Huge announcements expected at the XII. Laurel Retail Conference

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 05. 19. 10:29

For the twelfth time, the decision-makers of the Hungarian retail industry are being hosted by our country’s leading retail IT company, Laurel. The timing of the event, which will take place in Budapest on May 28, could not be better, as the world of domestic stores has reached several major technological milestones at the same time, while retailers are also waiting for answers to regulatory and professional issues affecting the sector. The focus of the conference will therefore be, among others, the recently debuted hybrid stores and the latest developments related to mandatory cash payments affecting them.

Hungary’s first hybrid grocery store, i.e. operating in the traditional way with staff during the day and becoming completely self-service and operating with remote monitoring at night and on holidays, will be launched within a few days. The live domestic premiere of the concept, which has already been successful abroad, e.g. in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, is made possible by the Laurel 247 Shop system, which has been proven at the company’s Székesfehérvár location for a long time.

“At the XII. Laurel Retail Conference, we will present why we believe that this hybrid system is the most accessible and economical way to automate stores, which is unavoidable due to the economic environment and the labor market situation. Participants can learn how we have adapted successful international examples to domestic conditions, and we can also report on the first operational experiences and further plans related to the spread of the technology”

– summarized Attila Bessenyei, CEO of Laurel.

Moreover, the store with extended opening hours through innovation is not the only current development of the company that can bring a big change to retail. For example, the artificial intelligence-based exit gate, which has been a huge success at the world’s largest trade fairs, will be introduced to the domestic audience at the event, which automatically opens for those who have paid correctly without even reading the block. Based on the reactions so far, the solution could soon gain similar popularity to the RFID-tub self-service checkouts familiar from a sports store – also noted by Laurel.

The event, which is free for retailers, is already attracting considerable interest, which also shows that the players in the sector want to have a clear view of the legal issues affecting them, for which the conference provides a good opportunity every year. This time, an unavoidable topic is the mandatory cash use option, which is planned to be introduced from July 1, 2025, which may sensitively affect the e-commerce and parcel vending machine segments in addition to remotely monitored stores optimized for electronic payments. In addition to the prospects related to this, the future of the margin stop and the retail special tax, new information regarding electronic receipts that will soon become mandatory, and current government development directions for small and medium-sized enterprises will also be on the agenda at the event.