Trigo continues to help Rewe revolutionize the shopping experience
In the retail industry, many companies are trying to shake up the way shoppers shop. Whether it’s Amazon challenging traditional brick-and-mortar stores or Walmart and Target fighting for the supremacy in eCommerce – it’s a battle that will reshape the future of retail forever.
REWE, a leading German supermarket chain, continues its fight by partnering with Trigo Retail to offer its customers a truly frictionless shopping experience.
The collaboration between REWE and Trigo
The pandemic might have accelerated the development of online purchases, but most German consumers still prefer grocery shopping in physical stores. Shoppers enjoy the tactile experience of seeing, touching, and trying products in person. At the same time, they resent the never-ending checkout line.
By adopting Trigo’s cashierless checkout system-EasyOut™, REWE can create a seamless checkout experience for the customer.
How does Trigo work?
Trigo’s EasyOut technology, similar to Amazon’s JustWalkOut, allows shoppers to complete purchases in REWE without going through a traditional checkout process.
Before entering the shopping area, customers need to download the REWE Pick & Go app, register and link their payment method. Trigo’s system anonymously tracks their movements as they shop and adds items to a virtual cart. When customers finish shopping, they can simply leave the store. The total sum will be automatically charged to their account. The receipt will be sent to the app.
First Trial in Cologne
The first collaboration between REWE and Trigo can be traced back to 2021.
Partnering with Trigo is not a choice by chance but a deliberate choice after three years long market monitoring by REWE digital team. Germany is well known for its strict data protection regulations. Trigo’s AI architecture, designed with privacy in mind, was a perfect fit.
On Oct 26, after Trigo’s retrofit, REWE’s first shop with a checkout-free option went live in downtown Cologne. It is a 200-square-meter store with a product range of 2,000 SKUs, including meal deals, fresh products, coffee machine products, and more. It is a hybrid store, combining traditional shopping, self-checkout terminals, and Trigo’s checkout-free system. Customers will have the choice to shop as they normally would, use self-checkout, or experience the convenience of frictionless shopping.
Another Hybrid Store in Berlin
Following the success in Cologne, REWE brought their frictionless shopping experience to the capital city of Berlin on November 9, 2022.
While the store in Cologne attracts on-the-go customers, the one in Berlin serves regular shoppers purchasing weekly groceries.
It’s a 400-square-meter store with 10.000 products. Store size is doubled, and the product quantity is five times higher. The detection accuracy through 500 cameras and shelf censors didn’t budge. Trigo proved itself to support a full-size retail store.
To adapt to the German customer’s shopping behavior, new features like purchasing weighted items (e.g., vegetables and fruits) and bottle recycling machines are now compatible with Trigo’s EasyOut system.
A Fully Autonomous Store in Munich
On December 14, 2022, REWE opened their latest Pick & Go shop in Munich. Rather than opening another hybrid store, REWE opened this store as a 100% autonomous one. It is not only a first for REWE but also a first in Germany, marking a milestone for both REWE and Trigo.
Now even group purchase becomes possible in this store. That is, you can go shopping with your friends, family, or colleagues together and all the costs will be charged to you only if you are the one who scans the app at the entrance.
What to expect in the future?
In almost one year, Trigo helped REWE launch three stores in Germany equipped with its EasyOut system. Through the process, Trigo reduced retrofit time for each store, scaled up the product assortment, and introduced new solutions to adapt to local market. It has been a success for both parties.
REWE is not only a client to Trigo, but also an investor. There is no doubt that any future development that Trigo has will greatly benefit REWE.
The newly introduced product by Trigo- EasyStock is an excellent example of leveraging AI on in-store inventory management.
It helps the retailer to visualize the real-time inventory, ensure higher product availability for customers, refine efficiency and automate alerts & reports.
Traditionally, the store team needs to actively browse through the shop floor or check in their stock system to plan for replenishment. Now the EasyStock system can push real-time out-of-stock alerts and show the restock priority by analyzing shoppers’ product choices. It saves time for action planning, which means the team can focus more on customer service.
More products like Planogram Optimization, Proximity Marketing, and In-store Analytics are all in the pipeline of Trigo. In 2023, we expect to see this promising development in the retail industry carry forward.
