Ireland’s first ever completely frictionless store, Market x Flutter, officially opened on 15 February at Flutter Entertainment’s newly renovated global headquarters in Clonskeagh in Dublin 4.
The store, developed for Flutter by Compass Group Ireland, uses AI-powered computer vision technology from leading global AI experts, AiFi, which allows shoppers to purchase items in-store without having to wait in line or stop to scan or pay.
No Scanning, No Queuing
Customers ‘check in’ when entering and then freely wander through the store, selecting from the food offering at their leisure; no scanning and no queuing to pay. They leave with their purchases and a receipt is delivered to their phone moments later.
Facial recognition is not needed with this technology, so there is complete anonymity. Once inside, computer vision cameras anonymously track the shopper, adding selected items to the virtual shopping cart.
The Clonskeagh store stocks fresh meals, including a selection of hot and chilled dishes to-go, as well as drinks and confectionery.
Flexible Solution for Busy Workers
Flutter Entertainment is a global sports betting, gaming and entertainment provider and employs around 1,700 people at its Dublin headquarters.
The new contactless store will open Monday to Friday, between 8.00am and 6.00pm, and will be open to the general public, as well as Flutter employees, and will be marketed across the South Dublin business park.
“We’re incredibly excited by this new frictionless store technology, and are proud that our Irish operation is leading the way,” said Deirdre O’Neill, managing director at Compass Group Ireland.
“We constantly look at how to offer the most convenient service to customers and tailor food solutions to their needs. Now, customers just pop into the store and pick up what they need, whenever they need it – it’s a great flexible solution for busy workers.”
The Ultimate in Seamless Shopping
Frictionless units will be established within other corporate clients’ offices in the coming year by Compass Ireland, as well as in the sports and leisure sectors.
The stores will be established where vending-only food solutions exist currently, or where the new contactless format can be part of a suite of solutions, including self-service and serviced meal options. Compass employees will be on-hand to provide support to customers on site.
Compass Ireland serves 40,000 meals a day across 130 customer sites, including offices, industrial sites and education, leisure and hospitality facilities.
Deirdre O’Neill says the new food-to-go solution is “the ultimate in seamless shopping” and forms part of the company’s long-term digital transformation plans.
Steve Gu, CEO and founder of AiFi Inc, said his company looks forward to scaling the new foodservices experience, together with Compass, across many more client sites.
AiFi works with top retailers worldwide such as Aldi, Carrefour, Zabka, Morrisons and Compass Group, and currently has the highest number of store deployments in Europe and the second-highest number of store deployments in the US.
© 2022 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Maev Martin. For more retail news, click here. Click sign up to subscribe to Checkout.
