It's not every day that a modern supermarket based on Israeli technology is built in the heart of Europe, but this is exactly what is happening these days, as the retail giant REWE has established a modern supermarket in Berlin based on a system from the Israeli company Trigo.
Trigo's system knows how to identify the products that customers collect in the basket by combining cameras, a system of artificial intelligence and computer vision that analyzes the images, similar to the technology of autonomous vehicles.
At the end of the purchase, the customer will receive the invoice to the mobile device through the network application.
The store of the REWE retail chain in Berlin, covers 400 square meters, and is the second autonomous branch of the chain, after the successful launch of the first branch in the center of Cologne last year.
This is the first time that a marketing chain opens a second store in this model. The store operates in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood in Berlin, which has become In recent years it has become fashionable and in demand among young and durable family owners and offers a variety of cafes, restaurants and boutique shops.
In the new store, over 10,000 different products are offered for sale, fruits and vegetables by weighing, additional products in bulk and sales stands. It will be opened during the launch phase to the members of the customer club, who will be able to take the products they purchase and leave the store with them without going through the checkout.
The hybrid store, unlike other autonomous stores in the world, also allows buying at a regular cash register at the same time as the autonomous experience, thus those with a low digital orientation will also be able to enjoy shopping in the store. Trigo's system was designed according to the strictest privacy standards in the world and does not collect or analyze biometric information or use facial recognition methods.
It anonymously aggregates information on buyer preferences used by the chain to optimize its work and service to consumers. The REWE group is one of the largest supermarket chains in the world and the second largest in Germany with 6000 stores across the country and another 3500 in other countries around the world.
The store in Berlin joins a series of supermarkets opened over the past year with Israeli technology, including the British Tesco in the heart of London, an ALDI Nord store in Otterkhart in the Netherlands, a store of the Netto discount chain in Munich and an agreement with the largest cooperative supermarket chain in the USA, Wakefern.
Michael Gabay, CEO of Trigo: "We are proud to expand our collaboration with REWE, one of the largest, most valued and innovative food retailers in Europe and the world, and are happy to bring the news of queue-free shopping to the residents of Berlin.
During this process, REWE increases confidence in our system and strengthens its ability to enable a checkout-free shopping experience on the one hand and the adoption of data-based management methods on the other hand"
Trigo was founded in 2018 by the brothers Michael Gabbai, the company's CEO, and Daniel Gabbai, the VP of Technology. Since its inception, the company has raised $104 million from leading investors, including the REWE and Tesco chains, and operates in cooperation with Shufersal in Israel.
The company offers retailers a variety of additional technological solutions to increase efficiency and profitability called StoreOS, including managing inventory forecasts, optimizing product pricing, security and fraud prevention, and planning marketing operations.
The company currently employs over 180 employees, most of them in the development center in Tel Aviv as well as in the company's offices in London, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA and is recruiting development personnel in the fields of artificial intelligence, algorithmics, engineering as well as product, operation and support managers.