How Tiliter tech is levelling the playing field for retailers

The brick-and-mortar retail industry has never been under more pressure. Despite supermarkets holding fast during the pandemic, there has been a big shift to online grocery shopping, and the need to stay competitive in a low-margin market is ever-present.  

Our retail customers found themselves looking to the checkout experience to reduce loss in their stores, streamline processes and keep shoppers safe.  

While barcode scanning is commonly used, the ability to scan fresh produce has proved difficult. Shoppers want the convenience of scanning their fresh produce quickly, in the same way as their packaged goods. To do this effectively, our customers looked for a technical solution made for supermarkets that could help manage tare weight, identify an ever-changing list of categories including organics, and offer an outstanding shopper experience.

Follow the Tiliter Retail customer journey and get a better understanding of why our tech has been the right fit for large grocery chains across the globe.

Background

With the large grocery chains vying for the same customers, every little advantage is needed to set yourselves apart and a smooth checkout can have a huge impact. Customers expect convenience. They are savvier than ever in their choices and will go to the shop that offers them the better experience.  

“Online food retailers have been a clear winner from the growing popularity of online shopping, with online food sales turnover growing by 65.1% over the year through February 2021, to reach $9.5 billion.” Retail World Magazine

In the fight to stay in the race, innovative retail tech is the battle ground.

Retail challenges

Retailers large and small are fighting fires on a number of fronts. Loss and fraud accounted for 62% of a retailer’s bottom line in 2020 — costing the industry $61.7 billion*.

COVID fears are never far away either, with customers wanting to know they are safe when they’re in the supermarket.

“Retailers must have a plan that ensures the safety of the employees while also trying to maintain business as usual activities.” KPMG

Retail processes are manual and labour intensive, with staff management, inventory control and queue management just a few areas where efficiencies can be made.  

• Don't have the budget for costly IT infrastructure
• Loss of profit due to shrinkage
• Loss of profit due to TARE
• Loss of profit due to misidentification of organics
• Loss of profit due to misidentification generally
• Loss of customers due to lengthy lines/frustrations with checkout
• Need to offer hygienic shopping

Tiliter Retail’s supermarket tech solutions tick all the boxes.  

A solution tailored for retail

Technology in retail isn’t new. Grocery chains adopted self-serve checkouts a long time ago. The first self-checkouts were launched in 1992 and by the early 21st century, SCOs (Self Checkouts) were everywhere.

Computer vision is a popular choice for retailers, giving them visual feedback, inventory data and the ability to improve the checkout experience. But not all computer vision is created equal. Tiliter Retail’s produce identification tech was the right choice for our customers.

Our advanced computer vision can identify 100s of fresh produce items out of the box. The model comes pre-trained so supermarkets can get up and running quickly.

Our grocery store customers in Australia, Europe and the Middle East use our AI Scales to help their shoppers checkout produce items quickly and accurately, using a scan and go phone app. The tech speeds things up because there’s no long, alphabetical menu to search through, which retailers know is a big turn off for shoppers.

Customers using our AI Checkout Solutions have chosen to stick with their existing hardware but add the power of Tiliter computer vision to the checkout. Our processor and camera (where the magic happens) can be retrofitted to most POS (Point of Sale) and SCOs and immediately offer a faster and more convenient checkout for customers and cashiers alike. With no need to remember or manually enter endless PLUs, cashiers can increase throughput at the checkout.

With the help of our global partners, Retail Data Systems (RDS), Bizerba and GAP, brick-and-mortar retailers are tackling their biggest problems. Like shrinkage from loss and fraud. By adding Tiliter Retail’s clever computer vision software to your existing hardware through our resellers, you can be confident that shoppers and cashiers can’t select the wrong item, whether intentionally or not.

The results  

“Our biggest barrier to sales right now is the question of theft and loss prevention and this solves it.” Bizerba

Benefits of Tiliter Vision

• Experience – No frustrating lookup menus & fast product identification
• Bag detection – Can identify if any type of bag is used and apply tare weight to individual transactions
• Prevents fraud – Prevents incorrect product selection to mitigate fraud
• Organics – Can detect organic markings
• Device control – Easily manage your Tiliter device through our portal
• Accurate – Predictions returned at high accuracy, even through bags
• Accessible – Doesn't need constant internet connection
• Pre-trained – Our model works out-of-the-box, no training needed

Our product recognition solutions help retailers tackle their biggest problem – loss and fraud at the checkout. Tiliter’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) helps to put an end to loss, as the product recognition accurately identifies the fresh produce item. So, shoppers and cashiers can’t inadvertently (or otherwise) select the wrong, or a cheaper, item.

By using an accurate product recognition solution, shoppers can reduce their touchpoints, and because queues can move quicker, shoppers an avoid spending too much time in close contact with fellow shoppers. The shopper avoids annoying search menus, saving valuable time off the checkout and offering a better checkout experience.

“The scales are great; the produce recognition is fantastic!”  
‍Samantha, Store Manager, Woolworths Mona Vale

“Tiliter’s varied 'optical recognition' approach means time-starved customers are no longer frustrated during the product labelling process. Retailers benefit additionally from unprecedented variety-specific accuracy that aids inventory and profit control.”  
‍Joe Cabral, Retail Consultant Bizerba

As a Scan & Go user me, the scales are responsive and are great to use!"
‍Brad, Store Manager, Countdown Ponsonby

What does the future hold for retail?

The retail landscape is changing and innovating fast. Autonomous stores have become a reality, with Amazon’s first fully autonomous store opening in 2018 in Seattle enabling shoppers able to avoid the checkout altogether. This tech is still expensive, hard to scale and out of reach for most. But it indicates the appetitive for innovation amongst retailers and the fact that shoppers are drawn to exciting new shopping experiences offered by new tech.  

At this point, according to the 29th Annual Retail Technology Study by RIS, only 3% of retailers have implemented computer vision technology, with 40% planning to adopt it in the next two years. In other words, our customers have not only found the right tech, but they are already ahead of the game.

We want to level the playing field for retailers today. Our easy to adopt computer vision products are accessible for all, in line with our vision to democratise computer vision. If you’re ready to automate and enhance your retail processes and offer your shoppers an experience that keeps them coming back for more, join the AI revolution happening at Tiliter.

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Download the case study here.

*National Retail Security Survey - NRF (National Retail Federation)

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