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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