GS Retail sells unmanned serving robots in convenience stores

The artificial intelligence (AI) serving robot has been introduced to convenience stores for sale. The number of stores where the robot is being sold has reached over 9,000.

South Korea's convenience store franchiser GS Retail announced on Wednesday that it will be selling the AI-autonomous serving robot Ereon at over 9,000 GS25 stores in Seoul. Ereon is a domestic serving robot that utilizes technologies such as vibration control and embedded AI to serve various items, including liquids, without spilling.

Ereon is a product of the robot startup Polaris3D, which holds 13 patents related to autonomous driving technologies. The company was selected as a robotics company in the 1,000+ Startup Challenge Project by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups last month.

A GS25 official stated that the aim is to actively explore the market for domestic small- and medium-sized enterprises with relatively low market awareness but high technological capabilities compared to Chinese robots. The same official also mentioned plans to expand win-win ESG management into advanced industries.

The introduction of autonomous serving robots to convenience stores is driven by the increase in self-employed individuals. According to GS Retail, as of August last year, the number of self-employed individuals without employees reached 4.33 million nationwide, an increase of 140,000 compared to the same month in 2020.

The purpose is to provide advanced robot purchasing convenience and benefits to self-employed individuals as kiosks and serving robots become more widespread.

The GS25 DX Lab store in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul will serve as a showroom for Ereon. DX Lab is a store location that GS25 opened last year, bringing together various retail technologies such as facial recognition payment and liquor vending machines. GS25 aims to showcase advanced robots by running Ereon as a pilot at this location until next month.

Promotions will also be held. Self-employed individuals who purchase Ereon from GS25 until the end of September can receive a discount of 3 million won ($2,300). Rental options for up to 36 months are also available.

Write to Young Chan Song at 0full@hankyung.com