Carrefour’s digital-first expansion brings cashierless tech to French shoppers

French retail giant Carrefour announced this month the launch of the first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered store in Paris, dubbed Flash 10/10 (10 seconds to shop and 10 seconds to pay).
The concept of the technology store was first tested at the company’s head office in France for more than a year. According to the company, it has been designed to ensure a fast and accessible shopping experience for customers who can enter and exit the store without having to pass through a gateway.
Powered by U.S.-based retail technology company AiFi, the store is equipped with 2,000 integrated AiFi sensors built into the shelves and 60 AI-powered cameras placed in the ceiling to help track customers anonymously to protect consumer privacy.
The products picked up are automatically added to a virtual shopping cart, and once customers are ready to leave the store, their virtual baskets are validated at a checkout terminal where they can make a contactless payment without having to scan items or install an application.
The launch of Carrefour Flash comes on the heels of the company’s first-ever Digital Day held this month, during which the French retailer announced plans to increase its digital investments by about 50% between 2022 and 2026, the equivalent of 3 billion euros.
In a statement, Chairman and CEO Alexandre Bompard said the goal is “to transform Carrefour, a traditional retailer with e-commerce capabilities, into a digital retail company, which places digital and data at the heart of all its operations and its value creation model.” And by doing so, it “will unleash the full potential of omnichannel, which is today the DNA of Carrefour and a unique asset in the industry.”
The key drivers of this 2026 digital strategy, which will be based on a “data-centric, digital first” approach, include the ramp-up of data and retail media activities, as well as the digitization of financial services and traditional retail operations, according to the statement..
Carrefour’s mobile app has been downloaded 33 million times, and with 800 million annual visits to its digital platforms, the firm’s goal to make digital expansion a pillar of its future strategy plan may well be within reach.