Feb 02, 2022Startup retail technology company Ghop has deployed an unmanned smart convenience store the size of a small shipping container, which can be installed in Spanish neighborhoods or at busy commuter sites where larger, fixed convenience stores are unavailable. The retailer is offering a variety of snacks and beverages for individuals on the go, with no employees onsite to accomplish the sales. Customer simply use an app to enter the store, then select and pay for items within a matter of minutes or seconds.
The unmanned functionality is provided by RFID technology in the form of tags affixed to products, readers in the store and a software platform, all provided by Catalan RFID company Keonn Technologies. The idea behind Ghop is to bring convenience shopping to places retail previously couldn't reach, without the expense of sales personnel and the need for permanent facilities. For the solution to work properly, the company needed transactions to be easy, without requiring queuing for payments. Customers could simply select an item, place it in a scanner, approve the sale and walk out.
By automating the store, the retailer makes its products available at any time of the day or night. The 15-square-meter (165-square-foot) modular structure was first launched at a pilot site in July 2021, at the Moraleja Green shopping center in Madrid's Alcobendas municipality. In the long term, the company intends to expand its stores throughout Spain, particularly in Madrid. Many of the targeted sites are at gas stations. Ghop expects to see its stores deployed in places such as college campuses and airports, and it plans to expand outside of Spain by 2023.
The system was the brainchild of three Spanish engineers: brothers Juan Miguel and Victor Manual de Haro, as well as cofounder Lino Monteagudo Fuentes. They designed the store as an opportunity for shopping that would not require ATMs onsite, but instead allowed users to set up credit card payments in an app. The store is designed to be easily moved so that it can be installed at one location, then be taken down and deployed elsewhere within a matter of a day.
Lino Monteagudo Fuentes
Ghop began working with Keonn on a solution in August 2020, Fuentes reports. "To launch the first version of our store," he says, "we focused on providing a good user experience above all else." That meant piloting at a single site and learning from sales and shopper behavior. "We wanted to optimize the solution by learning from users and their needs." The RFID technology provides three features, he explains: mobile payments, loss prevention and inventory management, all aimed at serving the primary requirement of a good user experience—namely, offering a simple and secure purchase.
Keonn Technologies provides the loss-prevention, inventory-management and mobile-payment solution in the form of its AdvanPrint system for tag encoding, AdvanScan for inventory and tracking, AdvanGo for self-checkout and AdvanGate for loss-prevention, according to Ramir De Porrata-Doria, Keonn's cofounder and CEO. As goods are stocked at the store, Ghop employees apply an Avery Dennison Smartrac UHF RFID Flag Tag to each item. By scanning every tag as it is encoded, the system updates the inventory data regarding what goods are onsite and available for purchase. Those products are then put on display in store shelves or coolers.
To use the system, customers would first need to download the Ghop app on their Android- or iOS-based device. In the app, they would store their ID number and payment account information, along with their phone number. When they approached the storefront, they could then input their phone number which would uniquely identify them. In the future, app users may receive a QR code that could be displayed on the phone and be scanned at the door, prompting the door to automatically open. The customer, once inside, could then select from a variety of goods on the shelves, including drinks, chips, sandwiches and other snacks.
Once shoppers have selected everything they intend to buy, they can place the items in an AdvanGo RFID reader terminal that is insulated so that it will not pick up stray reads from products not being purchased. The reader antenna reads the tag IDs, then a screen displays those products and prompts the customer to confirm whether those are the items being purchased. Once customers approve their purchase, the cost is deducted from their credit card account.
Ramir De Porrata-Doria
Once this is done, customers can simply walk out of the store. At the exit, an AdvanGate RFID reader, with antennas built behind the walls around the door, serves as an RFID loss-prevention system by reading all tags and detecting if any items were not purchased. If any unpurchased items are detected, De Porrata-Doria explains, the system will display a notice on a screen requesting that they go back inside and pay for them.
Periodically, an employee conducts a stock count using a dedicated handheld UHF RFID reader, then restocks all depleted items. The AdvanNet firmware inside Keonn's handheld RFID readers interprets products' ID numbers and forwards that data to the AdvanCloud platform. That inventory data is integrated with Ghop's software platform, De Porrata-Doria says. Initially, Ghop is tagging products at the store as they are received. The Flag Tag can be applied to metallic packaging, as well as to liquid goods, such as beverages.
While the Ghop application is a new one for Keonn, De Porrata-Doria says, the RFID company expects to see similar deployments going forward. "We think unmanned stores will proliferate in the future," he states, "especially in places where a conventional store with staff is not profitable." Since the first doors opened in Madrid, Fuentes reports, Ghop has found consumers responding well to this new smart-store model.
"Our focus has always [been] on the user experience to make the purchase easier and faster for the customers than the traditional stores," De Porrata-Doria states. "Nonetheless, we still have to improve, and our customers are the ones guiding us in the right direction," by providing feedback about their experience. Fuentes adds, "In Ghop, we chose RFID technology as an innovative and solid solution. Although new interesting technologies are arriving, RFID is still our best option."
