[AI Revolution](46) Advancing the Era of Unmanned Stores with AI Technology... Shinsegae I&C

- Introduction of AI technology for customer flow, behavior, and product recognition
- Establishment of platform for store products, customers, and sales management
- Commercialization era of AI unmanned store technology imminent

"Sparos, where is the cola?"

A consumer stands in front of the chatbot screen and asks for the location of an item, and immediately the chatbot replies, "It is on the shelf shown on the screen," providing the location. When the consumer picks up the item and leaves the store, payment is automatically processed. There is no need to interact with on-site staff during the purchasing process. This is the scene at Emart24, a fully smart (unmanned) store located in Starfield COEX, Samseong-dong, Seoul.

This place is the first demonstration store opened in 2021 by Shinsegae I&C in collaboration with Emart24 and the Ministry of Science and ICT to establish a Korean-style unmanned store technology standard. It incorporates Shinsegae I&C’s artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as AI Vision, Sensor Fusion, and Voice Assistant.

Using camera-based technology to track customer movement within the store and recognize customer behavior and products, along with new technologies like automatic product learning, it is evaluated as having elevated 'K-RetailTech' to a global level.

Since the store opened, over 100,000 users have utilized it, and more than 40 companies and organizations from countries including France, Belgium, Japan, and Southeast Asia have visited South Korea to experience the site and request technology introductions, showing strong market interest.

Shinsegae I&C has improved technology accuracy to 99.5% based on millions of demonstration data accumulated through operating this store. It also configured the system to allow purchase of product categories requiring adult verification, such as cigarettes, which were difficult to sell in existing unmanned stores. An automatic learning function was applied, where AI automatically learns product information when new products are placed on shelves without separate product training.

The platform ‘Sparos OneView’ was also established, enabling store managers to manage products, customers, and sales in real-time anytime and anywhere, and to monitor all information such as temperature, humidity, and fire situations through intelligent IoT sensors and take remote actions. One-stop gate technology, which allows authentication and immediate store use with a credit card without a specific application or QR code, is planned to be applied within this year.

Hyung Tae-joon, CEO of Shinsegae I&C, emphasized that the value of this unmanned store technology lies in ‘data.’ CEO Hyung said, "It is now possible to track and datafy customers and products not only online but also in offline spaces, and by combining various in-store data such as sales data and order data, new insights can be derived. Furthermore, by segmenting customer data, ultra-personalized services from marketing and MD perspectives can be implemented, enabling new customer experiences that were not possible in existing offline spaces," he said.

Hyeong Tae-jun, CEO of Shinsegae I&C

Shinsegae I&C is preparing to introduce unmanned store technology to overseas regions by collaborating with global retail companies based on its own unmanned store technology and operational know-how. Through continuous advancement of related technologies, the plan is to lower initial investment costs, maximize convenience from the perspectives of data-based customer and store operations, and open the full-scale era of unmanned store commercialization as soon as possible.

Shinsegae I&C’s AI Vision technology-based ‘Store Management Platform’ is also attracting attention. The ‘Store Management Platform,’ first unveiled at EuroShop 2023, Europe’s largest retail industry exhibition held last February, is a solution based on Shinsegae I&C’s specialized AI Vision technology.

Even before its official launch, global market interest has continued, and from the second half of this year, tests will be conducted in partnership with European retail companies, with plans to gradually expand the platform domestically and internationally.

The ‘Store Management Platform’ analyzes video information collected by wireless cameras attached to store shelves using AI Vision technology, providing various real-time data necessary for store management such as product display status, out-of-stock situations, and inventory. Compared to previous methods that collected shelf information through robots, the introduction cost was significantly reduced by using the self-developed wireless cameras. By linking with the Electronic Shelf Label (ESL) system and utilizing advanced AI Vision technology, product recognition performance and efficiency were improved.

Shinsegae I&C plans to expand AI recommendation services that combine data collected by the Store Management Platform with in-store sales data in real-time to optimize product composition and placement for maximum sales.

CEO Hyung said, “AI technology-based RetailTech goes beyond improving employee work efficiency to derive new data-driven insights for store operations and further provides customers with innovative shopping experiences. We will continue research on various new technologies such as generative AI technologies including ChatGPT, and introduce new RetailTech through collaboration with various domestic and international companies,” he said.