No cashiers, no waiting, no scanning! If you are a regular Indian shopper, you will heave a sigh of relief when you see that India’s first artificial intelligence-based supermarket was launched in Kochi earlier this week.
Wataasale, the fully-automated store at Kochi’s Gold Souk Grande Mall has been fashioned after Amazon Go. “It is the customer shopping at his/her will without any hassles. He/she can just walk in, take the products and walk out. No need to wait and undergo the hassle of shopping,” said the founders about the store.
The Watasale store has been created by the Kochi-based startup Nayasale Retail Pvt Ltd and aims to bring a unique and hassle-free experience to the customers. The Watasale store is fully autonomous, does not have any cashiers or scanning.
Here’s how the store works:
- The customer downloads the Watasale app
- Walks in with their mobile phone
- Scans the QR code from the app at the entry
- Shops for whatever he/she wants
- Walks out with the purchases
- Bill amount gets automatically debited from his/her account
- The cameras and sensors installed everywhere make sure that there is no shoplifting, pilferage or petty crimes.
Rajesh Malamal, CMO of Watasale told a leading daily, “Unprecedented data is available to give complete insights on store inventory. Stock and stock outs get updated instantly. Customers know whether the product he/she wants is available even before walking into the store. Customers need not park their bags outside the store. And no shoplifting is possible.”
The digitisation wave has swept through the retail sector upending many functions such as supply chain operations across the globe are closing the last-mile gap. Even established Indian retailers like Shopper’s Stop, Reliance Retail and Aditya Birla retail are experimenting with cutting-edge technologies like AI, robotics and cognitive technologies to build a seamless interface for customers.
Customers sharing their purchase experience #watasale #Retail pic.twitter.com/tfkPVe3MPj
— Watasale (@watasale) September 2, 2018
