The Czech online retail leader Alza.cz will be opening a new store this week on the street above the vestibule of the Flora metro station. It’s dubbing this new concept as the store of the future, but this may be stretching the definition of what a store is. With 24-hour accessibility and no store staff inside, you could be forgiven for describing it as a pick-up point with benefits. Unlike typical Alza pick-up points, which are merely rows of lockers placed in convenient locations, customers can either order their goods ahead of time, or buy them on the spot. After punching in a 6-digit code and making their payments, customers are directed through a door to a room with hundreds of lockers to the one containing the desired product. Those who need advice on what to buy or have technical questions can make use of video terminals to speak ‘face-to-face’ with a consultant. Obviously, customers will only be able to buy what’s currently in stock at the store, meaning that Alza will rely on the ability of its data mining algorithms to pick the best selling products.
