Supermarket shopping (freepik photo)
You are probably familiar with the procedure: you are in the store, ready to pay, and the shortest queue is at the checkout. You watch other customers rummage, look for the barcode on a pack of toilet paper, look for the code of the onion by weight (and it does not matter if the white, red or green) or wait for an employee to come and confirm a six of water.
Self-cash machines have been widely used by many overseas retailers such as Walmart, Target and CVS assuming they help customers get out of the store faster while releasing employees for other tasks, or allow stores to reduce human workers. The customer experience, however, was not exactly a picture of perfection “Everyone hates them,” said Abhainai Srivestva, CEO of Mashgin, who tries to take advantage of the sometimes frustrating experience of peddling his new line of self-payment machines. “The idea is true, but the application was not so great.”
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Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Mashgin has spent the past eight years leveraging advancing technology to create a next-generation self-propelled machine that does not require customers to scan items. Instead, the marble system uses artificial intelligence to detect and ring items automatically. This allows customers to check out in less than 10 seconds – eight times faster than a standard self-checkout machine.
The machines gain traction. Circle K has installed them in 7,000 of its stores over the next three years, the retailer told Forbes. It is based on its pilot program of using technology in 500 Circle Ks. Mashgin has also installed its machines in hundreds of other locations, including convenience stores like ampm and Delek of Texas, as well as airports, corporate cafeterias and stadiums like Wrigley Field in Chicago and arenas like Madison Square Garden in New York.
Mashgin says it has reached a 99.9% accuracy rate, after processing about 40 million transactions at its kiosks. It raised $ 75 million in funding from NEA, Matrix Partners and others and was recently valued at $ 1.5 billion. It’s part of an attempt to get rid of cash registers (and apparently, many of the human cashiers who staff them), with so-called smart cash register technology expected to process about $ 400 billion in transactions by 2025, according to Juniper Research.
Many retailers are looking at smart payment technology in some way, but are moving slowly, evaluating what customers think of the changes and whether it is worth the investment. Most vendors of the technology say it leads to higher sales and larger sizes of baskets, as customers can get in and out of the store faster and do not shy away from long queues. It can also help retailers identify items that are out of stock faster.
However, it can be difficult and expensive to deploy. Mashgin says its technology can be expanded faster than competitors, with as little installation time as 15 minutes costing $ 1,000 a month to operate. Circle K said it decided to install Mashgin’s technology in thousands of stores because of the success it had in its experimental markets, with 80% of customers reporting that it had become their preferred way of paying.
Mashgin has made a number of updates to its machines to prepare them for the store, such as giving customers the ability to pay in cash, use a loyalty card and take advantage of the ever-changing promotions. Customers still need to seek processed help to purchase alcohol or cigarettes. The company plans to continue to focus on convenience stores, airports and entertainment venues in the coming years, where it sees high demand, but said its technology could eventually turn it into grocery stores or large box retailers.
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