AI retail technology company Pixevia has collaborated with the IKI retail chain to launch their fifth autonomous store together in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The new ‘IKI GO’ store offers shoppers a new design, a new brand, and an “unparalleled customer experience”, marking the seventh store overall powered by Pixevia, as the startup continues to expand its technology across Europe and the US.
The new store, contained in a small-format pavilion, is owned by IKI, operating autonomously for approximately 95% of its hours, requiring occasional restocking.
The store features Pixevia’s proprietary real-time checkout technology, which allows customers to enter simply by tapping a payment card. Customers take what items they want from the shelves, while cameras and shelf sensors compile a virtual ‘shopping basket.’
Customers then tap the same payment card to exit the store, without any ‘checkout’ process required and receive a real-time receipt, which can be printed upon leaving.
Nijolė Kvietkauskaitė, CEO of IKI Lietuva, said: “A year and a half ago, we were the first to introduce an innovation to the market – autonomous stores. Although we still stand alone, resting on our laurels is not in our character – we are constantly expanding, improving, and looking for even better solutions to make the shopping experience better.
“With the new IKI GO, we are also introducing a new concept of autonomous stores, which we have carefully developed based on the lessons we have learnt from the four existing autonomous stores. They are popular with visitors, while we enjoy stable technology and traffic of shoppers who value convenience, so we have already been able to learn a lot.”
IKI, which is the second-largest supermarket chain in Lithuania, has opened three autonomous stores in partnership with Pixevia this year alone. The opening of a fifth AI-driven store makes Vilnius a major contender in the race to integrate autonomous retail outlets, alongside London or Warsaw.
Mindaugas Eglinskas, Founder and CEO at Pixevia, added: “Thanks to our collaboration with IKI and REWE Group, and our expansion in Vilnius, AI stores have become a regular part of the city’s daily life. We are thrilled to be working with IKI to advance this technology forward.”
Last April, Payment Expert spoke to Eglinskas about the potential AI can have on the retail shopping experience, as well as the solutions it can rapidly solve.
