German food retail giant REWE Group, has opened Germany’s largest hybrid-autonomous supermarket, where customers have the option to shop and pay for their purchases in a traditional way or autonomously without a checkout process.
REWE Group Trigo, an Israel-based computer vision company building the infrastructure for autonomous checkout and retail analytics, uses ceiling-mounted intelligent cameras and shelf sensors to allow customers to walk in, select their items, and leave without having to pay at checkout.
The store in Cologne is REWE’s fourth Trigo-powered Pick&Go grocery store, with others already operating in Cologne, Berlin and Munich. Last December, Trigo and REWE opened Germany’s first fully automated supermarket.
Frictionless shopping is gaining traction as grocery giants scramble to match consumer expectations for convenience, while keeping costs down and optimising inventory and supply chains. This new hybrid supermarket is the largest in Germany, around 600 square meters, almost twice as big as previous locations, and features the most extensive range of items, with around 13,000 stock keeping units (SKU’s).
Trigo is a computer vision technology company that specialises in retrofitting large supermarkets with frictionless checkout systems that allow customers to buy in bulk without having to pack and unpack items at the checkout line. This experience addresses the inefficiencies caused by long wait lines at the cashier, especially in bigger stores with more items to scan. With most people doing their shopping in big stores, Trigo’s technology enables a seamless and familiar shopping experience that also helps grocery retailers leverage data analytics for better insights.
Trigo’s expanding technology can cater to different store formats, including discount stores, as more people prefer bigger supermarkets where they can buy things by the bulk, especially during the financial crisis. The company is now capable of deploying 1,500 square meters stores and is on track to support a 2,500 square meter store by the end of the year.
Hanno Rieger, Chairman of the Management Board of REWE Region West, said, “The shopping behavior of our customers is constantly changing. The opening of the largest hybrid store in Cologne is another important milestone for us on the way to the shopping experience of tomorrow.”
