Retail: Zippin following in the Footsteps of Amazon Go

A second Amazon Go location was opened in Seattle recently, and a new entrant, Zippin, leads the way in San Francisco with a similar approach. This American start-up introduced a next-generation cashierless concept store intended to attract merchants also interested in seamless checkout processes.

This San Francisco-based start-up focuses on visual recognition technologies. Their full-automated prototype store, with overhead cameras to track the customers as they shop; and smart shelf sensors avoid that they should have to scan the products they want to buy.

The customer has to download an app (from Google Play or Apple App Store) and runs through the identification process when entering the store via scanning a QR Code. Data retrieved from the overhead cameras and sensors are combined to spot the articles he chooses and add them to his virtual shopping cart. When walking out, this shopping cart is automatically charged using the app.

For now, Zippin’s concept store is only accessible upon invite but could officially open mid-September 2018 for all customers in San Francisco.

Comments – Cashierless stores: a revolution underway

37 billion: the overall number of hours spent waiting in line each year by US consumers. And, of course, a significant amount of time is spent waiting at checkout in store. Proper management of these waiting lines is critical to ensuring customers’ satisfaction. Zippin relies on AI techs, Machine Learning and smart sensors to improve customer experience and enter the market for cashierless checkout in un-staffed stores.

Zippin does not aim to rollout several stores, but would rather stress their ability to provide the required technology to the retail industry. This approach may end up challenging Amazon Go Just Walk Out technology, as it is also being implemented with a partner retailer, Hyundai Department Store.

Roughly $10 billion in payments have been processed through cashierless systems in 2017. This means that strategic partnerships with retailers are likely to open up significant business potential. Zippin isn’t the first start-up crafting technologies to help retailers keep up with Amazon Go. Standard Cognition, Aipoly, or Trigo Vision also designed similar solutions. This Californian start-up does, however, stand out since their technology seems efficient in crowded locations, too, and weight sensors are also implemented.