A network of intelligent pickup points and its platform
The network is made of pickup points that run without staff: cold zones, traceability, and access control are built into every one. The platform handles orders, pickup codes, and monitoring, and it runs willit.fi and lahikalaa.fi in production. A new point joins the network ready-made, not as a development project.
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Concept image: Design Lead, Elli KänsäläThe architect's vision
A modular pickup point built on a shipping container
At the core of the pickup point is a space built into a shipping container, where architecture plays a central role. The structure has to work technically. It also has to feel inviting and look instantly recognisable. The warm wooden interior, adjustable shelving modules, and cold appliances adapt to whatever moves through the point.
Architectural concept: Design Lead, Elli KänsäläThree things built in
Every pickup point is built around three things: products stay at the right temperature, their origin can always be verified, and the door opens without staff on site.
An unbroken cold chain
Products move from the producer straight into the point's cold zone and stay at the right temperature until pickup. Temperature is monitored continuously with BLE sensors. A deviation raises an alert immediately, not the next day.
Traceability to origin
Every product carries the record of who made it, where, and when. The label identifier ties the product to its origin, its temperature history, and the pickup confirmation. Food-safety records are created automatically at the same time.
A door that knows the collector
The point runs without staff. The door opens with a pickup code or a button, and every opening is logged. The same point serves a pre-order collection, a producer's restocking visit, and a walk-up purchase.
What the pilots taught us
What actually works in unmanned points
Unmanned shops and pickup points have been trialled in Finland and across Europe for two decades. Those trials left numbers behind. We built our point on those numbers rather than on assumptions.
Location
Location decides it, not the technology
Finland's most visible unmanned shops closed because of low footfall, not because the technology failed. Every point goes to a calculated spot on a route people already take.
455 km
Restocking trips eat the margin
In a two-month village trial, 2,408 euros of sales took 33 hours of work, 13 trips, and 455 kilometres. The margin was there; the driving consumed it. Stock data therefore comes from the point itself, and a restocking trip happens only when it pays for itself.
2-8 %
An open shelf cannot carry the shrinkage
In unsupervised retail, shrinkage typically runs at 2-8 percent early on, and under two percent for an experienced operator. Here every opening is logged and the point locks outside opening hours, so an open shelf is never left unwatched overnight.
Hybrid
A vending machine alone is not enough
A partly staffed point lowers the barrier most for older customers. The door therefore also opens with a door button and needs no phone, and the same point can host a sales day without separate equipment.
The figures come from public trial reports and industry research. We will share the sources on request.
Platform and devices
The same technology for your point too
Willit does not only build its own points. The same platform and the same set of devices are available to another operator, another city, and another product range. We deliver the whole point, or only the part you are missing.
Who this fits
- An investor: a pilot whose costs and utilisation are measurable from day one
- An operator who wants their own pickup point under their own brand
- A municipality or village where the nearest shop is too far away
- A property owner who wants a point in the yard without doing the work
- A producer network sharing one point between them
Platform
Orders, payments, inventory, pickup codes, traceability, and reporting. The same platform runs willit.fi and lahikalaa.fi in production every day.
Devices
Controller computer, lock control, BLE temperature sensors, label printer, and networking hardware. The devices report their state to the platform every five minutes.
Access
Pickup code and door button. Rights are role-based: buyer, producer, maintenance. Every opening is logged.
Rollout
Site assessment, food-safety plan, authority notifications, and producer onboarding. Remote management and monitoring continue after opening.
An EU co-funded project
The pickup point network is piloted as part of the Lahikalaa.fi project, which opens a digital marketplace for Bothnian Bay professional fishers and a cold pickup network for fresh and frozen fish in the Oulu region. The fisher lists the catch online, and the customer picks up the fish from a refrigerated pickup point 24/7.
The project is funded by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF) through the Bothnian Bay Coast Fisheries Leader group.
Willit pickup point, concept renderPractical details
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Modular shipping-container point 6058 × 2438 mm (20 ft), replicable to multiple locations
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Adjustable cold zones: -18 °C frozen, 0-2 °C for the most sensitive fresh products, 0-6 °C for other chilled products
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Continuous BLE temperature monitoring and automatic food-safety records, per EU (EC) 852/2004
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Traceability to origin: producer, production or harvest date, and temperature history
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Access with a pickup code or a door button, with no staff on site
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Entrance and customer flow are designed to be accessible, per site
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The same proven platform as willit.fi and lahikalaa.fi
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The first pickup points open in the Oulu region
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The first point is still being built: some devices are in commissioning, and we tell you the pilot status directly
Interested?
We are looking for site partners, producers, and business customers for the first points. Get in touch and we will look together at what is possible in your case.
Get in touchOr call the founder directly:
+358 44 285 4421