Tracxpoint, a global provider of next-generation self-checkout grocery solutions, announced an agreement to roll out its Artificial Intelligence Cart (AiC®) at Conad del Tirreno, one of the seven cooperatives of Italian chain Conad, with more than 3,000 supermarket stores in Italy. Conad del Tirreno will start implementing the AiC® ecosystem during 2019. In direct contrast to capital-intensive and smaller store concepts like Amazon Go or its imitators that rely on ceiling cameras for location-based processing, the Tracxpoint AiC platform uses a first of its kind AI connected shopping cart that leverages on-cart cameras coupled with built-in weight sensors and powerful GPUs. The AiC will identify each item added to and deducted from the cart and automatically process on-cart transactions and payment upon leaving the store.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WITHIN THE SHOPPING CART
“CONAD has committed to deploying ‘game changers’ for the future of our physical stores. The AiC is not just a complete new smart shopping cart with breakthrough design that can visually detect food and non-food products; it is an entire ecosystem for bringing digital convenience to the physical store – and it will be a relevant factor in keeping our loyal customers coming back,” said Maurizio Barsacchi, CIO Conad del Tirreno. “Without requiring any cloud connected infrastructure, each AiC recognizes items visually – even in a free fall mode – a distinct advantage against competing concepts that merely rely on the store planogram or location of products. It will be the beginning of a completely new in-store experience”.
DIFFERENT FROM ALL COMPETITORS
The AiC® platform also separates itself from the competition through a variety of unique real-time features, including an on-cart screen that provides access to shopping lists, sends personalized special offers and store navigation. An additional patented feature is an on cart real time bidding system for suppliers. Moreover, the GDPR-compliant data mining tool protects customer data and ensures that retailers fully own their customer relationships. “Tracxpoint provides a unique mix of expertise in the exciting new world of deep learning and the classical realm of computer vision,” said Gidon Moshkovitz, Co-Founder and CEO, Tracxpoint. “Our new Retail AI Engine integrated in the AiC® is built to instantly recognize and register more than 100K products, which allows us to adapt it to different customers and to fulfill different requirements beyond grocery. We are bringing new levels of technology, convenience and value to customers and retailers that no existing solution offers”.