First of a chain of 24/7 autonomous grocery stores, driven by biometrics, opens in Slovakia

Biometrics is used as a verification method to make sure that sensitive goods such as alcohol and cigarettes stay out of reach of underage youth

Slovak chain of grocery stores Coop Jednota, one of the largest in the country, is starting an experiment with stores that are open 24/7 and can be operated without staff. “The prerequisite is to have a registration in our loyalty program with a verified ID,” explains Jana Kuklova, spokeswoman of Coop Jednota. The verification is necessary to prevent underage buyers access to alcohol and cigarettes. Only people of legal age or over will be allowed to the store outside normal opening hours, when the check can be done personally by the cashiers.

The verification can be carried out in person by staff, but Coop Jednota has also opted for remote identity verification service from Innovatrics. The solution allows a customer to be fully onboarded via their smartphone in an easy-to-perform process that includes identity verification through selfie comparison with an ID photo. Liveness check then makes sure that there is no fraud attempt. “Our solution is very easy to implement in the existing app and doesn’t require complicated integration,” adds Martin Ondercin, product manager of Remote Identity Verification Service at Innovatrics.

Biometrics for customer verification

The chain relies on biometrics to provide access to the autonomous stores on a much wider scale, as it plans to offer this service around Slovakia. “There are places where it would not be economical to run a grocery store, but with automated or semi-automated stores, even people in so-called food deserts will be able to do their shopping,” Kuklova explains.

Verified customers will be given access via generated QR codes at first, but the company is looking into biometrics as an access control as well. “The current state of hardware allows us to implement biometrics in a wide range of cameras, allowing people verified access without significant technological investments,” explains Michal Vilagi, head of SmartFace business unit in Innovatrics. Cameras that are connected to the facial recognition platform are able to perform facial recognition, QR reading, and even palm recognition. The latter two options are offering alternatives to those not comfortable with sharing their face.

In the near future, Coop Jednota intends to open 9 more of the 24/7 grocery stores and after evaluating the results plans to continue with the rollout across the country. Altogether, Coop Jednota operates almost two thousand stores of various sizes in Slovakia.