Circle K is introducing fully frictionless technology at existing stores in Arizona as part of its innovation journey and mission to make its customers’ lives a little easier every day. By adding this seamless checkout technology, the company is looking to enhance the shopping experience for both customers and team members.
Bringing a fully frictionless experience to several existing Arizona stores in Tempe and Tucson is the next step by Circle K parent company Alimentation Couche-Tard (Couche-Tard) to incorporate technologies that make the customer journey easier and more convenient. Earlier this year, Couche-Tard created its first frictionless location in its store on the campus of McGill University in Montreal. Here the company is also collaborating in a live retail lab to explore how frictionless technology impacts shopper behavior and improves the customer experience.
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Beginning this week, a retrofitted Circle K store in Tempe will offer customers a fully autonomous checkout experience using technology developed by Standard AI. Inside the store, a network of cameras is mounted at strategic locations to accurately associate customers with the products they pick up, working with the store’s existing layout, fixtures, lighting, inventory management systems and visual merchandising plans. Customers’ purchases are recorded on the Circle K mobile app, eliminating time spent at traditional checkout areas. In the coming weeks, more retrofitted Circle K locations will roll out in Arizona as the company explores different fully autonomous checkout solutions.
“We are continually exploring ways to introduce technology that empowers our teams and shows our commitment to be a leader in retail innovation,” said Deborah Hall Lefevre, Couche-Tard’s Chief Technology Officer. “In Montreal, we built and opened our first frictionless location. In Arizona, we are going the next step by retrofitting existing stores with autonomous self-checkout systems to gain further insights into how frictionless technology can both make it easy and save time for our customers and allow our team members to focus on delivering a great experience. At all times, the privacy of our customers’ data is our highest priority.”
Ms. Hall Lefevre adds that, in addition to improving and speeding up the customer experience, the autonomous checkout systems enhance the work experience for store team members as the technology gives them more time to help customers with their shopping journey. Ms. Hall Lefevre also emphasizes that being a company investing in innovation and growth is important to attracting and retaining employees interested in companies on the forefront of advancements in convenience and mobility.
Moving forward, the company will monitor and evaluate lessons learned from these frictionless technologies and experiences, both from customer and team member feedback, as it progresses in its innovation work and network deployment.
