by Angela Guess
According to a recent press release, “Standard Cognition, which is eliminating the hassle of retail checkout by removing it entirely, announced today the initial launch of its artificial intelligence-based system that lets consumers shop and pay without scanning or stopping to check out. An alternative to Amazon Go, the Standard Cognition platform is available to any retailer, helping to reduce their labor costs, improve the customer experience, and increase profit margins by up to 100 percent. (View a video demo of the system here.) The company — part of Y Combinator’s Summer 2017 batch — is already in advanced talks regarding pilots with multiple retailers across the nation. ‘One of the biggest pain points for shoppers right now is checkout,’ said Yoram Wurmser, Senior Retail Analyst at research firm eMarketer. ‘No one wants to wait in line to pay. Amazon clearly sees this area as one they can revolutionize with Amazon Go. But Amazon isn’t alone. Other retailers clearly see the need as well. Standard Cognition fits into this area, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it works in practice’.”
The release goes on, “With the Standard Cognition system in place at a store, shoppers don’t need to change their behavior or scan anything. They simply go to the store, select their items, and leave, and they are automatically charged for items they leave with. For retailers, using the Standard Cognition AI platform helps them to lower labor costs, reduce shrinkage, take back real estate formerly dedicated to checkout, and better track inventory. Each year, US retailers experience $130B in lost profit due to cashier overhead and shrinkage. Rising minimum wages and rents on top of already thin profit margins make it difficult for retailers to compete with larger chains and online options such as Amazon. While other companies are developing similar technologies, they appears to be based on older processes, and according to most public reports will only be available for company-owned stores — not sold to other retailers. The Standard Cognition solution is available to any retailer.”
Read more at Marketwired.
Photo credit: Standard Cognition