How AVA retail Wants to Give Amazon Go a Run for its Money

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AVA retail wants you to know that Amazon Go isn’t the only seamless checkout experience in town.

Though Amazon Go has been grabbing all the headlines, AVA retail—an Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence-driven retail solutions company—has been quietly working on its own cashier-less checkout experience and formally launched as a multi-solutions company at Shoptalk this week.

Some of the panic over the so-called “retail apocalypse” is prompting many retailers to invest in brick-and-mortar digital transformations, which Grandview Research estimates could drive annual expenditures of $20 billion.

AVA retail brings together top players in tech and fintech, including Microsoft Azure IoT and Mastercard, from which it’s leveraging cashierless technology. According to the company’s CEO, AVA retail wants to bring a more data-driven, consumer-friendly approach to the in-store shopping journey.

“We asked ourselves, ‘Why can’t a retailer better understand shoppers as they travel through the store and interact with products? Why can’t they track dwell time and paths? Why can’t they deliver insights and predictions in real time?’” Atul Hirpara, AVA retail CEO, said.

“With AVA retail they can leverage IoT sensors to digitally transform physical retail locations, creating digital footprints of in-store shoppers, store associates and store inventory that was not available before. AVA retail then converts this data into insights through its Analytics dashboard, empowering retailers and CPG companies to create better shopper experiences, drive staffing efficiency, and higher sales conversion,” Hirpara added. “Taking our AVA Experiences to the next level of truly frictionless shopping was not a huge step for us.”

AVA offers three products: AVA Analytics, which helps retailer conduct A/B testing, generate heat map, perform funnel analysis and more; AVA Experiences, itself a product portfolio comprising mobile apps, smart shelving and displays; and AVA SmoothShop, the cashier-less checkout experience.

According to AVA retail, consumers don’t need a special app or to walk through a turnstile upon entering to shop in a participating SmoothShop store, although retailers can chose those options if they prefer. AVA retail’s solution employ a SaaS model to keep costs affordable for retailers, and the SmoothShop experience relies on computer vision, sensor fusion, machine learning and artificial intelligence to create the seamless customer checkout. Upon completing their transaction, shoppers immediately receive a receipt so they can keep tabs on how much they’ve spent.

In partnering with companies including a major coffee chain, office supply store, superstore and others, AVA retail has tallied in excess of 30 million customer journeys, more than 750 million product interactions at the shelf level, and greater than 20 million checkouts cross four continents.

8 Ways to Add Tech to the Retail Experience

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I was recently invited to Microsoft’s campus to see the cool things they have been up to and one of the highlights was visiting the Microsoft Retail Experience Center. This was an on-premise environment that replicated various retailers and showcased cool technologies that retailers – big and small – could use to amp-up their business, supported by Azure.

Some of the highlights:

● NFC-enabled coaster that by putting it down on your table could enable your server to know that you needed another beer.

● Opt-in beacon technology that allows you to place your coffee order as you near the coffee shop and have it ready and waiting for you when you arrive.

● Digital projection onto the counter, allowing the barista to place your cup in a specifically labeled virtual circle so you know which coffee is yours, no scribble-interpreting needed.

● Opt-in tech that lets retailers track existing customers that are part of their loyalty program in the store, so they know what to recommend and upsell them, based on their location and purchase history.

● Video screens with FaceCake software that let you try on makeup, clothing and accessories “virtually,” see what you look like and even view side-by-side comparisons of different looks right at the point of purchase.

● Tablets that dock for security (so they don’t walk out the door) but disconnect so that sales associates can demonstrate product features to the customers in the store.

● Vending machines, enabled with both interactive information about the product (like nutritional information) and a camera that scans you, analyzes data and tailors suggestions based on demographic information.

● RFID tags on clothing that project information onto your fitting-room screening wall and also allow you to instantly request a new size or other assistance from a sales associate. This is great not just for customer service, but it can feed information to the associate on complementary pieces to bring to the dressing room for an “upsell.”

There were many more examples, but that’s just some of the creative ways retailers will be using technology, many that could add significant ROI to a retail business.

I will say one other thing that stood out, is that using the Azure platform in the cloud gives companies full control over their own data. This means that the very robust and valuable customer behavioral and related data that you, as a retailer, collect from implementing new technologies is fully owned and controlled by you, and not shared with Microsoft. This is very different from other cloud providers, who, as part of their services agreement, have access to the aggregated data that you collect while using their platforms – something that you should seriously consider before you pick a cloud-services provider.

If you are a retailer or aspiring retailer that wants to implement technologies, there are a bevy of partners that can help you to think through and implement the new technologies in your location. Some of the ones highlighted at the Retail Experience Center included Ava Retail and Swivel.

As a customer as well as a customer loyalty and experience strategist, I look forward to seeing entrepreneurs implement these technologies and variations on them to improve the customer experience – and their own business success.

Retail IoT: AI firm trials autonomous smartphone checkouts

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American artificial intelligence (AI) firm AVA Retail has successfully completed the first trial of its autonomous checkout system.

The SmoothShop system allows customers to scan and pay for items with their smartphones in retail aisles. On finishing, the amounts owed by shoppers are deducted from their connected accounts with a click.

The technology is targeted at high-street retailers and smaller merchants.

● Frictionless shopping

SmoothShop is designed to be a quick and convenient system for both customers and retailers. The checkout doesn’t rely on a third-party app or turnstile – AVA said “shoppers simply enter the store with their phone”.

However, the company explained that it does offer additional software and hardware for stores that want to take extra security precautions. The system is powered by “deep learning, computer vision, and sensor fusion technologies”, added the firm.

The news comes just days after UK supermarket chain Co-Op unveiled its own smartphone-based checkout service to slash queuing times.

AVA announced its frictionless checkout system in August 2016, but didn’t start trialling the technology until September 2017. Since then, it has been testing it in co-working space/start-up community WeWork’s food and beverage kiosks.

AVA has collaborated with Mastercard to bring the latter’s digital payment and security services to AVA’s cashier technology. Mastercard is on a mission to “provide comprehensive solutions for retailers across multiple categories”, explained AVA.

In the UK, the Co-op’s app is also built on Mastercard’s Masterpass secure mobile payments technology.

Stephane Wyper, senior vice president of new commerce partnerships at Mastercard, said, “Mastercard continues to engage with innovative companies that are developing technologies that can transform the in-store retail experience to make the consumer journey as frictionless as possible.

“This collaboration is a great example of how we can couple our rich set of payment, security, and analytic capabilities with AVA’s retail IoT assets to help retailers deploy unique experiences today,” he said.

● Transforming retail

As Wyper suggested, AVA has also developed an analytics solution in partnership with Mastercard, to help retailers gain better insight into their customers’ needs and behaviours.

So far, AVA claims to have processed more than 30 million customer journeys, 750 million product interactions, and 20 million checkouts throughout four continents.

Atul Hirpara, chief executive officer of AVA, explained that firm is helping stores accelerate their digital transformation plans and tap into emerging technologies.

“[Retailers are using] IoT sensors to digitally transform physical retail locations, creating digital footprints of in-store shoppers, store associates, and store inventory that was not available before,” he said.

By tapping into IoT data, retailers can “create better shopper experiences, drive staffing efficiency, and higher sales conversion”, he added.

● Internet of Business says

Mastercard’s strategy to provide the underlying technology for frictionless shopping is becoming clear, and we can expect more announcements in this space in the months ahead. The tipping point will come when the biggest retailers get onboard with smartphone shopping, with many having already deployed automated self-checkouts.

As we reported in our story on the Co-op’s similar programme, frictionless shopping has become critically important to rising numbers of customers. Many use their smartphones for shopping lists, while others compare goods online along with in-store prices from other retailers in the aisles.

Now both consumers and retailers want in-store shopping to be as swift and hassle-free as ordering goods online, but with the added benefit of bricks rather than clicks: instant access to goods.

The result could be greater loyalty to the brands that deploy these technologies – the Holy Grail for all retailers, especially in the squeezed mid-market – and a more efficiently run business.

However, not all retail environments will be appropriate for the instant gratification approach: it will be a ‘horses for courses’ market, with many shops – particularly in higher-end goods and fashion – differentiating themselves by their quality of personal service, as well as their goods.

In the UK, the Co-op has said that it has seen the use of cash in its food stores diminish rapidly as alternative payment methods have become more popular. Cash transactions have fallen by more than one fifth over the last five years, and by 15 percent in the past 18 months alone, it said.

Doubtless competitors will be watching to see how secure this new system is, what the impacts are on shopper numbers, supply chain/ordering processes, and the bottom line – and whether the system is used or abused.

Automating Retail Through "Frictionless" Checkout

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According to a recent study, retailers are expected to invest more than $20 billion per year in the digital transformation of the industry. For consumers, one of the most visible aspects of this transformation will be the growth of cashierless checkout. A newly-formed company, AVA retail, is poised at the forefront of this trend.

AVA refers to the experience as “frictionless” checkout. This isn’t just the self-serve lane at the grocery store we’re talking about; AVA retail deploys internet of things (IoT) sensors within physical retail locations in order to create digital footprints of in-store shoppers, store associates and store inventory. The data is then converted into analytics in order to drive better shopping experiences, maximize staffing efficiency and push for a higher sales conversion rate.

While hardware optimized with AI, deep learning, computer vision and sensor fusion underpins the technology, the frictionless checkout experience is far simpler from a customer point-of-view. Shoppers simply need to enter a store with a phone; there’s no app that needs to be opened. Creating a "pick-and-go" experience for food shopping is a particular focus for AVA; the technology can be used for just about any type of snack bar or quick-serve restaurant that might otherwise be closed during odd hours.

AVA’s product suite for brick-and-mortar retailers also includes “smart” shelves, displays and mobile apps offering personalized promotional content to shoppers.

How Amazon Go went from press release to a real live store

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Machine learning, computer vision and people are the secret sauce making Amazon Go go, executives said during a keynote at ShopTalk Sunday.

It took Amazon several years to develop the technology that lets shoppers simply grab goods and walk away, with payment made automatically through the app. But in typical Amazon fashion, the entire concept began with a finished idea and a mission to reverse engineer the underlying technology to make it happen. "We wrote the press release first and then started building the product," said Gianna Puerini, vice president of Amazon Go. "We had to figure out how to do it."

The technology challenges were many, but boiled down to three, according to Dilip Kumar, vice president of technology at Amazon Go and Amazon Books. First, was to execute the concept in a way that seemed effortless to the customer, where the technology simply fades into the background. "To do this in a seamless way is a lot harder than it seems," he told attendees.

Second, "We decided we wanted to do this using computer vision and machine learning," he said. "To do this we had to invent many algorithms to solve this problem of who took what in a grocery store setting." The technology uses multiple cameras to identify products and shoppers in a crowded place, to a level of specificity that will identify items, down to the flavor of jam.

RFID was not the solution, putting tags on individual items was not the solution. Creating a robust hardware and software solution that worked together was.

One of the biggest challenges, according to Puerini, was simply the art of retailing, in the classic sense. "The more traditional aspects of retail are the ones I spend the most time on during the day," she told the packed auditorium in the Sands Convention Center. "The challenges are a lot like those for most in this room." In particular, to provide a compelling assortment that customers will like, at a good price and in a convenient setting.

Among the most popular items at Amazon Go are the prepared meal kits created to serve dinner for two in 30 minutes, said Puerini. Developing, sourcing and replenishing these are the kinds of blocking and tackling that retailers everywhere face, and Amazon Go is no different, cutting-edge technology and all.

In spite of the technology, the human element is an important component in Amazon Go. Eliminating the checkout got rid of a major pain point for shoppers, but "physical shopping is fantastic, just not the checkout," Puerini said. "We want to put our resources behind the things that add value — the human team."

"It takes a lot more than just being able to walk out to make a store," said Kumar.

Store associates are readily available throughout the concept, with one or two regularly in place at the exit. Assuring customers that they can indeed, just put items in a bag and leave, is a regular occurrence according to Puerini. It's one they expect will become less frequent as shoppers become more accustomed to the process.

Amazon Go may the hottest retail concept of the year, or the last several years, but it's not the only frictionless shopping solution on the rise. Startups are developing and announcing similar technologies that promise to help retailers stay abreast of this trend. Retail Dive got a demonstration from one such startup, Ava Retail, in a neighboring suite during ShopTalk, and similar pitches are coming in fast.

There are also applications beyond the convenience store concept. Quick serve restaurants are prime candidates — imagine going into a Starbucks to pick up a mobile order, adding a juice or other items from the grab and go case and simply walking out. Not only is the line avoided, which was the point of using the mobile ordering feature, but the store gets the add-on sales that are currently being missed in these more targeted purchases.

Similarly in a hotel where snacks and beverages are often displayed on open shelves, like a pantry. Today these need to be brought to the check-in desk and added to the room bill. But by adding cameras and sensors, and linking the room key which is attached to a credit card on file, that stop at the counter becomes unnecessary.

Transit centers, too, are ripe for these applications. Commuters can quickly grab an item from a kiosk and jump on a train. Cameras track the movement and payments are tied to the auto-replenishment program of the cardholder.

Retailers that are not Amazon are seriously looking at elements of Amazon Go's frictionless checkout, or "walk-out" technology, Ava Retail Founder and CEO Atul Hirpara told Retail Dive. And while Amazon Go packs a lot of hardware, there are solutions that use scaled down versions, making it less expensive to trial and implement.

Amazon itself is not actively marketing or implementing the technology, making it available to other retailers or brands. Nor are there any plans to roll the technology out to Whole Foods Markets, said Puerini.

AVA retail Pioneers Cashier-less Checkout

AVA retail Announces Details of Frictionless Shopping Pilot and Demonstrates Its Advantages at Shoptalk

SHOPTALK CONFERENCE -- MARCH 19, 2018 -- LAS VEGAS -- AVA retail, the retail AI company providing cashier-less checkout and a suite of data solutions for brick-and-mortar retailers, today formally announced the company, its solutions, partners, customers and data from its SmoothShop cashier-less checkout and AVA SmartTrack. This announcement is significant because retailers are expected to invest more than $20B per year in the digital transformation of retail, according to Grand View Research (2017).

AVA retail is a retail AI and IoT company with customers including one of the world’s largest superstores, numerous big-box retailers, supermarkets and one of the world’s largest coffeehouse chains. AVA is partnering with leading technology players including Mastercard and Microsoft Azure IoT. With Mastercard, AVA is collaborating to integrate their cashier-less checkout capabilities with Mastercard’s robust set of digital payment and security assets to provide comprehensive solutions for retailers across multiple categories.

One of the First Companies to Deploy Cashier-less Checkout

AVA retail conceived frictionless checkout in August 2016 and was one of the first companies to deploy it externally in September 2017 in conjunction with Mastercard as a pilot with WeWork to reinvent the Honesty Market experience.

“We asked ourselves, ‘Why can’t a retailer better understand shoppers as they travel through the store and interact with products? Why can’t they track dwell time and paths? Why can’t they deliver insights and predictions in real time?’” said Atul Hirpara, AVA retail CEO. “With AVA retail they can leverage IoT sensors to digitally transform physical retail locations, creating digital footprints of in-store shoppers, store associates and store inventory that was not available before. AVA retail then converts this data into insights through its Analytics dashboard, empowering retailers and CPG companies to create better shopper experiences, drive staffing efficiency, and higher sales conversion. Taking our AVA Experiences to the next level of truly frictionless shopping was not a huge step for us.”

“Mastercard continues to engage with innovative companies that are developing technologies that can transform the in-store retail experience to make the consumer journey as frictionless as possible,” said Stephane Wyper, senior vice president, New Commerce Partnerships, Mastercard. “This collaboration is a great example of how we can couple our rich set of payment, security and analytic capabilities with AVA retail’s IoT assets to help retailers deploy unique experiences today.”

Competitive Advantages

AVA retail’s frictionless checkout provides an immediate receipt so shoppers know how much they’ve spent in the moment. Shoppers simply enter the store with their phone – there’s no need to ‘check in,’ open an app or go through a turnstile, although those are available options. The AVA retail solution is relatively inexpensive because retailers enjoy an SaaS model and standard hardware that’s been optimized with AI, deep learning, computer vision and sensor fusion.

In addition to cashier-less checkout, AVA retail has been supplying the world’s largest retailers and beloved brands with technologies to help them understand their customers’ journeys and behaviors in-store. The biggest retailers, supermarkets, office supply stores and coffee houses understand how long their anonymized customers linger over items, how they travel through their stores, details of customer / product interactions, and which marketing campaigns are most effective, via AVA retail’s technology. The company has logged more than 30M customer journeys, 750M interactions with specific products on shelves, and over 20M checkouts in four continents, helping retailers convert this data into increased sales and an enhanced shopping experience.

AVA retail Product Suite

AVA retail’s product approach includes the following:

● AVA Analytics - State of the art analytics for physical retailers to support Tier 1 digital transformation. These analytics are analogous to the best-in-class web analytics tools for online retailers and hence level the playing field for physical stores by giving them the ability to do funnel analysis, heat maps, A/B testing, campaign measurement and product recommendations and more.
● AVA Experiences - The traditional retail experience as we know it has to evolve to support next-gen experiences for shoppers. AVA Experiences is a product portfolio, comprising smart shelves, displays and mobile apps. It brings the power of just-in-time, personalized promotional video/content to in-store shoppers. It also has a powerful shopper app for endless-aisle capability and an assisted sales toolset for the staff.
● AVA SmoothShop - Cashier-less checkout for retail stores. This technology enables anything from quick service stores to big box stores for a pick’n’go experience that suitably applies to quick-serve restaurants, snack bars in hotels and quick eateries that otherwise remain closed in odd hours. Absolutely no checkout lines for customers, whatsoever.

To arrange a demo of the new SmoothShop cashier-less technology at Shoptalk contact: Kathryn White or Emma Lattanzio.

About AVA retail

AVA retail is an AI company that develops cutting-edge technology for brick-and-mortar stores to deliver more profitable and engaging customer experiences. AVA retail’s digital nervous system (Edge AI platform) uses state of the art deep learning, computer vision, sensor fusion and IoT-based techniques to track in-store shoppers and realize the future of retail shopping and sales. Based in Redmond, Wash., the company has 35 employees and has raised $2M in funding. For more information visit www.avaretail.ai.

Contact

Spark for AVA retail
avaretail@sparkpr.com

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