The new ‘shop and go’ store is located at the Yokohama Techno Tower Hotel and allows customers to enter the store through an app on their smartphone.
The new checkout-free store in a hotel is the first of its kind, and is an ideal retail format for checkout-free technology, because they stores can be kept open at all house without having to maintain staffing levels, especially in off-peak periods. Essentially, this format will allow hotel guests to get food and drinks from the checkout-free store even if there is no cashier on duty.
The hotel is not only selling packaged food and drink; it is also selling takeout meals of bento boxes, a popular portable convenience meal in Japan. The hotel makes bento boxes in-house, and has run a special promotion for people to try the new checkout-free store with a special offer on bento boxes.
To get into the Koyo store at the hotel, customers download a smartphone app (“Green Leaves +” app), register their credit cards, and then use a QR code on the app to enter the store. Customers also have the option of registering their biometric information in advance, which allows them to enter the store without using a smartphone by only scanning their palm and face.
