• Polish In-Store martech ZeroQs landed another PLN 2M / EUR 450K+ from Freya Capital
• The startup’s Smart Carts facilitate and accelerate offline shopping
• They also facilitate the collection of data on shopper behavior and enhancing the shopping process further
• ZeroQs will use the new investment on developing and adding new features and expanding the sales team

Polish In-Store Tech startup ZeroQs closed another round of investment this January. PLN 2M / EUR 450K+ came as a follow-on funding from the startup’s repeated investor Freya Capital.

Jarosław Kaczmarczyk and Tomasz Brulinski, both engineers with extensive experience in managerial positions at manufacturing companies, founded ZeroQs in 2018. In their previous companies, they were responsible for technology, quality, and customer satisfaction, and clients were suppliers to retail chains. Through this experience and many discussions, they revealed the problem of dissatisfied store customers who were losing interest in purchasing anything due to the issue of long checkout lines at stores.

Combating the Queues Issue

Queues at stores are quite common, and shoppers are usually used to them. Still, shoppers do quite often  get disappointed with long lines of people and end up not buying anything – at least, at one particular store. Self-checkouts don’t seem to solve the problems as people still pile up in queues there.

ZeroQs solution is Smart Carts equipped with a weighing system, barcode reader, and touchscreen, making shopping faster and easier. The customer places items in the Smart Cart, scans them with the built-in scanner, and simply leaves the store when done shopping as the due amount of money is automatically charged to their account. The Smart Carts are additionally equipped with advanced weighing and visual systems for verifying products and protecting retail networks from potential threats like theft, fraud, or customer mistakes.

Last November marked a milestone for ZeroQs as Smart Carts began commercial deployment in such well-known Poland’s retail chains as Społem and Detal Centrum.

Collecting Consumer Behavior Data for the Benefit of Stores and Shoppers

In addition to simplifying the checkout, Smart Carts provide access to consumer behavior data, which potentially allows retail networks to undertake well-informed additional actions. This includes personalizing the shopping process. thus improving the shopping experience.

The process includes analyzing data, segmenting target groups, creating personalized content, and tailoring offers to the unique needs of each customer. While personalization may be easier to achieve in the e-commerce space, stationary stores can also make great use of it, and smart shopping carts that accompany the customer throughout the entire shopping process is an apparent way to achieve it.

‘At this moment, data is collected, but not transferred to external entities and only used for our own purposes in order to improve the customer’s shopping experience. Of course, any data collected is anonymized and collected only with the user’s consent,’ Mr Kaczmarczyk assures.

That said, Freya Capital’s managing partner Michał Lewandowski quotes a Straits Research report, according to which, the global In-Store Analytics market was already worth USD 3.8B in 2022, and is expected to reach USD 25.4B by 2031.

‘With access to such data, retail chains can increase both sales and customer satisfaction. Retail chains are looking with increasing interest at accessing data on customer behavior, and ZeroQs’ smart shopping cart could become a key provider of this information,’ Mr Lewandowski points out.

‘Observing the rapid growth of ZeroQs, as well as the market itself, we decided to increase our involvement in the company through a follow-on investment,’ the investor adds.

Further Features and Strengthening at Home with Eyes on the Neighboring Markets

ZeroQs reports that the recent investment should fuel the product development and the addition of new features. Mr Kaczmarczyk assures that they are in the final testing phase, and the company hopes to be able to reveal more details shortly.

The startup’s other stated goal for the upcoming months is to strengthen its position in the home market. To achieve this, ZeroQs intends to expand its sales team and build its visibility broadly. The CEO is confident in the effectiveness of the startup’s technology, which it has confirmed by tests and implementations at stores. So now is the time to focus on building a larger scale business, as well as educate the market and show customers how much faster and more pleasant shopping can be.

‘Simultaneously, we are preparing for the process of international expansion. Initially, we will focus on markets neighboring our country. Because the market is very competitive, we cannot reveal more details, but we can mention that we are in talks with the largest retailers in Poland and abroad,’ Mr Kaczmarczyk adds.

The company is eager to demonstrate its product more actively – both offline and online – and let retail chains and consumers understand the perks of options beyond self-service checkouts. ZeroQs’ belief is simple: technology should make life better, and the team is dedicated to making its technology accessible to everyone.