Why 24/7 Retail is transforming the industry – and why Smart Stores are the logical next step
There was a time when retail was clearly defined by opening hours.
Stores opened in the morning and closed in the evening, and customers planned their shopping accordingly. But this model is becoming increasingly disconnected from the way we live today. Consumers are used to services being available whenever they need them. We stream movies on demand, order groceries late at night, unlock shared vehicles with our smartphones, and expect deliveries to arrive when it suits us.
As a result, convenience has become a fundamental expectation in many shopping situations. For retailers and operators, this is not only a customer experience challenge but also a commercial one: How can existing locations remain accessible for longer, generate additional revenue, and enable new retail locations without increasing staffing and operating costs at the same rate?
At the same time, new opportunities are emerging in locations that traditional retail concepts were never designed to serve – such as EV charging hubs, petrol stations, hotels, office buildings, hospitals, and rural areas. In these environments, existing footfall can be converted into additional revenue through automated retail solutions.
Against this backdrop, the question is no longer whether retail should become more digital. The more relevant question is:
How can retailers offer customers greater convenience without proportionally increasing operational complexity and costs?
One increasingly relevant answer is 24/7 retail: retail concepts that allow customers to shop independently of traditional opening hours.
The idea of selling products around the clock is not new. Vending machines have existed for decades, and convenience retailers have long experimented with extended opening hours. What has changed is the technology.
Modern smart store and self-service retail concepts combine hardware, cloud-based software, inventory management, payment, monitoring, and other digital services into an integrated retail system. Depending on the location, this can take the form of a walk-in smart store, a modular retail solution, or a compact automated point of sale. What matters is not the format itself, but how reliably product selection, payment, dispensing, and operations work together.
This is precisely why smart stores should not be viewed as a short-term retail trend. Instead, they are the result of a broader transformation in how physical retail operates.
Digital services increasingly shape customer expectations of physical shopping experiences: interactions should be intuitive, fast, and available when they are needed. For retailers, availability is therefore becoming an integral part of the customer experience.
Convenience is becoming one of Retail’s most valuable currencies
Location, product range, and price remain key competitive factors in retail. At the same time, convenience is becoming increasingly important – particularly when customers want to meet an immediate need quickly and with minimal effort. Commuters may want to buy breakfast within minutes. EV drivers may want access to snacks and drinks while charging their vehicles. Hotel guests may need everyday essentials after midnight.
In situations like these, price is not necessarily the deciding factor. Availability is. Retailers that remove friction from these everyday situations create value that extends beyond the individual transaction. They can strengthen customer loyalty by integrating shopping seamlessly into customers’ daily lives. This is where smart store concepts demonstrate one of their greatest strengths.
Smart Stores are a business model – not just a technology project
A smart store is not primarily a technology project. It is a business model. Successful smart retail concepts therefore do not begin by selecting individual devices or software solutions. They begin by asking what problem needs to be solved at a specific location. Is there a lack of retail availability outside traditional opening hours? Is there existing footfall that is not yet being monetised? Or should a product range be made available without requiring staff to be permanently present? The central question is:
“How can we create value where traditional retail reaches its limits?”
Sometimes the answer is to extend opening hours without increasing staffing costs accordingly. In other cases, it is about opening entirely new locations where a traditional, fully staffed store would not be economically viable. Or the goal may be to provide existing customers with greater convenience while making operational processes more efficient. Technology enables these business models, but technology is not the business model itself. This distinction is important because it shifts the focus away from individual devices and systems and towards the actual value created for customers.
What makes a Smart Store successful?
Every smart store concept is different. However, successful solutions tend to share several characteristics.
At the heart of the concept is a carefully designed customer journey, rather than any individual technology. From product selection and a potential shopping cart to required verification steps, payment, and product dispensing, every interaction should be intuitive and as simple as possible. Operational reliability is equally important. Customers may appreciate an attractive store design, but trust can quickly disappear if access does not work or the payment process is unnecessarily complicated.
This is particularly important in unattended retail environments, where every component needs to work reliably together because there may be no employee on site to provide immediate assistance. Successful smart stores also generate valuable operational insights. Connected systems can allow operators to monitor inventory and system status, analyse purchasing behaviour, remotely manage multiple locations, and optimise product ranges based on actual demand.
Data therefore becomes an operational success factor. At the same time, smart retail solutions should be designed to support the future integration of new payment methods, digital services, and additional functionality.
Why payment plays a key role in Smart Stores
In a smart store, payment is not simply the final step of a purchase – it is part of an end-to-end customer journey. From product selection and a potential shopping cart to any required verification steps, payment, product dispensing, and the updating of operational data, all components need to work together reliably. Customers rarely remember a payment experience that works perfectly. They certainly remember one that does not.
In unattended retail, payment becomes even more important. Transactions need to be secure, intuitive, and reliable while supporting a broad range of payment methods. In addition, the payment solution needs to integrate seamlessly with the retailer’s wider operational systems. Modern Android-based payment platforms have therefore evolved far beyond traditional payment terminals. They can combine payment functionality with software applications, loyalty programmes, remote management, and business intelligence.
Payment becomes an integral part of the smart store ecosystem, rather than an isolated component.
Collaboration is the real enabler of Smart Retail
No company builds a successful smart store alone.
Delivering a compelling 24/7 retail experience requires expertise across multiple areas, including store design, retail processes, software, connectivity, security, and payment. Successful projects therefore rely on specialised partners whose technologies complement each other and work together as one integrated system. This collaborative approach enables retailers to focus on what matters most: creating a compelling customer experience while experienced technology partners provide the infrastructure required to make it possible.
One example is the collaboration between Twenty4U and CCV.
Twenty4U develops and implements modular smart store and 24/7 retail solutions for a wide range of industries and locations, including petrol stations, EV charging hubs, retail environments, and hospitality. Its solutions combine hardware and central software with functionality such as payment, inventory management, monitoring, age verification, and digital products to create an integrated retail journey. Rather than providing individual technical components, Twenty4U gives operators a scalable system solution that can be adapted to the location, product range, and underlying business model.
CCV complements these solutions with secure and flexible payment technology for self-service and unattended retail environments. CCV’s Android-based payment solutions can be seamlessly integrated into smart store ecosystems to enable frictionless payment experiences. At the same time, they provide retailers with the reliability, scalability, and openness required for future-ready retail concepts.
Together, the two companies demonstrate an important principle: the value of a smart store does not come from one individual technology, but from the reliable interaction of all components throughout the entire customer journey.
The future of Retail is flexible, connected and available 24/7
Retail has always evolved alongside changing consumer behaviour and expectations. Department stores, supermarkets, e-commerce, and omnichannel retail all emerged in response to changing customer needs. The same transformation is happening today. 24/7 retail does not replace traditional stores or retail employees. Instead, it expands what physical retail can do. Existing retail concepts can add additional selling hours, operators can make better use of existing footfall, and new locations can become commercially viable even where a permanently staffed traditional store would not make economic sense. Smart stores therefore represent a more flexible form of physical retail.
For operators, the opportunity extends beyond longer opening hours. Automated retail solutions can unlock additional revenue potential and make products available in locations where traditional retail models face economic or staffing limitations. The key question is therefore not whether every retail location should operate around the clock. It is where additional availability can create measurable value for both customers and operators.