How Lush and Google Cloud AI are reinventing retail checkout

Lush is known for its vibrant, fragrant, and ever growing range of packaging-free cosmetics. These ‘naked’ products, like their iconic bath bombs and shampoo bars, are great for the planet but create a unique challenge at the checkout: how do you scan an item that has no barcode?

Previously, staff had to memorize hundreds of products to manually enter them at the till. This led to slower transactions and long lines, especially during busy seasons. To solve this, Lush decided to bring the AI from its popular Lush Lens app feature—which lets customers scan products with their phones—directly to its in-store tills, all powered by Google Cloud.

Using Google Cloud Storage to host a library of over half a million product images and built with Gemini via Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform, to train its recognition model, Lush tills can now instantly identify any unpackaged product held up to the camera. What was once a manual lookup is now a split-second scan.

The results are transforming the store experience. According to Lush staff, during the Christmas peak in Glasgow queue times dramatically reduced from out-the-door to around just three minutes thanks to Lush Lens on the tills.

Beyond shorter lines, the AI-driven system has delivered powerful benefits. By creating a more efficient and digital-first process, Lush has:

• Saved 440,000 liters of water by reducing the need for in-store product demonstrations.
• Significantly shortened onboarding time for new employees, making the workplace more inclusive.
• Improved billing accuracy and inventory management through precise, AI-driven identification.

Lush's story shows how AI can support a company's core mission—in this case, sustainability—while improving efficiency and creating a better experience for customers and employees alike. By embracing technology, Lush isn't just selling cosmetics; it's designing a smarter, more sustainable future for retail.

To learn more about how retail companies are innovating, visit https://cloud.google.com/solutions/retail