Fast, accurate, safe: AI-supported weighing at SPAR South Africa

The two South African SPAR shops, The Crossing and The Grove, are important suppliers in the region. Like all food retailers, SPAR has to calculate carefully. Employees must be deployed efficiently and losses of goods must be avoided as far as possible. At the same time, customers should be able to shop quickly and conveniently. Serviced fresh food areas offered optimisation potential for SPAR. No one should have to wait for fruit and vegetables to be weighed and labelled. And staff should be able to be deployed elsewhere. Self-service scales were the solution.

Wendell Trican, Technical Solutions Expert, Bizerba SA:

"We all know what it's like when you want to buy fresh produce. You're either queuing or busy weighing your goods. Quite exhausting! Self-service scales with AI technology save time and money and make shopping smoother and more enjoyable.”

More relaxed shopping, fewer losses

In many shops in South Africa, fruit and vegetables are still weighed and labelled at the counter. Shopping often comes to a standstill here. Customers have to wait when it is busy or because one worker is serving at several counters. Self-service checkouts are one way of relieving staff and avoiding queues. However, the risk of lost sales due to incorrectly labelled products increases if the weighing is left to staff. This is partly because it is difficult to check and partly because fruit and vegetable ranges are now very extensive. In addition, there are different prices for organic and conventionally grown products.

Security for sales and operations

Having to laboriously click through pages of selection menus or memorise product numbers is also not very convenient - and no longer up to date. A modern solution was needed that would make weighing fast and customer-friendly on the one hand and secure and reliable for SPAR on the other. After all, not only incorrect registrations, but also technical failures with electronic self-service scales would cost the two shops time and money.

Self-service scales with intelligent object detection

The latest generation of self-service scales offers a solution that may sound like science fiction, but is already a reality: object recognition that automatically identifies products using artificial intelligence (AI). The goods placed on the scale are captured by a camera, an algorithm analyses the image data and after less than a second a product preselection appears on the display. The correct fruit or vegetables can be selected from this using the touchscreen. The active display of matching products limits the selection options and thus minimises the risk of errors and attempted fraud. The tedious search for items and memorising numbers is eliminated, as is the weighing service.

Ongoing training makes detection ever more precise

The Bizerba self-service scales of type XC II 800 Pro have been in the two SPAR shops The Crossing and The Grove since 2023. The technology behind them, the Retail App Object Recognition, turns them into smart scales that learn on a daily basis. The system collects the camera images of all connected scales worldwide, stores them in the Bizerba Cloud and analyses them, continuously developing and training the AI-based data model. Over time, the scale gets to know more and more products and becomes increasingly precise.

Smooth operation thanks to remote support

SPAR benefited from the existing global database from day one. The solution did not require a long learning curve for the product range and could be implemented quickly. It is also important for SPAR that the system functions smoothly in day-to-day operations and is always up to date. This is ensured by Bizerba Remote Support, which has access to the back office of the SPAR shops and can intervene quickly if necessary.

Customer-orientated and economical

Intelligent self-service scales recognise which goods should be weighed, making shopping for fruit and vegetables child's play. Customers have a convenient and modern shopping experience. Staff at SPAR shops can be deployed more economically as services in the fresh produce area are no longer necessary.

The two SPAR shops also save money. On the one hand through less loss of goods, and on the other hand by safeguarding operations with fast and cost-effective remote support from Bizerba.

Wendell Trican, Technical Solutions Expert at Bizerba SA, says:

“The feedback from SPAR was amazing. The purchase of the AI-supported scales has already paid off for the customer in the first year.”

Adrian Michael, Store Manager at SUPERSPAR The Grove, explains:

“The Bizerba object recognition scale has helped us to save labour hours and increase customer flow in the food department.”

Grant van Rooyen, Store Manager at SUPERSPAR The Crossing, adds:

“Bizerba's remote support is very efficient. Anyone can log in, check the problem and have it resolved quickly.”

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