The Dutch start-up Wundermart is opening its first two unstaffed ‘hotel stores’ in Belgium this week. More will follow later this year.
Hotels in Brussels
Wundermart’s first Belgian outlets will be at the Hilton Brussels Grand Place and The Hotel Brussels. According to the Dutch company, new locations will be quick to follow, despite the Covid crisis. “Especially in these times, we notice that hotel owners are looking for additional opportunities to generate income. A Wundermart store can provide just that,” says Koen Schrooten of Wundermart Belgium. “Thanks to our revenue-sharing model, a hotel owner can convert unused square metres into additional revenue. And the while they hardly need to worry about the store.”
The start-up, which was founded in 2016, now has 95 outlets in the Netherlands and Germany. The company focuses not only on hotels but also on offices, hospitals, and petrol stations. In the coming months, Wundermart plans to expand to France, the UK, Spain, Norway and Sweden.
Earlier this month, the company announced that all existing stores will soon be equipped with AiFi‘s camera technology. That should make the shopping experience even more pleasant and efficient. Just like Amazon Go, customers will be able to take products off the shelves and pay for them automatically. Currently, customers still must scan the products’ barcodes.