Slovak retailer COOP Jednota Slovensko is using Innovatrics identity verification to let shoppers into its stores when no staff are on duty. More than 57,000 customers have confirmed their identity and age through the chain’s mobile app since the service launched, according to an Innovatrics case study, and the system now controls after-hours entry at 40 stores across Slovakia.
COOP Jednota, the country’s largest domestic retail network, operates close to 2,000 stores, many of them in smaller towns and regions. Its 24/7 stores run in a hybrid mode. Staff serve customers during normal opening hours; outside those hours, the doors open only to registered customers, who scan and pay for their goods at self-checkouts.
Registration takes place in the COOP Jednota Klub app. A new customer photographs the front and back of an identity document and then captures a selfie. Innovatrics’ cloud-based Identity Verification Service checks that a live person is present and compares the face with the photo on the document, confirming both who the customer is and that they are an adult. Customers who arrive at a locked store without an account can start the process by scanning a QR code on the door.
The verified identity then works as the customer’s key. Shoppers generate a QR code in the app to open the door, another to unlock the self-checkout and a third to leave, with each step requiring a fresh code that also carries their loyalty account. One registration works at every COOP Jednota 24/7 store in the country.
Because everyone inside has been verified as at least 18, the unstaffed hours include the regular assortment, among it alcohol and selected tobacco products. Innovatrics says the only exceptions are goods sold from staffed service counters.
According to Innovatrics, Slovakia has no shared identity scheme that retailers can rely on, unlike the Czech Republic, where customers can prove who they are with a bank-issued identity tied to their banking app. Innovatrics verification also serves Czech signing customers who cannot use that bank identity. COOP Jednota tested several partners and approaches before choosing a method that fit its existing app and kept first-time sign-up fast, since many customers register while standing outside a closed store.
The verification runs as a hosted cloud service, so COOP Jednota did not need new infrastructure, and the retailer built it into its existing app. Michal Švrček, director of IT and services at COOP Jednota Slovensko, said the company was able to deploy and test the system “within a matter of days,” crediting Innovatrics’ documentation and support, and that customers can finish verification and registration in the app in a few minutes.
The network began as a single pilot. The 40th automated store opened in September in Šintava, near Sereď, run by the regional cooperative COOP Jednota Galanta, which said it planned to add about ten more 24/7 stores by the end of the year. At two locations, Šaľa and Šalgočka, customers can instead register with staff during opening hours and use a loyalty card to enter without the app.
Sources: Innovatrics, COOP Jednota, Parlamentné listy
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
