Born in Aube, PikkoPay, the app that wants to put an end to queues in stores

2023-09-26 13:16:10

The queues are often annoying! They can even ruin a shopping experience. Indeed, who has never abandoned an item in front of a long corridor of customers stationed in front of the checkout counter of a supermarket? To solve this problem, PikkoPay was born ! After several experiments in different supermarkets across the country, the start-up from the Technopole de l’Aube in Rosières-Près-Troyes officially launched its service at the Carrefour Contact in Buchères this Monday, September 25.

The objective of this web application is to eliminate queues in stores. Concretely, “customers’ smartphones become automatic checkouts,” emphasizes Alexandre Chen. Without downloading and without registration, this tool is accessible via a QR Code installed at the entrance to the point of sale. The customer can then scan the products they wish to purchase before paying with their phone and taking a skip-the-line passage. “Typically, the output lasts between 25 and 45 seconds,” explains the co-founder of PikkoPay.

An idea born after confinement

The three entrepreneurs, all aged 25, had the idea of ​​creating this web application during the first deconfinement. Faced with a long queue at a store, Alexandre Chen had to abandon an item. By studying the subject, he found that “89% of French people have already left a store because of this type of problem”. Waiting in stores has caused European retailers to lose 16.3 million euros in turnover, according to a study byAyden in 2018.

If PikkoPay begins its first marketing phase at Carrefour Contact in Buchères, Alexandre Chen and his team plan to equip 10 to 20 stores by the end of the year!

Unlike the drive-thru which also allows customers to do their shopping quickly, the web application aims to maintain social ties. The idea is to preserve “the in-store experience which is important for users” explains Trinh Joe. Alexandre’s associate and friend believes that after the period of health crisis, it was necessary to “mix the physical with the digital”. Before purchasing, the customer can “touch or see the object”, which is not possible with Internet sales platforms!

However, PikkoPay does not want to replace checkout hosts or hostesses. The objective is to be “a tool that will allow them to lighten their work, especially during rush periods”, according to Trinh Joe.