The pilot project in Rema will save customers from queuing. – I have another chain in the same building as I live in, but I’d rather go here, says Sam Kong as he scans the sweet potatoes under the camera.
Published: 30/04/2024 05:41
At the Rema 1000 store on Ensjø, technological innovations are tested.
We are talking about AI-controlled scales
We are talking about mobile scanning in the app, where you beep the goods yourself.
Then you pay digitally without going to a till. Then it’s fast-track hatch out of the shop.
10 percent of the customers in the pilot stores have adopted Rema’s new shopping solution. Sam Kong is among them. He is delighted when Aftenposten follows him through the store at Ensjø in Oslo.
– Especially when there are a lot of people. Then I can just cruise through fasttrack with the goods under the pram, Kong says smiling.
He is a typical pilot customer for Rema: Father of small children.
Parents of young children
Most customers are between 30 and 50 years old, but the main group are parents of young children.
The group has almost thrown itself into Rema 1000’s pilot project.
Currently, there are 19 stores that are involved. Customers can scan the goods with their mobile while walking through the store. Then the customers put the goods straight into the shopping bag and when they have paid in the app, they go straight past the tills and out.
– The pilot will run for another couple of months, then we will evaluate it, says head of digital customer experiences Øistein Burøy Olsen at Rema 1000.
Artificial intelligent weight
– We will not make a decision on whether we will have this as a permanent solution until the trial period is over. We learn all the time and have to take everything into the evaluation, he says.
The latest innovation is a scale based on artificial intelligence. A camera recognizes the shape and color of what is placed on the scale. The customer only needs to confirm that the system has chosen correctly, print a slip and scan it.
– It was this weight that made me switch to shopping with my mobile phone. It has never chosen the wrong vegetable, says Kong as he puts three sweet potatoes on the scale.
It is artificial intelligence that recognizes that it is sweet potato. The camera also see a difference also see a differenceThe machine reads the marks on the surrounding plastic, as well as the product’s shape and colour. on whether they are organic bananas, Rema’s own brand bananas or ordinary bananas.
– When we get new items, the system takes some time to learn what it is. Then the customer gets the choices. When the customer chooses the right product, the system learns for next time, says Paulsen.
Room for improvement
– If they were to improve something, then we should be able to scan the code directly on the screen and release the piece of paper, points out Kong.
And that will be the next improvement, promises project manager Jørgen Sagen Paulsen in Rema.
– We see this whole project as shop 3.0. The first was the merchant behind the counter, then there was self-service – that you could walk around the store and pick the goods yourself. This, that the customer now does not have to stand in a queue, repack the goods, is a completely new customer experience, says Paulsen.
For the merchants, the advantage is that the system takes away so that long queues do not build up.
– But primarily it is to create a better experience for the customer, says Olsen.
In the US, Amazon-owned Whole Foods has a couple of pilot stores where they are testing the use of cameras that follow you throughout the store and record what you put in the shopping cart. By registering your palm when you enter, you can also just walk straight out and the payment will be deducted from the card afterwards.
The system will probably be changed. Scales will be introduced in the shopping basket and the goods will be scanned. Rema’s solution is not as comprehensive as Whole Foods’ solution.
– No, we do not have more cameras in the store than usual. We have confidence that those who use this system see the benefit of it and do not want to take advantage of it, says Paulsen.
Today, there are several merchants who have problems with waste in the self-service checkouts. Chains all over the country have recently closed or discontinued the self-scanning tills because they are experiencing more theft.
– We have no data that there are more or less thefts with this solution, says Paulsen about the pilot.
Kong has himself been selected in a random check, and thinks it was completely unproblematic.
Coop is looking for new solutions
Competitor Coop says that they are constantly looking for new technical solutions that make shopping easier.
– Coopay, Coop’s payment system in the app, recently reached over 1 million users, and every day there are up to 1,000 new members who use the solution for the first time, says Harald Kristiansen, director of communications at Coop Norge, to Aftenposten.
Norgesgruppen works with AI in the “backroom”. They improve the ordering system, product sorting, building shelves and automating accounting. Kiwi is also the chain with the fewest self-service checkouts.
– We are waiting for better solutions for recognizing fruit and vegetables. When it comes, we will implement this both in the self-service and in the normal checkouts, says executive director Truls Fjeldstad.
