IKI taps Pixevia tech for second cashierless, autonomous convenience store in Lithuania

IKI, the second biggest supermarket chain in Lithuania, has opened its second cashierless convenience store in Vilnius, following a pilot using technology from Pixevia.

The IKI Express 24/7 store is located on the landmark White Bridge in Vilnius that connects the old town to the main business district.

Part of REWE Group, IKI plans to have up to four autonomous stores in operation across Lithuania by the end of 2023.

With Pixevia’s technology, customers tap a payment card, phone or watch wallet, or a retailer’s mobile app at the store doors to enter.

They can pick items up and put them back with no need for any scanning. Inputs from shelf sensors and camera video streams are inputted into Pixevia’s AI platform, which determines exactly what each customer has selected.

It presents the entire list of items to customers in real-time, allowing them to pay with another tap of a card before leaving. The shopper gets a receipt before they depart.

Pixevia’s platform also alerts employees automatically about any goods that need replenishing on the shelves, and predicts the need to reorder stock. 

It supports the IKI Express 24/7 store’s full range of convenience products, including bakery, coffee machine, slush drinks, refrigerated food, ice cream, hygiene products, beer, wine, energy drinks, and tobacco products.

Pixevia says that customers can be in and out of the location in 15 seconds. Food products can also be warmed up, eaten at a dedicated food counter and paid for upon departure.

Shoppers can put all their goods into their own bags - there is no need to carry a conventional basket.

Nijolė Kvietkauskaitė, CEO of IKI Lietuva, says: “In February of last year, we opened the first autonomous store in the Baltic and Nordic countries.”

“This AI powered store has proven highly successful, attracting new customers and demonstrating exceptional accuracy. Following a thorough evaluation of the technology, we have now launched a second store featuring an expanded product selection to provide even greater convenience to our clientele.”

“The successful deployment of this autonomous shopping technology means we are also exploring its integration into larger-scale stores in the future.”

IKI’s Express 24/7 White Bridge store was initially launched as a conventional outlet with cashiers. The sales area is 95 square metres, twice as large as IKI’s first cashierless store, and offers more than 1,000 SKUs.

Mindaugas Eglinskas, Founder and CEO at Pixevia, comments: “Pixevia is helping IKI pioneer new aspects of cashierless shopping. The main challenge was to convert to frictionless shopping using the same store layout as a regular IKI Express 24/7 convenience store.”

“This involved using the same product range, shelves, design, distances between shelves to avoid compromising the store’s look and feel. The project also involved integrations with a tobacco dispenser, including manual age verification, sound messages, REWE’s payment system, doors, gates, security systems, and providing security alerts.”

The IKI chain consists of 237 stores, a food production centre and three regional bakeries.

Almost 6,000 people work in this network, including the home delivery startup, LastMile, and IKI’s own brand e-store.