Portuguese AI start-up Reckon.ai and A Super2000, the largest vending machine operator in Portugal, have joined forces to place dozens of microstores in the country.

Reckon.ai is developing artificial intelligence-based technology to helping vendors and retailers create quick and convenient shopping experiences.

The microstores-as-a-service offering takes advantage of small spaces in public places, easily accessible and close to the consumer, to create simple, quick and easy buy-and-bye shopping.

Retailers, vending operators and other businesses can thus provide grab-and-go shopping, round the clock, every day, without queues and at lower operational costs.

Shoppers can choose what they want from the shelves and leave, without the need to go to an operator checkout or even pass a product barcode. The equipment is composed of weight sensors and cameras directed to the shelves and the products.

From there, businesses can control information about preferences: which products are the best sellers, rejection and interaction. This makes interactions the only trackable aspect of the shopping session. While some rely on face and body movements to track purchases, Reckon.ai’s patent-pending technology safeguards clients’ privacy, tracking only the interactions inside the cabinets.

There are several clients, such as A Super2000, operating the Reckon.ai software through dozens of pieces of equipment in Portugal and in several European countries.

Opening the cabinet, choosing products and leaving, using only a smartphone or bank card, this is Reckon.ai’s concept available to suppliers in the retail sector through two-square-metre microstores, already operating in Portugal and Europe, functioning at either refrigerated or room temperatures.

“The concept is simple and easy to implement by our partners,” said Ana Pinto, co-founder and CEO of Reckon.ai. “They just need to connect their machines with our embedded technology to a power source and let the shopping experience happen, whether in an office, hotel, airport or other public spaces of proximity to the customer. The technology behind the purchase may seem simple, but what Reckon.ai does is a significant optimisation of the transaction. Through AI algorithms, we offer a faster shopping journey while allowing for regular product interaction.”