Madrid Airport: Creating a Faster Travel Retail Experience with ON YOUR WAY AI Grab & Go

Customer Requirements

Airport retail is built around one constant challenge: time.

Travelers often need to buy something quickly before boarding, during a transfer, after security, or while waiting near the gate. A drink, a snack, a regional gift, a travel accessory, a small electronic item, or a last-minute essential can become urgent when every minute matters.

At Madrid Airport, the ON YOUR WAY store was created to make travel retail faster, simpler, and more flexible.

Traditional airport stores still rely heavily on manual checkout, cashier availability, and customer queues. During busy travel periods, even a small purchase can take longer than expected. For passengers carrying luggage, watching flight information, and moving between gates, checkout friction becomes a real pain point.

The project needed to solve several key needs:

1. Faster shopping for passengers
   Travelers should be able to enter, pick what they need, and continue their journey without waiting in a long checkout line.
2. A broader airport retail assortment
   The store needed to support multiple categories, including drinks, snacks, gifts, regional products, toys, electronics, bags, and travel essentials.
3. A smoother contactless experience
   Airport passengers increasingly expect retail services to be digital, simple, and low-friction.
4. Efficient use of terminal space
   Airport commercial areas are valuable. The store needed to serve diverse passenger needs within a compact, highly organized space.
5. A scalable model for travel retail
   The solution should provide a reference for future unmanned retail deployment in airports, transport hubs, and other high-traffic travel environments.

To meet these goals, ON YOUR WAY introduced an AI-powered unmanned store experience supported by Cloudpick technology.

Cloudpick Solution

Cloudpick provided the AI-powered unmanned retail technology behind the ON YOUR WAY store, combining computer vision, smart sensing, access control, automated checkout, and real-time backend management.

The shopping journey is designed to be simple and intuitive:

Enter
Passengers access the store through the entry gate.

Pick
Customers freely choose products from open shelves, including beverages, snacks, gifts, regional items, electronics, bags, and travel essentials.

Leave
After selecting products, customers exit naturally without scanning items one by one or waiting for a cashier.

Automatic recognition and settlement
Cloudpick’s AI system identifies the selected items, generates the order, and updates transaction and inventory data automatically.

This turns a traditional airport retail journey into a true Grab & Go experience.

The ON YOUR WAY store also reflects the needs of airport environments. The transparent storefront makes products visible from the terminal corridor. Clear category signage helps travelers quickly find what they need. The entry gates create a secure shopping flow, while the open-shelf layout offers a richer experience than vending machines.

Powered by Mastercard, the store presents a modern digital payment and retail experience that matches the speed of airport travel. Instead of treating checkout as a separate step, the system makes recognition and payment part of the shopping journey itself.

For operators, Cloudpick’s backend system helps turn the store into a digital retail unit. Product movement, transaction data, and inventory changes can be recorded automatically, supporting better replenishment, category planning, and day-to-day management.

Video

To see the Madrid Airport ON YOUR WAY unmanned store in action, watch the video below:

YouTube:
https://youtu.be/ViEDfoEx9Uo?si=Vmd5K-X8u1LLSMS5

Result

The ON YOUR WAY unmanned store at Madrid Airport shows how AI Grab & Go technology can upgrade travel retail in high-traffic airport environments.

For travelers, the value is immediate. They can quickly enter the store, choose what they need, and continue moving through the airport. Whether it is a bottle of water, a snack, a regional gift, an electronic accessory, or a last-minute travel item, the store reduces unnecessary checkout friction.

For operators, the benefits are broader:

1. Faster passenger service
   The Grab & Go model helps reduce checkout waiting time and improves shopping efficiency during busy travel periods.
2. More flexible operation
   Automated recognition and checkout reduce dependence on continuous cashier service.
3. Better use of airport space
   A compact smart store can provide multiple product categories within a limited terminal footprint.
4. Wider product range than vending machines
   Open shelves allow passengers to browse and choose naturally from drinks, snacks, gifts, electronics, bags, and travel essentials.
5. Real-time retail data
   The system can support digital transaction records and inventory visibility, helping operators understand passenger demand and improve replenishment.
6. Scalable airport retail model
   The same format can be applied to other terminals, transport hubs, railway stations, service areas, and high-traffic commercial spaces.

Most importantly, this project shows that airport retail innovation does not always require a larger store. Sometimes, the next leap comes from making the existing shopping journey faster, lighter, and more intelligent.

By working with Cloudpick, the ON YOUR WAY store brings a new model of AI-powered travel retail to Madrid Airport, one that combines convenience, automation, and digital payment into a seamless passenger experience.

Suggested Customer Testimonial

A representative from the project said:

“Airport passengers need retail services that are fast, simple, and reliable. With Cloudpick’s AI-powered Grab & Go technology, the ON YOUR WAY store provides a smoother shopping journey for travelers while helping operators improve efficiency, product visibility, and daily store management. This project gives us a practical model for the future of airport convenience retail.”