At the intersection
of employee activation and retention is the cost of both. Labor cost has proven not to be ‘transitory’
unless you can account for employees that have been replaced with the use of
new technology, according to Steven
Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at
Tacoma, WA based Foodservice
Solutions®.
Zippin
the Checkout-free technology provider recently closed a $30 million Series
B funding round with participation from new and existing investors
including OurCrowd, Maven
Ventures, Evolv Ventures and SAP. The new round brings Zippin’s
total funding to more than $45 million.
With labor cost on the up-swing,
employees harder and harder to come by, this new cash boost comes on the heels
of significant progress the company has made in recent months, including
signing numerous new accounts, launching multiple new public checkout-free
stores, and further solidifying their leading technology within the future of
retail.
Did you know that, Zippin currently powers checkout-free
stores across four continents, in diverse retail formats such as convenience
stores, grocery stores, sports stadiums, hotels and residential buildings. The
funding round will enable Zippin to scale its checkout-free platform as well as
power tens of thousands of stores by 2025. How are you lowering cost and
driving customer relevance with a faster check out process?
So, Zippin’s customers include the
world’s largest food service providers Aramark Corp. and Compass Group, Japan’s
third-largest convenience store chain Lawson, and Brazil’s largest retailer
Americanas, all of whom are expanding their checkout-free store footprints
rapidly.
Here is what you need to know. Zippin’s multi-modal
artificial intelligence (AI) technology is unique among its startup peers, and
enables Zippin to deliver greater than
99.9% accuracy even in stores with high shopper density and a complex selection
of products, including unbranded and small-sized items.
No need to remodel or build from new as Zippin’s
solution works equally well in newly constructed stores and existing store
retrofits. The Series B funding will help Zippin accelerate the pace of
innovation in the areas of deployment and maintenance, where past initiatives
like Zippin Cube have already cut time-to-deployment by a factor of five.
Zippin’s goal is to retrofit stores within a single day with zero or minimal
down time for retailers.
OurCrowd founder and CEO Jon Medved,
stated, “Their technology advantage is one of the main reasons we chose Zippin,”
… “We evaluated several companies in this space and found Zippin to be the
clear leader with most stores in public settings.”
Medved continued, “Many of the
Zippin-powered stores in sports venues can attract up to 500 shoppers in a single
hour, putting the underlying AI to the ultimate test. “Zippin’s continued
growth in such challenging environments is evidence of their superior
technology, and also a competitive advantage, allowing their AI to train on
some of the richest datasets provided by those challenging environments.”
Zippin co-founder and CEO Krishna
Motukuri explained the company has seen increased demand and rapid adoption of
checkout-free technology during the pandemic. “Shoppers want contactless experiences
everywhere they go,” Motukuri said. “As retailers realize that frictionless
checkout-free technology is also contactless by design, they see a great
opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. With a checkout-free platform
like Zippin, retailers can offer shoppers what they are looking for today, and
future-proof their business, both at the same time.”
Success clues, Zippin was founded by
industry veterans from Amazon and SRI with deep backgrounds in retail
technology, AI and computer vision, Zippin has developed the next generation of
checkout-free technology enabling retailers to quickly deploy frictionless
shopping in their stores. Its patent-pending technology uses AI, deep learning
and sensor fusion to power its consumer experience: banishing checkout lines
and self-scanners for good, and allowing shoppers to zip in and out with their
purchases.
Zippin’s platform also leverages product
and shopper tracking through overhead cameras, as well as smart shelf sensors,
for the highest level of accuracy even in crowded stores. Zippin has offices in
San Francisco, Dallas, Toronto and India.
For
international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations,
educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA
based Foodservice Solutions. His
extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand /
product positioning expert, and public speaking will leave success clues for
all. For more information visit GrocerantGuru.com, FoodserviceSolutions.US or call
1-253-759-7869
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