Autonomous checkout venture Imagr opens London popup store
Imagr recently opened its first popup store in London, UK, located on Oxford Street.
The New Zealand-based startup fitted out a Sook adaptable retail space into a mini-market for “a fully immersive autonomous supermarket experience”.
It invited prospective customers, tech experts and press into the space for demonstrations of the offering, which includes smart carts and an imaging station.
Imagr says that it has had overwhelming interest from the UK retail market, and therefore made London the first stop for its popup experience.
“We wanted to be the first autonomous retailer to offer a popup store, and we believe we have achieved that,” says William Chomley, Founder and CEO.
He adds: “The retail market in the UK and Europe is extensive and has huge potential for automation, especially in the face of Covid-19. With Amazon Go (Amazon Fresh) recently entering the UK and four stores already open, UK grocery retailers need to act fast to keep up with the changing landscape.”
Six of the UK's top supermarket retailers came through the popup. “Our system was well received and we have some strong interest to move forward with a UK retailer in the coming months,” a spokesperson told RTIH.
They added: “It was pretty clear that Amazon Go's growing presence in the UK is putting some pressure on retailers to improve customer experience and automate the checkout.”
“Overhead solutions aren't scalable across all formats of stores, they are hugely expensive to implement and maintain and they cause major issues with privacy.”
“Retailers see smart carts as a way to get all the benefits of automating the checkout with computer vision without putting their customers' privacy at risk.
“With solutions like Amazon Go and Trigo, they have built a supermarket for their tech. With Imagr, we have built the tech that fits into your supermarket,” they concluded.
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