With the lockdown and coronavirus pandemic still everywhere, people are finding comfort in technology and The Shoprite Group is scaling quickly to utilize the moment by launching a concept store.
 |
| Checkers Rush image - techcentral.co.za |
The Shoprite Group on Wednesday announced the launch of Checkers Rush, a pilot Artificial Intelligence-powered store that has no cashiers or checkout counters in Cape Town, South Africa.
Neil Schreuder, Shoprite’s Group Chief Strategy Officer, in an interview with TechCentral acknowledged that Checkers Rush is similar to Amazon Go — Amazon.com’s cashierless stores in the US and the UK.
Checkers Rush promises an “automated, cashless ‘no queues, no checkout, no waiting’ experience”.
Using advanced artificial intelligence camera technology to identify the products being taken off the shelves, Checkers Rush bills users’ bank cards upon exit. That means customers enter the store, pick up the goods they want to buy, and walk out without needing to swipe a card.
At Shoprite, the concept store is the brainchild of Shoprite Group’s new division, ShopriteX, which uses data science to “enhance customer experiences”. The division was also responsible for the popular Sixty60 online shopping app, which delivers products ordered within 60 minutes.
Schreuder also mentioned it has 20 million South Africans swiping their cards at different Shoprite locations at the rate of 450 swipes per second. All this activity means the retail giant has almost a petabyte (1 million gigabytes) of data to work with.
The pilot store which has only 40 products is not open to the public as Shoprite is currently testing the new innovation with its employees for now but may be rolled out wider if the 'concept store' proves successful.
Thinking sustainability, how successful is this idea especially in Africa looking at the insecurity factors in some areas ?
No comments
Post a Comment