All over the world, retail is under pressure – and the stores are looking for solutions that can reduce costs.
This has happened, among other things, through the scan-yourself checkouts, which we also see in Greenlandic supermarkets, but the development in the future will be even wilder. Around the world, new shops are popping up without staff – and many see the staffless shops as the solution in small communities.
All over the world, retail is under pressure – and the stores are looking for solutions that can reduce costs.
This has happened, among other things, through the scan-yourself checkouts, which we also see in Greenlandic supermarkets, but the development in the future will be even wilder. Around the world, new shops are popping up without staff – and many see the staffless shops as the solution in small communities.
They have also discovered this in Arctic Import, which will now sell self-service solutions on the Greenlandic and Icelandic markets in collaboration with the companies Unlimit Group A/S, which develops and produces the solutions, and Modern Expo, which supplies shop fittings.
– We are Greenland’s leading wholesale company – and we see the self-service solutions as an opportunity for many of our existing customers, explains Thomas Hjort, managing director of Arctic Import.
– The possibilities do not stop at the traditional store. It is also suitable for workplaces, hotels, schools, gas stations, airports, tourist attractions. The list of ideas is long.
A modern coffee shop
The self-service solutions can, for example, be a bar where guests at a hotel can buy something to eat and drink themselves outside of normal opening hours, and without staff necessarily being present all the time. You log in with your mobile phone or a key fob – and built-in scales in the shelves automatically register what is taken, after which it is all deducted from the guest’s credit card.
– I imagine that it is a really good solution both in hotels and in the smaller airports and heliports, explains Thomas Hjort.
– I also imagine that educational institutions can benefit from the system. Here there is typically a lot of pressure on the canteen at lunchtime, but it is far too expensive to have canteen staff outside the lunch break. With a self-service solution, students can always get something to eat when they feel hungry during their studies.
– We have already experienced great interest in the self-service solutions in Iceland, while we have only now started marketing in Greenland.
It is the future
Thomas Hjort believes that in the future we will see lots of self-service solutions in Greenland. The collaboration with Unlimit Group A/S and Modern Expo is only the beginning.
– Together, we will help retailers build and upgrade everything from shelving systems and cooling solutions to checkout lines, self-service checkouts, intelligent vending machines, parcel boxes and unmanned store concepts.
– Solutions that can make it easier to stay open longer, optimize the store’s resources and create access to goods – even when staff are not present.
The collaboration between Unlimit Group A/S is hardly accidental. The company’s sales director is Mads Laursen. He has lived in Greenland for many years and has, among other things, been marketing manager at KNI.
– So, yes, I am absolutely sure that many companies in Greenland can benefit from our products, says Mads Laursen to Sermitsiaq.
Unlimit Group A/S was founded 14 years ago and develops and produces a wide range of self-service solutions that are integrated with the customers’ other IT systems.
The company has, among other things, supplied the first unmanned retail stores to Dagrofa’s “Min Købmand” chain and also supplies to the unmanned store chain Smart Shop, which has seven stores in Denmark.
Unlimit Grop’s products are not only used in the grocery trade. The systems are also used on large construction sites, where they keep track of the stock, so when an employee picks up, for example, a faucet, the system automatically registers where it should be booked – and also notifies the warehouse management if the stock of faucets is about to run out.
The core of Unlimit Group’s solutions are AI cameras and shelf scales that combine over 30 signals per second and ensure that companies always have control over where the products are – and also eliminate the risk of loss and theft.
