Earlier this month VkusVill, Russia’s number one health foods brand and a leading player in e-grocery, opened its first cashierless store in Moscow.
To make a purchase, customers scan a QR code in their VkusVill mobile app when they enter the store, then select the items they need and exit through a special turnstile. Payment is automatically deducted from the bank card attached to their mobile app.
The store was developed in partnership with Neurus, a Russian company that develops AI-based technologies for retail.
“This format is a first in Russia,” said Neurus CTO Ivan Talalaev an exchange with East-West Digital News. “There have been examples of in-store kiosks or stores in which there is no usual team of employees, but the purchasing process there involves self-checkout machines. In our store, the shopping process takes place solely by means of technology based on artificial intelligence — but the usual product range and customer advantages are also available.”
“From the outset, we tried to make a technology that could be mass-produced and accessible. Therefore, we are focused on the use of RGB cameras, and our algorithms use inexpensive hardware. This will allow us to develop the format further if we see sufficient consumer demand,” Talalaev added.
VkusVill sees its cashierless store as a step in offering an “ever-more convenient experience” to its customers convenience.
The cashierless store concept builds off the company’s ‘Micro-Markets,’ which are small stores located mainly in office buildings and business centers.
VkusVill [which translates to “TasteVille”] operates an omnichannel retail and delivery network with more than 1,300 stores, some 300 Micro-Markets and 100 dark stores across 58 cities in Russia, in addition to digital channels.
Two years ago Sber, Azbuka Vkusa, a leading grocery retail outlet network, and Visa launched “Russia’s first store fitted with computer vision solutions.” An “intellectual surveillance system” replaced cash and cashiers, the companies claimed.
