Vending

AiFi teams with Wundermart on unattended stores

Image courtesy of AiFi.

February 22, 2021

AiFi, a provider frictionless autonomous shopping experiences powered by artificial intelligence, has teamed with Wundermart, a company that creates unmanned, data-driven retail marketplaces, to roll out 20 autonomous convenience stores in Q1 of 2021, according to a press release.

Wundermart will implement AiFi's computer vision technology into existing stores in Europe to enhance the shopping experience, remove friction at checkout, improve inventory management and deliver consumer insights. The computer vision technology will also be implemented in Wunderware, the plug and play SaaS package for autonomous retail, available to all existing retailers and formula owners. In the future, Wundermart and Wunderware plan to open more than 1,000 locations equipped with AiFi's technology.

"Our computer vision technology enhances Wundermart's convenient in-store experience and enables shoppers to continue on with their everyday lives in a safe and efficient manner," Steve Gu, co-founder and CEO of AiFi, said in the release.

AiFi's camera-only solution offers a shopping experience while delivering product recognition, shopper tracking and receipt accuracy. Wundermart will implement AiFi's OASIS to track automatic shop replenishments from suppliers, which will enhance performance and data integrity. AiFi's OASIS is trained to recognize tens of thousands of SKUs with pinpoint accuracy including shelved products of any size and food that is warm, frozen, or fresh, as well as dispensed drinks and more.

Currently, Wundermart customers enter a store, grab their desired items, scan each item, and make their payment at the self-checkout kiosk. Once AiFi's autonomous shopping model is deployed at the stores, customers can choose to either scan their store app or credit card at the kiosk before or after grabbing their desired items. Customers can then walk out of the store without needing to scan each individual item, as AiFi's computer vision technology allows for a more efficient and frictionless shopping experience.

"AiFi's technology helps us create a delightful, convenient and safe shopping experience for our shoppers. They can simply scan in, select what items they want to purchase, and walk out," Laurens de Kleine, co-founder of Wundermart, said in the release. "The system will also be used to improve accuracy of automated restocking, one of the many functions in our total solution for autonomous retail."

This data is processed inside each store, and AiFi's technology does not use facial recognition or collect biometric data, which ensures customer privacy.

Wundermart's stores vary between 50 to 200 square feet on average and are located in areas such as hotels, offices and transportation hubs. AiFi and Wundermart plan to announce additional store implementations later this year.