New High Tech Way To Food Shop
GetGo - New Technology Experiment at Tesco in London
Mobile Apps & Seamless Checkouts - Big New Grocery Trend
Tesco, the United Kingdom's largest supermarket chain, is testing a scan-less - just walk in and walk out - grocery payment system that is based on a mobile app. The trial is called Tesco GetGo. To buy groceries without scanning the items or going through the checkout, the shopper, when they enter the store, needs to download the Tesco mobile app. All items that the shopper selects are tracked and charged to the shopper's Tesco account. The transaction is finalized on a QR code that is scanned by the customer's phone. Tesco says a receipt is provided to the customer within minutes. This time-savings, no customer lines, seamless paying method appears to be a mega-trend for grocery shopping as big retailers are latching onto it, including retailing giant Amazon.
New Way to Shop With Technology
Tesco has tested this new technology with its employees using it in their stores and it proved to be very successful. Cameras and weigh sensors track customers throughout the store, compiling every item that they select before checking out. The company says it does not use facial recognition as part of the process. What they do use as an identifier is an AI based skeletal rendering of the customer. The use of seamless tracking systems is an emerging trend in shopping. In a strategic move, Tesco is using its technology to compete against Amazon Fresh which is now using its own seamless checkout system in half a dozen of its stores in London and 18 in the US.
Investors
The new seamless checkout technology systems are potentially a big avenue of growth as they provide shoppers convenience and significant time savings. The market for them is global. Tesco's AI technology was developed in partnership with the specialist tech firm Trigo, which is led by two scientists who previously worked for the Israeli defense forces. Another UK grocery chain Morrisons is working with tech firm Aifi on a seamless checkout system that uses only cameras to track what shoppers are selecting to buy.
Amazon Is Leading the Way
Amazon has been a leader in this new retail technology. Amazon's proprietary checkout-free tech at Amazon Fresh, and also at other Amazon entities like Whole Foods, is now being sold to third party retailers. Amazon's tech intensive system relies on computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning technology to track items a shopper is selecting as they move through the store. In some stores, Amazon uses a customer thumb scan, which it stores in the cloud, to identify customers as they enter an Amazon store and seamlessly finalizes their payment. This is the future of everyday shopping: no lines, get and go selections and purchases enabled by new tech.
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