Shops without cash desks, cash and staff: how the future of trade works

Once, only science fiction writers told about the future, in which you can pay for goods with a credit card (or its futuristic counterpart), and today various methods of contactless payment have become commonplace. Self-service cash desks appeared in many stores, but they still need people. The store employees are forced to help customers, confirm the age when buying alcohol, break through goods without bar codes. Also, the store does not do without security guards.

Sometimes it is easier and more convenient to put all the goods on tape and wait until the cashier himself scans, calculates the cost and packs the goods ... Can we assume that new technologies somehow speed up the shopping process? Numerous experiments around the world provide an answer to this question.

What will replace cashiers

Most self-service cash desks force the buyer to take over the functions of the seller - somehow fix purchases and transfer money. Many people pay with a smartphone, but in this case you still need to carry the device with you and also scan the goods at the checkout in some way.

Obviously, the shopping process will speed up the scenario in which no devices are required for payment, and the person simply picks up the goods (preferably in the form prepared for carrying) and leaves with them.

Wheelys has opened a store in China that does not even have a self-service cash desk. It is enough to install a mobile application on your smartphone, enter your bank card details, and then make purchases.

The store “recognizes” you with the help of data received from a smartphone - it will open the door and allow you to pick up goods. Just scan the barcodes using the application. The withdrawal of money from the account will occur automatically.

Protection against theft provides a video surveillance system. Smart cameras keep track of which items you take from the shelves. The system, checking the availability of your card, in any case will not allow you to escape from punishment. Even if there is no money on the card, the cameras will record your face, and the recording will be transferred to the police.



Similarly, the world's most famous cashless store, Amazon Go, operates. Access to the store also opens via the application - just show the unique QR code. Further, every step of the buyer watched the camera. As soon as you take the goods from the shelf, a new position will be added to your virtual receipt. If the goods are returned to the place, the store system will recount the check.

After the buyer has chosen the goods he needs, he can immediately leave - the invoice will be issued through an Amazon account, and the client will receive a receipt for payment. And he can pay this bill via smartphone.

Safety system

It’s not to say that the introduction of automated sales systems for retail chains goes without any problems. In 2016, the first store closed in Sweden, for purchases in which it was enough to install the application in a smartphone.

A small sales area of ​​the store was controlled by 6 cameras. However, these cameras controlled only areas with "traditional problems" - the store owner expected the thief to start breaking through the front door. To get to the store, you had to scan a fingerprint on a smartphone.

Ironically, the most ordinary customers began to commit thefts from the store.

They not only steal from the store regularly (and this is in a city with a population of 5,000). The buyers themselves simply forgot to pay the bill, which automatically came to them once a month. The store owner said that the amount of unpaid goods amounted to 40 thousand Swedish crowns, and stolen goods worth more than 10 thousand crowns.

Is it possible to declare the full security of the stores of the future, or will a guard on duty always be needed? New experiments show that it is enough to properly configure the security system.



Standard Cognition has opened a store in which it is enough just to put the goods in the basket and go to the computer. The system automatically scans goods and displays a shopping list.

There are cameras throughout the store that monitor goods and customers. Even if someone hides the goods under clothes, the camera will mark this moment and still add the purchase to the total bill. Already, the system works with 98% accuracy.



In the Chinese startup, BingoBox went even further, and in addition to product recognition, they introduced customer face recognition technology. You can pay for the purchase with a fingerprint in the application WeChat Pay or Alipay.

Prospects: new types of payment

Self-service cash registers are slowly but surely winning the market, but interesting solutions do not come from stores. Improved banking payment systems. We can already pay by phone or smart watches. Sberbank oversees the project, which allows schoolchildren to pay for lunch using biometric data. It is enough to bring the palm to the terminal screen and the money for lunch will be written off from the account, which parents can control and replenish. It would be very convenient to pay with your hand for goods in the store - such a “wallet” is extremely difficult to lose or forget at home.



You can pay for purchases, in principle, with any “smart” item - watches, bracelets, rings. In the latter case, look at the implementation of the project Token . The “smart” ring allows you to pay for purchases, log in to Internet services, open doors, start a car, etc. Token security is provided by two-level protection - the ring reads a fingerprint, and a special optical sensor always checks whether the device is worn on the owner's hand.



In the meantime, in Russia they did not just suggest excluding the cashier from the process of buying.

The ARC 70 robotic cash register is able to fully replace a person - the option is implemented specifically for those who lack live human communication. Robokassa supports interactive voice communication (finally, it will be possible to greet the cashier and wait for an answer), and also remembers and recognizes faces.

Cashier created in AlfaRobotics can save and analyze the purchase history of each client, make individual promotional offers to customers and even scare thieves with sound and light alarms.

Future in data

Shopping history is another interesting security tool. Suppose we have software that analyzes the video stream. The software determines that the buyer took something like a cupcake from the shelf. Next, the system checks the scales in the shelf (such scales are already introducing stores), and calculates that you took something weighing about as much as a cupcake. This “store” does not calm down, but it looks at your purchase history - it knows that you have a sweet tooth and often buy cupcakes. After analyzing all the data, the software decides that you have taken exactly the cupcake, and adds it to the shopping list.

A well-known Russian company VisionLabs with an accuracy of 99.9% recognizes the faces of buyers. The technology allows you to immediately separate new and regular customers. For those who are often in the store, the system will recommend suitable products, analyzing data on previous purchases.

In fact, even the most advanced stores without cash registers are not able to surprise. The true revolution lies in the other - we are waiting for a breakthrough in the collection and analysis of behavioral data of customers.

A few years ago, an invisible paradigm shift occurred in the advertising business. Search engines, online stores and social networks began to track every mouse movement, every click, every moment of the user on the Internet, in order to raise the level of awareness of customers about the best advertising offers.

Now we are waiting for a new stage of development of the advertising industry, when the system understands that you have spent three minutes studying canned goods in the grocery department. AI will know for sure how long you have been in the store, which departments you inspected and, of course, which ones you bought. With all this wealth of data, it will be much easier to build a world of genuine future stores.