A smart store with “AI refrigerated showcase” etc. as trials was opened.
On October 28, Trial Company (Fukuoka City), a subsidiary of Trial Holdings, introduced IoT devices and AI technology to provide a new purchasing experience and enable efficient operation of the “Super Center Trial Miyata Store” (Miyawaka, Fukuoka Prefecture) was opened. In addition to the self-developed “smart shopping cart,” 18 “AI refrigerated showcases,” which will be installed for the first time in stores, will be installed, and the company will be equipped with the most advanced equipment in its history.
The store opened in July 2021 as a place for demonstration experiments of the “Remote Work Town Musbu Miyawaka” project, a town development centered on retail DX promoted by industry-government-academia collaboration. We will proceed with demonstration experiments of retail tech and IoT devices developed at the device development center “Trial IoT Lab” such as smart shopping carts and “MUSUBU AI” that creates a retail AI mechanism in collaboration with business partners.
In the store, about 200 “smart shopping carts” developed in-house, about 200 “retail AI cameras”, about 120 “digital signage” will be installed, and a refrigerating case “AI” equipped with an AI camera and sensor will be installed. 18 “refrigerated showcases” were installed.
The AI refrigerated showcase is a replacement for the product shortage status that the staff visually confirmed with AI cameras and sensors. In addition, an LED was installed on the case so that even foreign staff who are not good at Japanese can intuitively understand it, so that the color can tell when a shortage occurred.
In addition, the “smart shopping cart,” which operates about 5,000 units at 47 stores nationwide, has a mechanism that allows customers to read barcodes with the attached scanner and pass through the gate to complete cashless payment. The company says that it will significantly reduce the waiting time for cashiers and save labor in store operations.
In addition, the tablet terminal attached to the cart is also equipped with a function to display recommendations according to the scanned product and to distribute coupons that can be used on the spot.
In addition, we have introduced “retail AI cameras” and “digital signage” that monitor product shelves, analyze customer flow lines, and optimize operations.
According to the company, about 80% of shopping at real stores is “unplanned purchases” that purchase products that were not planned before entering the store. Therefore, the company promotes matching between products and customers by utilizing these technologies under the theme of “media conversion of real stores”. The company plans to improve the shopping experience.
