DGAP-News: GK Software launches new scanless format GK Go

With the opening of the first scanless store for the employees at the headquarters in Schöneck, GK is ushering in the era of completely contactless shopping. The store allows shoppers to check in, take items, and just walk out or pay on their phone. Multiple shoppers can use the store at the same time with no need to scan items or wait in line to pay. Shoppers don't have to look at their phone while they shop. However, they can choose to check their app to see basket content, item information, price, promotion, coupons redemption etc. at any point during their time at the store.

The GK Go store is using GK CLOUD4RETAIL's new service GK Go, which orchestrates CLOUD4RETAIL services to enable a consistent, flexible flow with real-time shopper interaction throughout the shopping journey, Shekel Product Aware shelves, which recognize the products taken off the shelves, and Hitachi's 3D LiDARs, which associates the items to the relevant shopper.

GK's CLOUD4RETAIL platform enables flexible journeys and a variety of customer touchpoints, even in a scan-less shopping journey. As a result, GK Go can be used autonomously or staffed, in a container or as a full store. For example, in addition to pre-authorized 'just walkout' technology, retailers can choose to allow card or cash payment at a payment tower, payment on consumers' mobile phone and even payment at a staffed checkout.

With this technology, consumers can easily see all relevant information about their basket in the app as they are shopping, including items, price, additional item info, total cost so far, and promotions and coupons that have been redeemed. Furthermore, they can opt in for real-time relevant offers and get a hyper-personalized experience with offers based on their preferences, basket content, shopping history, location in the store and additional attributes using GK AI for Retail.

Orit Bar-Ad, portfolio director, GK: "Consumers want to see information that is relevant to them as they shop, regardless of the channel or format. Scan-less should mean a great experience with fewer tasks for the shopper, whilst retaining flexibility and improving interaction. It should remove friction and should take retailers forward in their interaction with consumers as they shop."

"This was a leading principle in GK Go - a consumer can take items and just walk out, but they can also see what's in their basket, how much they are being charged, view promotions deployed, and more, at any point while shopping. As well, they can choose other ways to check out, in addition to being able to just walk out. This is achieved due to our real-time interaction, and the new services being an integral part of our unified commerce platform."

"Various technologies can be used to provide the item and consumer events used by our new GK Go service," said Orit Bar-Ad. "We are currently working in partnership with Hitachi Smart Spaces solutions 3D Lidar Sensors and Shekel LTD Product Aware Technology to provide high accuracy, reduced GDPR impact (no images of the consumer), reduced environment and lighting dependency, and superior real-time events performance, enabling GK Go to provide a superior shopping experience."

"We are excited to partner with GK and provide Hitachi Smart Spaces solutions in its staff store to enable a seamless, automated shopping experience," said Christian Dornacher, director, Smart Spaces & Lumada Video Insights at Hitachi Vantara. "As the future of retail includes more touchless experiences, we recognize that protecting customer privacy is crucial. With our Lidar-based technology, we can provide a seamless, non-invasive experience that protects shoppers' personal information and delights patrons with a truly autonomous grab and go retail environment."

Rami Bahar, Chief Business Development Officer, Shekel, said: "We are excited and honored to provide our Product Aware technology to the ground-breaking GK Go store. Converting Shekel's world-class load cells into AI-powered IoT sensors enables us to recognize products in a blink and at the highest accuracy, while maintaining lowest cost of ownership and unrivaled reliability."

The GK Go store is also using a Blue Fire gate from Pan Oston and the latest version of electronic shelf labels from Hanshow, its Nebular series, which allow remote updating of prices, dynamic pricing, and more. All of this combines to provide more efficient operations for retailers, especially in autonomous environments, and a better shopping experience for customers.

About Shekel

Shekel- Doing Magic with Gravity

Shekel is the forefront of the digital weighing industry for the past four decades. Thanks to a unique combination of cutting-edge technology, sophisticated software, AI models, and advanced algorithms, Shekel Scales products have the proven ability to deliver not only maximum-precision weighing solutions but also product recognition and indicative solutions for a wide range of industries, from retail and medicine to science and security. Shekel strives to help our partners achieve their goals and better serve their customers and improve the lives of millions around the world.

With years of experience and countless success stories, our motivation to maintain Shekel as leaders in the digital weighing industry remained embedded and defined by our basic principle; to always put our customers in the center of everything we do. Our magical blend of years of advanced thought leadership alongside an innovative entrepreneurial mindset is what drives our team to continue and develop differentiating technology, and that is Shekel empowered gravity. Shekel's patented combination of weighing technology with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technology led to the development of its "Product Aware Technology". Shekel is committed to continuing to innovate and expand into global markets.

To learn more about Shekel, visit www.shekelbrainweigh.com

About Hitachi Vantara

Hitachi Vantara, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., guides our customers from what's now to what's next by solving their digital challenges. Working alongside each customer, we apply our unmatched industrial and digital capabilities to their data and applications to benefit both business and society. More than 80% of the Fortune 100 trust Hitachi Vantara to help them develop new revenue streams, unlock competitive advantages, lower costs, enhance customer experiences, and deliver social and environmental value.

Visit us at www.hitachivantara.com

About Hanshow

Hanshow delivers digital solutions for retailers to improve efficiency, profitability, and sustainability. From award-winning electronic shelf labels to in-store marketing screens and AI-powered monitoring solutions, Hanshow currently serves over 20,000 stores in more than 50 countries.

Learn more at www.hanshow.com

About GK Software SE
GK Software SE is a leading developer and provider of standard software for the retail sector, and currently counts 22 percent of the world's 50 largest retailers among its customer base. According to a study published by RBR 2021, the Company is one of the leading international providers of POS software and is the fastest growing business in the industry in terms of the number of installations worldwide (without Hospitality and Petrol). The company offers an extensive range of solutions for stores and enterprise headquarters as well as for the implementation of contemporary omni-channel retail concepts. Thanks to its open and platform-independent software solutions in the GK/Retail Suite, the company has established itself as one of the market's leading providers of technology and innovations. Its solutions enable retail chains with numerous stores to optimize their business processes and to benefit from significant potential for saving costs and implementing customer loyalty programs in order to improve their competitiveness. In addition to its own software solutions, GK Software SE also offers customers a comprehensive range of implementation and maintenance services. Having been acquired in 2012, AWEK GmbH and in 2015, the retail segment of DBS Data Business Systems Inc. In 2017, the company acquired a majority shareholding in prudsys AG, a company focused on artificial intelligence. In 2018, the valuephone GmbH was acquired, which develops leading solutions for mobile consumers. retail7 GmbH, specializing in cloud solutions for smaller retailers, was founded in 2020.

The company employs 1,094 members of staff (figures for 30 June 2021) across its headquarters in Schöneck (Germany) and other business locations in Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, South Africa, Russia, Ukraine and the USA. GK Software SE's customers include many well-known retailers, including Adidas, Edeka, Lidl, Aldi, Coop (Switzerland), Netto Marken-Discount, Hornbach, Migros, Grupo Kuo and Walmart. The software is currently being used at almost 500,000 retail and payment installations across approximately 100,000 stores in more than 60 countries. The company has grown rapidly in recent years and its sales revenues totaled EUR 117.6 million in 2020. Since launching the company in 1990, the two founders Rainer Gläß (CEO) and Stephan Kronmüller (deputy board member), together with the experienced management team, have shaped GK Software into a profitable company exhibiting strong growth.

Further information about the company: www.gk-software.com

Contact:

Press & Investor Relations

GK Software SE
Dr. René Schiller
Phone: +49 (0)37464-84-264
Fax: +49 (0)37464-84-15
E-mail: rschiller@gk-software.com