Imagr smart shopping trolley goes live at Oasis store in Japan
Imagr's SmartCarts have gone live at an Oasis supermarket store in Nakanoshima, Osaka, Japan.
The intelligent shopping trolley taps computer vision and AI technologies.
Customers can pair their phone with a cart, do their shopping and leave without scanning any barcodes.
Imagr’s tech knows every single item in the store and recognises when it’s put in the cart. Customers can track their items as they go via the Imagr app and skip the checkout queue.
“Four years ago nobody thought that autonomous checkout would be achieved by bringing the technology into the cart. We did,” William Chomley, Founder and CEO, Imagr, said in a LinkedIn post.
“Today, I'm so proud to say that our team has made it a reality.. We're live in Osaka Japan, and we're just getting started. Changing retail for good.”
Funding
Last year, the New Zealand-based startup raised $9.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Toshiba Tec Corporation.
Chomley commented: "It's thrilling to be backed by an international PoS leader like Toshiba Tec which owns 96% of the convenience market in Japan. Its support shows we have the right technology in place to change how retail shopping is done across the world."
Masami Uchiyama, Toshiba Tec Senior Vice President, added: "We looked globally for the most promising automated checkout provider and settled on Imagr as the most advanced technology of its kind."
"Its computer vision and AI technology is industry leading, outperforming other AI retail systems we have seen, and the integration into existing stores is simple and scalable. We can't wait to see Imagr change the retail industry in the 2020s."