SnacAdda: Just a Kiosk? Not Quite. A Real-World Retail Lab? Absolutely

In a buzzing corner of WeWork Campus, Andheri, something small but mighty is drawing attention. Tucked beside Chai Point is SnacAdda — a self-checkout snack kiosk built entirely in-house by the passionate minds at Fynd. But it’s more than just a place to grab chips and cola. It’s a prototype, a living lab, a bold experiment — and the first spark in our journey to recreate the real-world customer experience inside our office walls.

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Introducing SnacAdda: Smart self-checkout experience at Fynd HQ

Where it all began

It started with a simple question from Jigar Dafda, our CPTO:

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"We build tech that powers 2300+ retailers, big and small alike. But how often do we feel what their staff & customers feel?"

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As a retail tech company, Fynd’s solutions span the entire commerce journey — from in-store to storefront to fulfillment to customer support. But behind every successful deployment, we’ve always asked ourselves: how can we do more to empathize with the people using what we build?

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Despite solving for everything, we rarely get to experience our products the way a shopper or a store associate would. The unpredictability of a shopper. The chaos of a live transaction. The nuances only the frontline staff notice. That gap between builder and user became our motivation.

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That’s where we kickstarted an internal initiative — to move beyond whiteboard theories and simulated demos, and truly live the user experience.

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Pritam from our Robotics Lab team took the idea and ran with it. What if we could set up a live testing environment right inside our office? With coordination across engineering, commerce, design, and ops, we set out to recreate a real store scenario inside the office.

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Not a simulation. A functioning kiosk. With real inventory. Real payment. Real users. And real consequences.

Enter: SnacAdda

SnacAdda is the first output of that effort — a smart, modular, fully operational self-checkout kiosk placed outside Chai Point on the 2nd floor of our office.

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It’s a real-world prototype of our SwiftScan kiosk, powered by StoreOS and built entirely by the Fynd Robotics team. From the sleek touchscreen interface to the internal components and firmware, every element was developed and activated internally, turning a corner of our office into a live retail testing zone.

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SnacAdda kiosk in action: Tap, pay, and go with Fynd Robotics

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It brings together:

• 21.5” touchscreen UI with ergonomic tilt for smooth browsing and checkout
• Integrated 2D barcode scanner, contactless payments via UPI, cards, wallets
• Plug-and-play connectivity: ERP sync, stock deduction, payment confirmation, and instant reconciliation
• Real-time inventory tracking powered by StoreOS
• Real-time analytics tracking sales, most picked SKUs, and payment success rates
• Remote diagnostics and OTA updates via the Fynd Swift Module (FSM)
• Tamper-proof assembly designed for durability, theft resistance, and easy servicing
• Snack ordering via Storefront app — to simulate real customer app journeys
• 2-hour slot deliveries tested with TMS — for order assignment, tracking & fulfillment
• Voice-assisted checkout using Copilot — our AI agent guiding transactions hands-free

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All of this, assembled and activated right here inside Fynd — a retail solution, built by technologists, tested by users, and refined by insights.

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Building the brain behind SnacAdda: From code to hardware

Living the retail life, what we learned (and felt)

Deploying SnacAdda wasn’t just about validating a kiosk— it was about embracing the full spectrum of customer experience. It was about perspective. We didn’t just build and deploy; we lived it.

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As builders, we experienced what it’s like to be the shopper fumbling with a barcode, or the staff member trying to restock an out-of-sync SKU. And it hit us — the biggest bugs aren’t always in the code. They’re in the gaps of assumption between how a system is built and how it’s actually used.

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Every scan, every delay, every confused pause at the screen gave us a real, unfiltered look into how our solutions perform in the wild.

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Some of the lessons were humbling:

• A barcode too small for the scanner? It slows checkout down.
• A beep that’s too soft? Users assume the scan didn’t register.
• A slightly off camera angle? Inventory logs go haywire.
• An uncalibrated LED? It fails to signal a successful payment.

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These weren’t flaws in the system — they were reminders that the last mile of retail happens outside the code. And those micro-experiences are where real product value is created.

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What makes this lab unique? We’re not only fixing what's broken — we’re also enhancing what works. We experiment faster, learn in context, and develop from a place of empathy.

The builders behind the booth

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Fynd Robotics in action—coding, wiring, and testing for SnacAdda

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From firmware interns to product analysts, each piece of SnacAdda reflects a culture of end-to-end ownership — and a belief that innovation isn’t just about having the idea, but about building it, testing it, and refining it in the real world.

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SnacAdda wouldn’t exist without the relentless drive of our Fynd Robotics team — Bharat Kumavat, Aarav Vashi, Gautham, Lalit, Smit Kesaria, and Adnan Shaikh — who assembled the hardware modules, integrated sensors, tested scanner mounting positions, ran endless iterations, and ensured the kiosk was robust enough for everyday use.

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Their work exemplifies what we call modular innovation — adapting our designs for real-world unpredictability without losing the retail-grade polish.

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Shoutout to cross-functional collaborators from Fynd Commerce, Design, Ops, and more who made the entire setup hum like a live store. And of course, to our in-house mentor, Jigar Dafda for sparking the idea in the first place.

What’s next: A micro-commerce lab @ Fynd

SnacAdda is just the first chapter. We're converting this corner of our office into a full-blown micro-commerce ecosystem — a testbed to continuously experiment and improve our tech stack.

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What started as a self-checkout test is now a fully functional, mini retail ecosystem — bringing the entire commerce journey under one roof. Each product in our stack plays a live role in simulating and testing how modern commerce works, end-to-end.

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• SwiftScan Kiosk kicks off the journey with self-checkout, helping us test scan speeds, user interface behaviour, and payment flows.

• Order Management System syncs the inventory in real time and allocates orders, exposing us to real catalog-SKU gaps and reconciliation logic.

• Storefront, our platform for building e-commerce experiences, powers the SnacAdda app, where employees place real snack orders. It lets us test product discovery, promotions, and the full cart-to-checkout journey, with live inventory, order processing, and fulfillment managed entirely in-house.

• Transport Management System powers 2-hour deliveries within the office — helping us evaluate delivery slot scheduling, staff routing, and fulfillment experience.

• Copilot as a voice agent enables voice-led checkout at the kiosk, allowing us to test natural command flows, recognition accuracy, and ambient response.

• Swift Module lets us monitor kiosk health in real time, push OTA updates, and track performance — all from a central dashboard.

A mini commerce lab in motion — Testing retail, inside out

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Here’s a snapshot of how we are converting Snac Adda into a micro-commerce ecosystem:

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Why this matters: A test lab that feeds the future

SnacAdda is now part of our product development muscle. It’s where assumptions are broken, ideas are tested, and insights are harvested — all before a product even reaches a client demo. We’re no longer building solutions in silos. We’re living them.

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Each insight from SnacAdda translates into real product improvements — for retail brands, for customers, and for ourselves. We now build with more empathy, more accuracy, and more confidence.

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We’re not just fixing what breaks — we're enhancing features that matter. We’re learning what makes checkout faster, what helps reduce errors, how users behave in a time-sensitive environment, and where convenience creates delight. And in doing so, we’re proving one thing loud and clear:

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The best way to build for the future of retail is to become your own customer.

The road ahead

SnacAdda has become more than a snack stop. It’s our experiment engine. Our insight mine. Our way of holding up a mirror to our own products.

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It allows us to:

• Feel the product, not just build it.
• Test enhancements before release.
• Make the customer experience better — not by assumption, but by immersion.

We're not just innovating in labs. We're learning in real time — and using those lessons to power smarter, more human-centered retail solutions.

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Because at Fynd, building better isn't just about shipping faster. It’s about caring enough to test harder.

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Let’s snack. Let’s test. Let’s build smarter.

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Welcome to SnacAdda. Welcome to Fynd’s Micro Commerce Lab.