WeChat, the multi-purpose app, is taking China by storm. And with built-in mobile payment capabilities, it is radically transforming retail on a scale unlike anything seen in the rest of the world. WeChat is now one of the most visited and used social platforms in the world: 90% of its 1 billion active monthly users visit the app daily, and an estimated 80% use the app’s mobile payment function. But what really makes WeChat unique is that it enables consumers to engage in dozens of activities within the app, means that consumers don’t have to juggle dozens of apps. WeChat puts everything from social media and transportation to retail and banking in one platform, enabling consumers to message friends, play games, book a medical appointment, access bank accounts and make purchases without having to switch apps.

Shufersal Ltd., Israel’s largest supermarket chain, is partnering with local start-up Trigo Vision Ltd. to eliminate the need for cashiers in its 272 stores. Trigo’s platform uses a feed from ceiling cameras and AI to create a cashierless supermarket shopping experience and to identify items in a customer’s shopping cart, which are tallied to produce the bill. Trigo says its technology has a 99.5% accuracy rate. Founded in 2016, the start-up offers grocers two models: one replicates the Amazon Go experience, where a customer self-identifies with their smartphone and leaves with the items, and the chain bills their credit card, while the other allows anyone to enter the store, grab their goods and check out at giant screens that have already catalogued the contents of their shopping cart.