone is baking loaves of sourdough, so there’s a run on flour.

The problems I’ve encountered with Safeway and Walmart is that those platforms accept and process my online order, leading me to believe all items are in stock and that I’ll get everything I need/want. Then, literally a couple hours before the scheduled pickup or delivery time, I get notifications telling me some items are out of stock and I won’t receive them.

In the case of the Safeway, it was a delivery order that had been placed a week and half prior. So during that time, I assumed my entire order would arrive and didn’t make any other plans to get groceries. Thankfully, the only things the store was out of were flour and yeast (to make bread, he admitted, sheepishly), and not more necessary staples like eggs or milk. But there was a gap of a week and a half in between the time I placed the order and the delivery date. At some point in there, Safeway should have communicated that items are out of stock so I could figure something else out.

The same thing happened with Walmart when I ordered food for curbside pickup. The system accepted my order the day before, leading me to believe everything was a-okay! Then the next day, shortly before I drove to the store for pickup I got an email from Walmart that basically said, “Just kidding! We’re out of a bunch of stuff you ordered.” Some of the items, like toilet paper, I kinda figured might disappear, but there were also things like fruits and vegetables in there that suddenly couldn’t be fulfilled. This was more baffling because Walmart is a logistics and supply chain monster. Why, then, was the online ordering so far off from reality in the 24-hour period between when I placed my order and when I picked it up?

Again, the reason for this whole rant is that as we are told to shelter in place and avoid crowds (especially if you’re older), e-commerce will become increasingly important, depending on how long this outbreak lasts. It’s critical that people can feel confident in the online orders they place. I’m fortunate in that I have the time and means to compensate if something goes awry. But there are lots of people who don’t, and lots of people who can’t go into the store because they have young kids, or are sick who will rely on online grocery shopping. If it’s too difficult to align store inventory with demand at a store, then retailers should improve and clarify messaging around orders so that people understand that what they receive may change, and if it does, give them ample time to either prepare for the outage or make substitutions.

For the most part, online grocery shopping is great! And I really do appreciate all the work Walmart and Safeway are putting in quickly to make it happen. We just need to make some changes to make sure we aren’t worse off in these worst of times.

We’re spending every day tracking the impact of COVID-19 on the world of food. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our analysis and hear stories from the front lines.

My Elderly Parents Kept Going to the Grocery Store, So I Finally Instacarted for Them (and It was Great!)

Parents, especially elderly ones, can be stubborn. They have their routines and will stick to ’em by gum. For my septuagenarian parents, it’s going to their local grocery store, which they love (my dad actually had his 65th birthday party there).

But as the COVID-19 shroud continues to unfurl across the nation and people are being asked to stay at home, going to the grocery store, especially if you’re elderly (sorry, mom!), seems like not such a great idea anymore.

We’ve already seen some grocery stores create special, early hours where only seniors can shop, which is a good idea. But honestly, I would prefer if my parents didn’t have to go out in the world at all, at least for the next few weeks.

I’ve been telling them about online grocery shopping since this pandemic began, and how it could be an option for them to get food without leaving their house. They politely nodded and said that yes that was an option, and then went to the store anyway. My mother in particular is pretty tech-savvy, so the concept of getting groceries online wasn’t scary to her; I think it was more about their routines.

As this pandemic transmogrified a full-on international crisis, I upped the pressure on my parents to give up the grocery store. But they kept going. I don’t live near them (otherwise I’d shop for them), so finally yesterday I Instacarted for them. And it was fantastic.

I live in a rural area where Instacart isn’t available, so I hadn’t used the service yet. But after downloading the app, I was able to plug in my parents’ address, find their local store, and start shopping.

My Instacart Shopper was super helpful at finding product replacements.

My mom sent a list of items and I placed the order. While I was expecting deliveries to be delayed at least a few days, surprisingly there was a same-day window. Aces!

What I appreciated was how my shopper, Julia, was communicative throughout the whole process. Understandably, a lot of what I ordered was out of stock, so she sent suggestions and photos of options (or lack thereof, almost all of the bread was gone). Finally, I left instructions for her to just drop off the groceries on my parents’ front porch (no touching!). Julia sent me a pic when the delivery was done and I FaceTimed my parents to let them know.

I’m deeply aware that we are asking more of gig workers and delivery people than ever before. In this case, Julia is literally helping keep my parents fed. Instacart has a pretty crappy track record when it comes to treating its workers well. Given that their shoppers are on the front lines of this pandemic, Instacart better damn well step up and do the right thing (all of the tip I left should have gone to Julia). It would also be cool if Instacart offered something similar to Chatt.us, wherein you could buy groceries for someone else in need (because with all the restaurant closures and job losses, there is going to be a lot of need).

I realize that many of you reading this are probably saying Duh, Chris, we know all about Instacart. Great! I’m sharing this story because in these strange times, we can re-think how we use our existing resources to help others. Anecdotally, I’ve heard from a bunch of friends who are struggling with their parents going out for groceries. If you are concerned for your elderly parents, and have the means and can use a tool like Instacart or Safeway online or Walmart for them, maybe consider it.

Will this experiment push my parents into online grocery shopping? I don’t know yet, they say they are stocked for a few weeks. But hopefully when I bring up Instacart again, they won’t just nod their head politely.

We’re spending every day tracking the impact of COVID-19 on the world of food. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our analysis and hear stories from the front lines.

For Swiftly, Cashierless Checkout is a Gateway to a Bigger CPG Relationship

One of the big trends of 2019 was the emergence of cashierless checkout companies — startups retrofitting existing grocers with the technology that allows shoppers to walk in, grab what they want and leave the store, getting automatically charged.

So it’s fitting that as the year winds down, we look at one more cashierless checkout company. Though unlike other players in the space, Swiftly‘s cashierless technology is merely a means to a much bigger end.

Swiftly’s cashierless solution isn’t exactly the type of “friction free” shopping its rivals like Trigo and Grabango are trying to create. To use Swiftly, you must download an app to your phone, use that app to scan an item’s barcode, and then interact with a human in a special checkout lane to confirm you aren’t stealing something. While that may be more complicated for the consumer to use, the lack of hardware installation does make it cheaper for retailers to adopt.

But Swiftly is more interested in what happens after you leave the store. In addition to integrating with a grocer’s POS system, Swiftly’s system is also tied into store’s loyalty program, managing any loyalty points accrued and applying them to purchases when available. Being integrated with the loyalty program means Swifty’s system has a shopper’s purchase history, with which Swiftly can use to suggest products, whether it’s because those items are on sale or because Swiftly’s algorithms think an item might be of interest.

But even that feature is more of a gateway to Swiftly’s much broader goal, which is to leverage a consumer’s relationship with a retailer to become a product discovery service for CPG companies.

In addition to recommending specific items for one-time purchases, Swiftly also suggests shoppers subscribe to specific products. Say you want a steady stream (pardon the pun) of Hawaiian Volcano Water delivered to your door each month. You can do that in the Swiftly app, but what Swiftly is actually doing is connecting you with Hawaiian Volcano Water directly. Hawaiian Volcano Water will drop ship directly to you, but it’s wrapped up in a box with your stores’s branding. Swiftly then, is maintaining the relationship between the consumer and their retailer, and creating a new, direct connection between the consumer and the CPG brand.

I visited Swiftly’s offices in Seattle this past week where Co-Founder and CTO Sean Turner explained that his company’s solution is way for retailers and brands to outmaneuver Amazon. It’s a way for CPGs to sell directly to consumers without having to build out their own sales infrastructure, and without having to cede control over to Amazon.

With Swiftly, a CPG brand can have a direct online relationship with the consumer through Swiftly’s app via the retail brand the consumer trusts, and that CPG doesn’t have to worry as much about being undercut by the retailer.

But Swiftly isn’t the only company that’s closing the gap between consumer and consumer packaged good company. Zippin recently announced a $12 million Series A round of funding led by Evolv Ventures, the venture arm of Kraft-Heinz. As I wrote previously:

As newsy as this fundraise is for Zippin, it’s also worth pointing out Evolv’s decision to lead the round. As noted, Evolv is the venture fund of Kraft Heinz, and it’s easy to see why that CPG giant might be interested in a technology like Zippin’s. The cameras and AI in a cashierless store environment give Kraft Heinz insights closer to the consumer, with the ability to analyze what products are picked up, which ones are put back, and which products are skipped over entirely when people shop.

2019 was a year for funding and public deployments for cashierless checkout startups. Swiftly itself announced a $15.6 million seed round this past September. Look for 2020 to be a year where cashierless checkout doesn’t go full mainstream, but rather, continues a steady pace of adoption with different retailers.

For its part, Swiftly already has one live retail partnership with Zion Market, which has locations in Southern California, Duluth, GA, and Lewisville, TX. Turner wouldn’t get into specifics about revenue models for his company, but between facilitating online sales for retailers, developing direct consumer connections for CPG companies, and providing actionable data to both, Swiftly is setting itself up as a company to definitely checkout in 2020.