IGD's Retail Futures team explore trends and innovations shaping the global food industry – today and beyond.

In this article, our Retail Futures Senior Partner, Bryan Roberts, reports back on a recent trip to Frankfurt to assess unattended and robotic retail solutions.

A trip to Frankfurt is always a joy thanks in no small part to some amazing architecture and some of the best Schnitzel restaurants in Germany. Another motivation for a recent trip was the opportunity to see some new innovations in unattended retail and instore robotics.

On the unattended retail front, the undoubted highlight was the REWE to Go store situated in arrivals in T1 of the airport. The 70 square metre pilot store opened in February this year and this operated by Lekkerland, the REWE subsidiary that overseas supply to over tens of thousands retail units across Europe. Unlike some other REWE to Go concepts in locations such as petrol stations and EV charging sites this unit uses technology from AiFi. Aside from times when colleagues are replenishing and merchandising, the store is genuinely unattended with shoppers accessing it via a scan of a credit card, debit card, Apple Pay or Google Pay and accessing age-restricted goods like beer or vapes by scanning their driver's licence or ID card.

The focus of the 570 strong range is very much on lines like food-for-now, food-for-later, coffee and snacking, although there are modest ranges in areas such as health & beauty and travel essentials. The camera-based technology monitors what people are buying and they're able to seamlessly leave the store, receiving a receipt shortly after their visit.

Compared to other so-called unattended stores, this actually lives up to that billing and the genuinely frictionless service, great range and highly attractive store design suggest to me that it will be an expandable and successful proposition.

Another highlight of the trip was a visit to the beautiful EDEKA Graf in the central Frankfurt. Very recently opened, this store has a laser focus on serving the needs of the urban consumer and shopper and we will no doubt cover it in subsequent publications. For now, though, I'll briefly focus on one of its key innovations - namely the robotic barista situated on the ground floor of the store. With tech applied by SMYZE, this is a stunning piece of kit. While the cynic in me could observe that it prepares coffee rather slowly, it has to be said that the coffee was excellent the novelty appeal of the technology should see it do decent trade.

Frankfurt is a brilliant city on a number of levels and I thoroughly recommend a visit to see some really cutting-edge stuff in retail terms. Get in touch if you think you wouldn't mind seeing it with us.