On 13 July, Coop Lombardia opened a ‘Click & Collect’ pick-up station for online shopping at its Biococca Village Store in Milan. The store is the first of Coop Italy’s 1,113+ stores to install this type of technology.
The pick-up station uses EPTA bricks (also known as ‘Click & Collect’ refrigerated lockers), which use R290 (propane) as the refrigerant to cool shopping ordered online.
This is the second location this month to have installed EPTA bricks, according to the Italian HVAC&R system manufacturer.
‘Click & Collect’ sees supermarket customers order their shopping online and easily collect it from an external pick-up station – such as a train station, supermarket car park, petrol station, bus stop or airport.
The shopping ordered online from Coop’s e-commerce platform can be picked up 24/7 at the Biococca Village Store, which is located in a shopping centre.
EPTA is also working with Vodafone to make sure the refrigerated lockers are connected to Vodafone’s fibre and 4G network and Vodafone’s IoT telemetry system, which provides connection to online networks.
Click & Collect innovations are a growing trend in the food retail market as consumers increasingly switch to shopping online. At last year’s EuroShop, Viessmann and Hauser both launched refrigerated lockers, using hydrocarbons, to pick up online shopping.
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