Germany: Rewe opens Berlin’s first autonomous store
The retailer has partnered up with Trigo once again to transform the customer’s experience with full automated service.
Rewe has opened Berlin’s first autonomous store after the success of its prior “Pick&Go” store in Cologne. It's located in the Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood and offers customers a hybrid, frictionless checkout experience and nearly double the size of its prior project, around 400 m² and features approximately 10,000 products. The new location is part of the retailer’s partnership with tech company Trigo to develop these new store formats throughout the country.
Trigo’s system captures data related to products that are taken or put back, there is no facial recognition, and all the data is completely anonymized, so shopper identities and information are unknown to the system, nor are they stored.
“The privacy issue, the whole data protection issues, are very sensitive topics in Germany. And we are a trusted company, and we want our customers to trust us on privacy issues as well. Trigo worked with the very strict regulations that we have here in Germany,” said Anika Vooes, Innovation Manager at Rewe Digital.
In addition to privacy, the new Berlin location will maintain the number of employees that is customary for Rewe stores. Apart from skipping the lines and cashier, customers can interact with the personnel for questions about products or offers and advice throughout their shopping journey.
“Through the close collaboration between Trigo and Rewe, we developed a solution tailored to the hybrid model so that the system would be able to differentiate between traditional and Pick&Go shoppers. For Pick&Go customers, the process is as seamless as the rest of the shopping experience, with the credit going directly into the virtual shopping basket. By eliminating paper receipts for Pick&Go shoppers, the Rewe Berlin store provides a fully sustainable experience for customers on top of a fully frictionless one,” added Heli Netanel, Product Team Lead at Trigo.
Besides being twice the size of the Cologne store, the Berlin location will feature weighted items for the first time. Customers will no longer have to buy per unit, and they will enjoy purchasing their fruits and vegetables by weight.
