European supermarket chain Carrefour is using smart technology from French firm Vusion Group to launch a new generation of connected stores.

The food retailer is using Vusion’s EdgeSense and Captana technologies to digitalise shelves.

EdgeSense combines smart rails system, Captana computer vision, AI, electronic shelf labels and data so Carrefour can reshape the in-store experience with four key objectives:

• Merchandising compliance, enabled by automated visual shelf monitoring
• Better on-shelf product availability, through real-time monitoring and automatic stockout detection
• Automated price and label compliance
• Precise product geolocation to improve the customer journey and optimise in-store ecommerce picking

These innovations should reinvent the daily operations of store teams by equipping them with smart decision tools powered by data and AI, identifying the most urgent tasks to be performed in aisles – pricing, promotions, restocking and so on – and guiding them to execute these actions efficiently.

For consumers, these stores should offer benefits such as a smoother experience, time savings when searching for products, and personalised in-store services and recommendations. With EdgeSense, stores become intelligent media platforms capable of interacting with customers in real time while shopping.

These technologies are being tested in a pilot store – the Carrefour hypermarket in Villabé – where approximately 70,000 electronic shelf labels, 500 cameras and 7000 EdgeSense rails have been installed.

Carrefour is already gaining insights from shelf cameras that detect out-of-stock items, with this technology from Vusion already deployed in 35 stores.

“Digitalisation is at the heart of Carrefour’s strategy,” said Emmanuel Grenier, executive director at Carrefour. “Our stores, which account for 90% of our revenue, are a top priority, and this partnership with Vusion Group marks a key milestone in their modernisation thanks to the EdgeSense platform, which combines operational excellence with an enhanced customer experience. Data accuracy, computer vision and AI are essential levers to sustainably improve our in-store performance.”

Thierry Gadou, CEO of Vusion Group, added: “With Carrefour, we share the same vision of a modernised store at the heart of tomorrow’s omnichannel commerce. This partnership is about bringing that vision to life in the coming years. Carrefour is the first major food retailer in Europe to adopt EdgeSense technology, following Walmart’s decision to roll it out across its stores in the USA. The goal is threefold: to significantly improve store performance, customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction.”

Vusion Group (www.vusion.com) serves 350 large retailer groups in Europe, Asia and North America. It develops technologies that leverage IoT and data to help retailers re-imagine their physical stores into efficient, intelligent, connected and data-driven assets.

With a multi-format network of more than 15,000 stores in over 40 countries, Carrefour (www.carrefour.com) is one of the world’s leading food retailers. In 2024, Carrefour generated €94.6bn in revenue. Its network of company-operated stores employs over 300,000 people.