MIMEX, the European Micro-Market Experience project to spread smart retailing, is being finalized.

Milan, 28th July 2022 – On the 2nd and the 3rd of August, at the Spindox Labs headquarters in Trento, a workshop will be held on the topic of the commercialization of MIMEX, a project that as of December 1st 2020, involves an international consortium coordinated by the system integration company. 

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Started in December 2020 in the framework of the EU Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) program, MIMEX was designed to evolve the concept of smart-retail shopping, providing a complete and financially sustainable solution for the creation of a self-checkout micro-market. Within 20 months of project development, several milestones were achieved in perfecting the Micro-Market Experience, all documented in the institutional portal www.mimex.shopping. 

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The event will see the participation from representatives of all partners: the Turkish e-commerce operator Hepsiburada, the Bruno Kessler Foundation, the Spanish R&D company Metrica6 and the CEFLA group, which specializes in engineering and shoplifting. From Spindox Labs, the CEO Mauro Marengo will be present, alongside the Managing Director Cristiano Carlevaro, Spindox’s market director Giovanni Olbino and MIMEX’s Project Manager Mario Conci. 

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The workshop’s schedule will be coordinated by Hepsiburada and Spindox Labs and will begin with the presentation of a Market analysis that will quantify the effective market for MIMEX, considering competitor positioning. Through the sharing of specific study material, the analysis will support the elaboration of an adequate penetration strategy. A discussion among all partners will follow, focusing on the definition of guidelines with a view to define a business plan. 

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Paolo Costa, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Spindox, says: «The goal of optimizing the remote management of the points of retail sale proves to be in line with our expectations. Facing such comforting results, the consortium will be able to evaluate from an early stage the opening of new “pilot” points of sale».

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Last March saw the creation of a graphic solution for the walls of the testbed, operating since May 2021 at the Bruno Kessler Foundation. The testbed has also hosted potential stakeholders interested in observing the system. With the basic configuration of an average store, the testbed is articulated in 1) An access check-in with app-identification in respect to covid regulations; 2) a self-service area in which the client can autonomously carry out their shopping; 3) a check-out area with automatic, in-app payment. 

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Among the tested technologies, there was first a monitoring system, equipped with electronic components situated on the surface of the shelves, designed to identify the availability of all goods for scheduling restocking operations. Furthermore, the mobile application sends feedbacks through which the customer experience is personalized and the self check-out of the clients is carried out.

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Additionally, the quick development of activities has in turn affected two pilot installation: a first one indoors, at the operating headquarters of Hepsiburada in Istanbul; the second one outdoors, in Malaga, at the site of the Technological Park of Andalusia. In Turkey, the validation of the applicable solutions was made possible through the access to a trial market for the employees of the Group, in view of the upcoming official opening ceremony. In Spain, following the established deadlines, the second market is being set up, expanding the applicable options into different contexts. 

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Overall, the testing activities have privileged the development of Deep Learning techniques applied in the area of Computer Vision aimed at analyzing the clients’ movements and monitoring the products’ collection, storing a remarkable amount of information elaborated through Data Science Techniques.