Verizon Brought Autonomous Shopping to the Indianapolis 500

If you think the cars are fast at the Indianapolis 500, and they are, the Aifi NanoStore with Verizon 5G set a new record. How does your team edify your brand with the next new customer?  Are you looking a customer ahead? Are you looking for a new out-of-the-box partnership to drive new electricity into your brand?  Is your team inviting existing customers at peak the next big thing? It just might be better for your brand and better for them by saving both time and money.   

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® believes customer relevance intersects companies and consumers with a universal commonality of technology, discovery, and saving both time and money. 

This year Verizon Communications Inc. brought an autonomous shopping experience to the 105^th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Ticket holders, volunteers, staff, and drivers were able to purchase an assortment of snacks, beverages and Indy 500 merchandise using AiFi's portable computer vision enabled NanoStore, which will run on Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband network.

Steve Gu, founder and CEO at AiFi, stated "As in-person gatherings start back up, venues and consumers alike will prioritize personal safety in every way possible," ... "Our NanoStore allows attendees to avoid crowded lines and experience contactless shopping while purchasing their favorite snacks and drinks. We're incredibly excited to partner with Penske to bring a seamless shopping experience to event attendees, allowing them to get back to their seats faster to enjoy the race."

So, customers could enter the NanoStore by scanning the Indy Express Shop app. Once scanned, the computer vision-technology around the store will observe and track the items that a customer chooses. When customers are done shopping, they can walk out and will receive a receipt to their app or email within minutes.

Rebecca Russelink, chief information officer at Penske Entertainment, stated, "The NanoStore provides a completely new and futuristic shopping experience for attendees.”… "We're excited to work with AiFi and Verizon to ensure the best possible customer service with this unique store."

Get this, AiFi's computer vision-technology has achieved an accuracy rate of 99 percent for a seamless customer experience, without using facial recognition or storing biometric data, the company stated. The 105th Running of the Indianapolis 500 took place on Sunday, May 30, with several preliminary events taking place on days leading up to the final race. The AiFi NanoStore was also open for that.

Andy Brady, vice president, Enterprise Sales, Verizon Business, stated, "Giving race fans the ability to experience the power of Verizon 5G at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway through AiFi's autonomous shopping NanoStore is an exciting moment for us,"  "Our long-standing partnership with Penske is filled with industry-driving innovation. AiFi shares that same passion and have been amazing partners in making this autonomous shopping experience come to life."

At the intersection of the consumer and technology is the common and universal goal to save both time and money.  Combine that discover and your brand can hit a home run. What are you thinking about as your next move?  Who will you be partnering with to help drive new electricity into you brand and customer base?

How is your brand building new electricity? According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new menu related products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, music, developing brands, unique urban hemp clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable.

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit GrocerantGuru.com for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

Loop Neighborhood Market: Employee Free, Contactless Retail

Are you ready of a glimpse of what retail c-store just might look line in your neighborhood within the next five years? Will saving time and money be important to you? Do you think Amazon Go is the only solution to contactless fast fresh food and beverage fast?

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® believes you will begin to see more new retail locations the ilk of Loop Neighborhood Market than Amazon Go or 7-Eleven’s in the next five years.

Consumers are dynamic not static, and the one thing we have learned going though this Covad-19 experience is that we have had way too much non-essential contact with other within the retail experience according to Johnson.  So, a digital transformation is upon us and the convenience channel, an autonomous experience is no longer a nice-to-have, but a need-to-have if retailers want to keep pace with consumers’ changing lifestyles and lessons learned.

Loop Neighborhood Market introduced a totally autonomous convenience store and gas station in one of the technology capitals of the world: Silicon Valley. The San Francisco-based retailer tapped artificial intelligence (AI) technology company AiFi Inc. for its AiFi Autonomous Store Platform.

So, based on AiFi’s modular NanoStore template, the autonomous Loop Neighborhood Market clocks in at just 160 square feet. The store provides customers with an autonomous solution in a fun and engaging small store footprint. The format also enables the location to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Varish Goyal, president of Loop Neighborhood Market stated “The new autonomous Loop Neighborhood is a wonderful step forward for our store brand. The fast, frictionless process is delightful and helps customers get what they need to move on with their day,”. Regular readers of this blog know we have reported on this company before and were impressed with the template.  

So once again here is how it works is AiFi has a template shopping app that retailers can choose to label as their own. Under the hood, AiFi has an API that links to all payment methods, including a retailer’s own payment apps, the common payment methods of debit card and credit card, and all contactless payment methods including Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

When one or more customers enter the store, after registering a method of payment, they select their items and leave the store, receiving an immediate receipt for whatever they took out with them. “The entire transaction only takes seconds to complete,” noted Steve Gu, co-founder and CEO of AiFi.

Is your company looking for a platform to edify its relationship with consumers while reducing cost of operating? If so invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a Grocerant Program Assessment, Grocerant ScoreCard, or for product positioning or placement assistance, or call our Grocerant Guru®.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche. Contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or 253-759-7869