Checkout-free technology is growing in popularity among food retailers looking to reduce friction for customers, and the pandemic is helping to amplify the trend by highlighting the advantages of letting shoppers exit stores quickly.
Standard’s installation at the University of Houston’s store, known as Market Next, does not let people pay for purchases other than with the camera-based system. The university sees the fully contactless approach to retail as helpful to keeping the coronavirus from spreading among students and said it plans to add Standard’s technology to additional campus retail facilities during the coming year.
Like its competitors, Standard uses a combination of cameras and artificial intelligence to track items as shoppers remove them from store shelves and charge the goods to a preset payment method as they leave. The company, which operates its own checkout-free store in San Francisco, said it plans to work with Chartwells to bring the technology to stores beyond the University of Houston.
Source: Retail Dive