FRICTIONLESS SHOPPING LAUNCHES IN IRELAND

Dozens of cameras in the ceiling use vision technology to monitor every product chosen by shoppers.

Ireland’s first fully frictionless store is opening in Dublin today.

Using state-of-the-art technology, shoppers will be automatically billed for their purchases and will not have to stop to pay at checkouts or scan their items.

The process begins by customers downloading an app tied to their credit or debit card.

They then scan their phone to enter the store, select their items and leave.

Dozens of cameras in the ceiling use vision technology to monitor every product chosen by shoppers.

The store, which is operated by Compass Group, is located in the revamped headquarters of Flutter Entertainment in Clonskeagh and is open to the general public.

“Once customers have entered the store they can put their phones in their pockets,” said Jonny Davis, Operations Manager at Compass Group.

“They can shop around and anything they take will go into a virtual basket, they can leave the store and they’ll receive a receipt on their phone within a matter of minutes,” he said.

For those who might have privacy concerns about being monitored by so many cameras, the developers of the technology insist that there is no facial recognition and that the shopper remains anonymous.

Individuals are identified as stick-figures, the technology tracks precisely which items they are taking and bills their accounts automatically.

“It covers all privacy levels, it’s not biometric and it’s very anonymous,” said Stephen O’Sullivan, Head of European Workspace at Flutter.

“It’s tracking the products and it’s tracking your figure as opposed to your face. It’s focused on the products you pick up and select, as opposed to being focused on you as a customer,” he said.

Compass Group is planning to roll out similar stores in Ireland and the UK in the coming months.

Separately, Flutter Entertainment officially reopened the rest of the building where the store is based today, following a €15.5m investment by its landlord.

The headquarters is to act as a centre of excellence in technology and innovation for the company’s brands in the UK and Ireland, which includes Paddy Power and Betfair.

The building hosts 1,600 Flutter staff and the company said there are plans to grow that further.

Changes include the addition of LED lighting, the addition of an A-rated air conditioning and a cascading watering heating system, as well as a green ‘live’ roof that includes three hives supporting thousands of bees.