AiFi, the leading AI provider empowering retailers worldwide to scale autonomous shopping solutions with 100% computer vision, last week announced it has opened its 100th checkout-free store and welcomed Joe Jorczak as its Head of Global Revenue to support the company’s global expansion. Among its deployments across North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia, and Australia, AiFi is the first autonomous retail provider to showcase its ability to scale with an individual partner, as it has now opened more than 50 stores with Żabka Group in Poland.
Fully-frictionless retail is growing, with the number of stores offering checkout-free technology increasing threefold during 2021, and RBR forecasts the number of check-out free stores to reach over 12,000 by 2027. The opportunity for in-store formats is growing across an increasing number of checkout-free stores in stadiums, workplaces, and other spaces. In fact, there are currently 790,000 convenience stores worldwide with US and European convenience stores making up more than half of the global share with 20% and 32% respectively.
“As we’ve entered a new year, retailers are reimagining everything from inventory management to staffing efficiency and in-store automation in order to meet the evolving needs of their customers,” said Steve Carlin, CEO of AiFi. “We’re proud to offer retailers an affordable, advanced, and flexible solution that helps retailers attract new customers and keep existing ones coming back. Surpassing 100 open stores is a huge accomplishment for our team, and we’re eager to continue expanding our work with current partners, such as Żabka Group, Microsoft, Verizon, as well as new ones we’re eager to welcome this year.”
AiFi has deployed stores at major sports stadiums, transportation hubs, grocery store chains, office buildings, college campuses, convenience stores, and more worldwide. AiFi was recently selected by the Phoenix Raceway to open an autonomous store at the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship in November, and was invited to deploy another store at NASCAR’s next race in the spring of 2023 because of the store’s success. AiFi’s autonomous stores have reached more than one million customers with six million products sold. In 2022 alone, AiFi sold more than 4.8 million products, which is a 1,926% increase of the number of products sold in 2021.
