Dollar General Tries Scan and Go

Retail continues the move to automating labor-intense retail process.  What other interactions will be enabled?

Dollar General pilots scan & go tech    by Tom Ryan in Retailwire
Dollar General has become the latest retailer and the first dollar store to introduce a scan & go app.

Being piloted at 10 Nashville-area stores and rolling out to 100 more in the second quarter, DG Go! enables shoppers to scan items as they shop and then use a self-checkout to pay. While saving shoppers time by allowing them to avoid waiting in a cashier-manned checkout line, the app also provides a running total of what shoppers have in their baskets.  ... ." 

Yet Another Way to Check out

Wal-Mart tests another way to checkout.   Makes sense in Garden where there can be lots of seasonal traffic tie ups.  Seen it in other Retail.

Walmart associates check out customers on the floor in pilot program by Tom Ryan in 

Walmart is testing a program, “Check Out With Me,” that enables associates to check out customers in the lawn & garden sections at more than 350 U.S. stores.

Outfitted with cellular devices and Bluetooth printers, associates can ring up customers and provide a receipt on the spot. Walmart associates scan customers’ items with the Check Out With Me mobile device, swipe their credit cards and provide them with receipts — printed and electronic options are available.

Walmart writes on its blog, “Customers no longer need to venture inside the physical store to pay for items like mulch, soil and flowers, saving them valuable time.”  ... " 

Wal-Mart Mobile Checkout

This could get lots of people trained in the idea of mobile checkout, beyond just Wal-Mart.  Check out the full article

Walmart’s mobile checkout trial is a major advance  By Evan Schuman, Contributing Columnist, Computerworld

In-aisle checkout gets a big push from the world’s largest retailer.   When Walmart rolled out its mobile Check Out with Me program last week, it made a meaningful first step toward the retail nirvana of full in-aisle mobile checkout.  ... " 

Going Cashier-Free

Recall we reported here a test of BlueEyes technology to test vision based interaction with product in physical retail in our store laboratory.  Our survey showed people liked the idea, once it was fully integrated.  Now a more generalized version has emerged for 'any store'.    Cost and maintenance required?  Issue with implied surveillance?

Will all retailers soon go cashier-less?     by Tom Ryan in Retailwire

After reportedly five years in development, the first Amazon Go opened in January, raising speculation over the practicality and adoption rate in the industry of cashier-less stores. Last week, a start-up said it is getting ready to deliver the “first scalable checkout-free solution” suitable for mega-retailers and affordable for mom and pops.

Describing itself as a “computer vision technology,” AiFi’s founders previously worked for Google and Apple on projects like 3D Touch and Google Glass.

Using AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms, sensors and camera networks, AiFi’s checkout-free technology will track shoppers as they move through the store, recognize shoppers as individuals and secure payment through a companion app, much like the tech used at Amazon Go.  .... " 

Also in TechCrunch and Engadget

Wharton Podcast on Amazon Go

Will Amazon Go Capture the Holy Grail of Retail?

Amazon’s new cashier-less convenience store aims to answer one of retail’s thorniest challenges: Understanding why shoppers do what they do, and leveraging that knowledge into increasing sales.

Wharton's Barbara Kahn and Emory's Ryan Hamilton discuss the Amazon Go convenience store.

Even before it opened, Amazon Go began drawing deep skepticism over whether it could possibly work. Would Amazon be able to create a convenience store in which shoppers gathered their goods and walked out the door having been automatically charged for their purchases? The technology behind it — like driverless cars — has captured the public’s imagination. A reporter from The New York Times staged a shoplifting heist with a four-pack of vanilla soda around the time the store opened in Seattle last month, and failed. The Amazon Go technology worked, and he got charged for the soda. Others have, though, managed to outsmart the system.

But as shoppers gauge the gee-whiz aspects of the store and convenience of not having to wait in line, Amazon is sharply focused on the shopper. The company is always watching. More than 100 cameras in the 1,800-square-foot store are capturing shoppers’ every move to total up the purchase, but that’s just the start.

Amazon isn’t saying what its plans are for Amazon Go — whether the company will roll out dozens more soon, or exactly how the store serves a greater corporate strategy. But many say that by recording shopper behavior at such a detailed level and being able to analyze it, Amazon is hot on the trail of the Holy Grail of retail: really understanding why shoppers do what they do .... "

Barriers to Smartphone Checkout

A major them in our retail tech innovation center.

How steep are the barriers to smartphone checkout?

"To improve conversion retailers should improve their UX but also create mobile specific incentives that will make shoppers buy on mobile."  Nir Manor,  Retail-Tech Specialist Advisor
by Tom Ryan in Retailwire

While mobile has certainly expanded exponentially as a purchase influencer, consumers remain reluctant on pulling the trigger to make actual purchases. A university study explores a number of reasons why.

Many of the concerns from consumers were found to relate to screen size, including not being able to see the full picture on a mobile app, missing out on special offers or overlooking hidden costs, according to researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA). Privacy and security concerns can also motivate people to put items into their shopping baskets, but then quit without paying.

Analysis of 2016-2017 online shopping data from consumers in Taiwan and the U.S. similarly found that shoppers are much more likely to use mobile apps as a way of researching and organizing goods rather than as a purchasing tool, which also contributes to checkout hesitation. .... "

Amazon Go Opening to Public

Don't plan to get to this anytime soon, but continue to follow automatic sensing and payment systems in detail here.   Would like to better understand the behavioral details of the interaction.  An outcome of our lab's experiments with the idea.

Amazon’s Checkout-Free Grocery Store Is Opening to the Public
At Amazon Go, you grab your milk and leave. It might take some getting used to.   by Rachel Metz  in Technology Review,
  
In the shadow of Amazon’s offices in downtown Seattle, people enter a tiny grocery store, take whatever they want, and then walk out. And nobody runs after them screaming.

This is what it’s like to shop at Amazon Go, the online retail giant’s vision for the future of brick-and-mortar stores. There are no checkout clerks, or even checkout stands. Instead, a smartphone app, hundreds of regular and infrared cameras on the ceiling (black on black, so they blend in), computer-vision algorithms, and machine learning work together to figure out what you’re picking up and charge you for it on a credit card connected to your Amazon account.  ... " 

Aipoly for Autonomous Market Shopping

This will be shown at this week's CES conference in Las Vegas:

Fully Autonomous  Markets

200,000 new small businesses are born every day around the world. We help bring their products on shelves near you using AI, turning any space into a fully working market ... 

No queues, no checkout.

Autonomous Store Platform   Give a brain to your business

Unprecedented Instantaneous DataMarket owners and suppliers can view the movement of  products in real time, gaining instant notifications on stock-outs, sales, and rich analytics obtainable nowhere else.... 

Aipoly's AI can track items on shelves at intervals of a few milliseconds, making suggestions for ideal layouts, allowing fast A/B testing, producing heat maps, and a lot more .... 

No cards, no cash, no checkoutThe Autonomous Store Platform allows you to pick up items, walk away, and charges you upon exit. Download the Aipoly app to set up an account, and you will gain checkoutless access to all Autonomous Markets worldwide. You will get a detailed receipt as soon as you exit the market's door or perimeter.  ....  " 

See Also, the AI Vision App  (More as I get to test it)  Implements shelf recognition and selection.

Amazon Go and the Problem of Checkout

Remember using this as a scenario at our innovation centers.  What if a shopper could just walk out, setting up a frictionless way to shop?  Does it bring more shoppers in?   In an era when we tested RFID tagging.   What are the technical issues today?

Amazon's automated convenience stores edge closer to public debut
The company has worked out some of Amazon Go's major technical issues.
By Mallory Locklear, @mallorylocklear

Last year, Amazon opened its first convenience store embedded with its "just walk out technology." Located in Seattle, the Amazon Go store, which lets shoppers walk in, load up on the items they want and walk out without having to pay for the items in a checkout line, has been testing its technology with Amazon employees. Now, as Bloomberg reports, the company has worked through some of the hangups with the technology and is making moves towards opening its store and others to the public. ... " 

Wal-Mart and in Aisle Checkout

Continue to follow the idea of in-aisle checkout, see my tag below.

Walmart deploying tech that lets in-store shoppers check out — on their own    By Deena M. Amano-MCCoy

Walmart is expanding the deployment of its Scan & Go mobile app, which is being tested in approximately 12 stores across Northwest Arkansas, Florida, Texas and Georgia. The chain is now rolling out the app for use in at least 10 additional locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Nashville markets. The stores will offer the solution by the end of the month, said Walmart spokesman Justin Rushing in an interview with Chain Store Age. .... " 

AmazonGo and the Retail Workforce

While most do not expect Amazon to start building many retail locations, the AmazonGo idea is at least an experiment in the feasibility of near frictionless physical checkout.  Even less friction than online checkout.  So can other major retailers be far behind in doing this?   We experimented with many retail chkecout technologies and consumer reactions.  ReadWrite provides a good overview of retailed issues in the retail work force:

Is Amazon Go a sign of the downfall of a retail workforce?   by Ryan Matthew Pierson

Microsoft, P&G Supported Skip App in Test

Mentioned here previously, the Skip in aisle checkoutApp is now in test.   Note the connection to the Azure analytics platform which leverages data gathering from shopper behavior.  See also Krogers test in this area.   We tested  the concept for years.

" ...  A grocer in Scranton, Pennsylvania is about to dramatically change the way his customers shop.

By the end of the year, Gerrity's Supermarkets' nine stores will be using new checkout technology, technology that could someday replace its checkstands.

With an app called Skip – as in "skip the line" – shoppers will be able to scan items as they shop, placing them in their bag as they go. They can enter their payment information (like a card number) into the app and pay for their items before they leave, all on their phone. ... " 

For details see Goskip.com

Checkout in the Aisle

Mashable writes:   An old idea, back again.  Have followed it and related tests for years. How relevant will it be in an online world?  Now from Diebold.

Skip: More In Aisle Checkout

One of the holy grails of retail is to much decrease or even eliminate the checkout experience .  It would cut labor needs, and also eliminate one of the most common complaints of shoppers, the long checkout line. We examined a number of methods that used kiosks or checkout devices loaned to the shopper.  But better yet, why couldn't they use their own smart phones to scan items?   Minimizes retailer cost.    At last week's Brandery  event we were pitched another such approach called Skip.  http://GoSkip.com   A partnership with Microsoft and P&G was stated.   " ... A mobile POS integration system giving shoppers the power to scan, pay and skip the line -- all from the convenience of their smartphones ... " .   Ideas were good.  Look forward to seeing a live demo.

Cincinnati Startup Community Competes

Participated in a day for the Cincinnati startup community yesterday, put on by Centrifuse and The Brandery.  Represented GMDC in 'speed dating' sessions for a dozen startups in the retail and manufacturing spaces.  Some quite interesting plays  including in aisle checkout, product data asset management and Household Loyalty.    More in Cincinnati Enquirer.

Personalizing Pricing in Store

Much talked for loyalty, or online.  Beyond that in Brick and Mortar? We built some test models for experimentation for engagement interaction.  How does this change if pricing and checkout moves to the aisle?

" ... According to the author, grocers probably won't deploy personalized pricing at the point-of-sale for every item to each customer any time soon. But the technology is there and the strategy is in practice — in fact it pretty much copies the targeted-offer tactic that Amazon.com has made an art of delivering. Do you see digital coupons and online ordering paving the way to more personalized pricing options for retailers?  ... " 

State of Self Checkout

In Progressive Grocer: It is a journey that has been progressing for more than 15 years.   Still controversial the article says. Some retailers have removed the systems.  Was an early look at how the average person interacted directly with a complex retail system.  Looked at a half dozen systems as they progressed. After that, and the emergence of smartphones,  came the concept of consumers scanning items in the aisle to speed the process.  Completely automating the checkout system, with the aid of embedded RFID chips, was also examined.  The work continues.

Checking out in the Aisle at Sainsbury

An approach we examined over the years in many forms.  In aisle checkout.  Recently took a close-up look at how Kroger was testing this idea with a handheld device.  The Sainsbury test will also include store item location and a shopping list.

In Gizmag: 
" ... No-one likes spending any longer at the supermarket than they have to. Whilst self-service checkouts may have sped things up a touch, one UK supermarket is now set to trial doing away with checkouts altogether. The new Sainsbury's app lets users scan items at the shelf and pay via their smartphone.   .. "

Kroger Scan, Bag and Go

Got a chance today to use the Kroger in-aisle checkout method at the Middletown,  Ohio Kroger today.   This was a concept we tested with many alternatives in the innovation center and in lab stores. Nicely done example here.

You pick up a small hand scanning device just inside the entrance.  A  sign billed it as being in test.  Only about half of maybe twenty devices were being used today.   This could be replaced with an App to simplify the process.  You scan your loyalty card barcode to identify yourself.   Then you are off and scanning.   Its easy to learn, tried the always problematic produce identification and weigh in, but as long as you followed the instructions it went fine. All barcode tagged items were identified first time.

You can add and remove items. Get total cost.  No way to upload a shopping list, which would be useful. Also no way I saw to see your whole basket at once.  A store item locator would be useful as well.  These additional features could be integrated into an App on the customers smartphone.  No obvious place to place your device when shopping,  so it takes up one hand.  Saw this solved with a handle-holster in some experiments. Did not check how this handled coupons.  No way to send any messages back to the shopper, an obvious next step.

It was a little unclear to find where to check out, but as expected this was being handled next to the other self checkout.  It works similarly to self checkout, payment is gathered by  a payment system or employee.  Any ID checks needed are signaled as well.  No wait at all occurred on a relatively busy Saturday afternoon. Overall a good experience that I would use again.

Shopping Image Recognition by Amazon: Flow

Have spent some time on the process of shopping using in-aisle using scanning methods.  Finally got a chance to look at this method more closely using an IOS installed Amazon App: Flow.  The approach, a little mysteriously, is called Flow.  I imagine implying how it could improve the flow of the in-store shopping experience.  Here is Amazon's description.  The camera is used as a means of reading symbol codes and images.   See my previous notes on this.

I am working with a used book selling operation, and its useful to be able to quickly scan and recognize inventory.  Some time ago the process moved to scanning book barcodes and getting meta information from the Amazon database.

This test went against a number of books, variously oriented, without searching for a barcode first.   The system works quite well, faster than a barcode read.  Reading from the spine side of a book was only sometimes successful.

Overall well done, can improve interaction in store and warehouse.  Woould be better yet if it could read spine directed books.   We were also able to identify several items in a single view,  but that is not currently an operational need.