Sensei has not identified the grocers it’s working with.
Portuguese startup Sensei is working with European grocers to provide cashier-less technology to customers, according to Bloomberg.
Sensei, a technology company founded in 2017 and based in Lisbon, says three major European grocers will use its technology in stores they plan to open in 2019.
The company calls them “Autonomous Checkout Stores” and says “A simple scan of our app lets your customers open the doors to the future of retail. From now on, every individual shopping experience is transformed into a customer journey that you can customize and improve.”
Similar to Amazon Go stores, Sensei says products are added to a customer’s virtual basket while shopping, tracking inventory and analyzing consumer purchases in real time.
“Amazon Go is the best thing that happened to us,” said Vasco Portugal, Sensei’s co-founder and chief executive officer, according to Bloomberg. “It would have been much more difficult for us if they didn’t exist because this is an emerging technology, and they are putting pressure on the market to move in this way.”
Amazon has reportedly scouted space for Amazon Go stores in London but has not announced any openings.
Although other startups, including San Francisco-based Standard Cognition and Trigo Vision Ltd. in Israel, are developing cashier-less technology, none are beyond the pilot stage, Bloomberg reports.
Sensei hasn’t identified the grocers it’s working with, but they’re planning to open one store each to start, according to Bloomberg, and the company is reportedly talking to about 12 retailers in Europe.
“This shows just how competitive the industry is now,” Richard Curry, a partner at property consulting firm Rapleys who covers the U.K. grocery sector, told Bloomberg. “If supermarkets want to boost their market share, they need to be the first to provide this kind of technology.”
