Ein japanischer Supermarkt stellt in Schweden einen Fernarbeiter für die Nachtschicht ein

Betalvägg

TOKYO — Japanese convenience store chain Lawson will employ remote clerks overseas to serve late-night shoppers through digital avatars.

The first of these avatars is set to go online in January and will be operated by a native Japanese living in Sweden. The employee will help customers in multiple Lawson locations in the Tokyo and Osaka areas.

The eight-hour time difference will enable the avatar to help customers during late night and early morning hours in Japan.

“We want to raise productivity by hiring people in places with large time differences with Japan, such as Brazil and New York,” Lawson President Sadanobu Takemasu told Nikkei.

This is the first time Lawson has set up this remote work arrangement for employees living abroad. The avatars will mainly help customers use self-checkout registers.

The remote workers will use devices provided by the company. The avatars will replicate the movements by the employees though the devices’ cameras.

The avatars are expected to increase the use of self-checkouts and reduce the time that store employees spend on register duty by an average of more than 1.5 hours per store, according to Takemasu.

Lawson launched its customer service avatars in 2022 in collaboration with Tokyo-based tech company Avita. Roughly 70 employees worked as avatar operators as of the end of November. They are available at 28 stores, in such places as Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka prefecture.

Avatars are seen as solution to the labor shortage squeezing convenience stores, which often operate around the clock. Last fiscal year, 62.5% of convenience store operators reported being unable to find enough part-time staff, a Nikkei survey shows.

For the fiscal year ending next March, 37.5% of the store operators expect to see a shortage of workers.

Så även om det är en japan som bor i Sverige, så borde denna kunna lite svenska, kan man då teoretiskt gå in i en affär i Japan och prata svenska med kassaapparaten?