"Automatic Payment Even When Sneaking Out"… Visiting CU Tech Friendly Store No.1

Preview of the Future Retail Market Transformed by Cutting-Edge IT
Cameras and Sensors Everywhere... "Payment Completed" Even If You Drink Some and Put It Back
Seamless Entry, Product Selection, and Payment via Facial Recognition After Initial Registration
Expanding to 10 Locations This Year... "Plan to Introduce New Technologies to Franchise Stores"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Kim] The 'CU Tech Friendly Store No. 1,' which realizes a perfect unmanned store with 29 artificial intelligence (AI) cameras and over 150 sensors in a space of about 49.59㎡ (15 pyeong), shows the future that cutting-edge IT will bring to the distribution market.

◆ Register your face via app and use the store = On the 2nd, we visited the CU Tech Friendly Store No. 1, which opened at Samsung Bioepis in Songdo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon. To use the store, you must download the 'CU By Self' application and register the necessary information. After registering payment information and discount and point-related information, you take a photo for facial recognition at the kiosk in front of the store. After that, you can use the store with facial recognition alone. If you are reluctant to verify image information through photo shooting, you can also use a QR code in the app.

There are a total of 29 cameras operating inside the store. Upon entry, smart cams track the consumer's movement path. A total of 10 smart cams follow multiple consumers without any blind spots. Fourteen motion cams watch only the products, and when a consumer picks up a product, they send image information to the server. Sensors installed on each shelf cross-check the picked-up product by weight. The sensors applied to 13 shelves total over 150.

Information from cameras and sensors is transmitted to the server in real time to determine whether a product is purchased and complete the payment all at once. Discounts on promotional products such as 1+1 and 2+1 are also applied, and you can check the receipt through the app, which shows the price with the free gift deducted as soon as you pass through the gate. It took less than 30 seconds from buying and paying for the product to leaving the store.

◆ 10 stores within the year, partial expansion to general franchises = What happens if you drink some of a beverage and put it back in its original place, hide items in your clothes, or if the convenience store becomes crowded with many people inside? BGF Retail explained that they have completed 'stress tests' for unexpected situations. Yoo Yultak, head of the CVS Lab in BGF Retail’s Innovation Division, said, "Even if several customers enter at once, each is recognized by their own QR code, allowing payment without confusion." When multiple people visit together and one person pays, the app generates QR codes for each visitor, and even if each picks up products, payment is processed through the payer’s app.

The average daily number of users at Store No. 1, targeting Samsung Bioepis employees, is about 140. Most respond positively, saying it is "amazing" and "convenient." However, payment mix-up errors that occur when a picked-up product is handed to another person or when multiple payers put items in one basket will be continuously addressed by promoting 'one person, one basket' usage to improve the system.

Although the initial cost of the store is higher than a regular store, total costs were reduced by about 10% through in-house POS development. BGF Retail plans to open up to 10 Tech Friendly stores within the year. Considering cost issues, they plan to operate them directly but will partially introduce the new technologies implemented in these stores to franchise stores as well.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.