Atrium, Zippin Team to Bring Frictionless Commerce to Colleges

Campus card management company Atrium Campus has joined forces with checkout-free technology provider Zippin to bring frictionless commerce to American colleges.

“Today’s students are typically digital natives, looking for fast, frictionless experiences everywhere in their lives,” Gary Jacobus, Zippin’s senior vice president of business development, said in a news release Tuesday (April 26).

“Time-strapped students no longer have to decide between making it to class on time or grabbing a snack or drink,” he added. “Checkout-free technology eliminates lines and the need to make a trade-off.”

Zippin’s offer combines multimodal sensors, vision cognition technology and machine learning to provide frictionless shopping for clients that include Aramark Corporation, Compass Group, Levy, Lawson and Americanas.

Read more: Cashierless Checkout Provider Zippin Lands $30M

The companies argue Zippin’s technology is “well-suited” for high-traffic locations like college campuses, airports and sporting venues, and complements Atrium’s card system.

“Atrium has been reimagining the campus card for the mobile generation in partnership with our clients since our launch,” said Tammy Johnson, Atrium president and CEO. “Partnering with Zippin to bring students a mobile-first, checkout-free dining and retail experience is a next step in this journey.”

As PYMNTS noted last year, college students have come to expect frictionless integration between formerly disparate routines, and campus food service and technology providers are noticing. It’s why student dining routines are now linked to other areas of campus life, integrated through payments systems and connected digital technologies.

See also: Old-School Campus Cafeterias Get Connected Economy Upgrade

“I look at universities like a smart city, and to have one solution provider that can do your dining, your payments and tuition and dorm access — if you can do all of that within one seamless solution, that is really the push right now,” Erica Bass, vice president of product management at Transact Campus Inc. told PYMNTS. “Everyone’s looking to, ‘How do you streamline the number of vendors and other touchpoints?’”