Are Smart Grocery Carts Coming Soon to a Store Near You?

"What's for dinner?" Your shopping cart wants to know.

You probably get into a conversation with someone when you are on a shopping trip to pick up milk, eggs, and the muffins your family likes to have in the morning for breakfast. Whether it's with a helpful worker or a fellow shopper, giving tips on what's ripe and in season. But now, your cart can chat with you and guide your trip to plan menus, find deals, and make the most of your time.

Stores have been trying to familiarize shoppers with digital price tags and self-checkout kiosks while also adding the convenience of placing orders online for grocery delivery or pick-up. These days, the focus is on how to upgrade the shopping cart.

A smart grocery cart outfitted with up-to-date technology uses computer vision along with sensors to identify the items you place in your cart. It can even help you score better prices on butter. Who doesn't want to make a trip to the grocery store as easy and efficient as possible?

Across the country, shoppers are getting the chance to have a new shopping experience with a different kind of cart that helps to coordinate a combination of what we already know as a trip to the store with a form of online shopping.

What Are Smart Grocery Carts?

You might be familiar with the procedures for Amazon Go which were rolled out in 2018. Amazon Go opened a grocery store that used cameras and QR codes to let people have a more productive shopping trip. Then in 2020, the company unveiled Dash Carts, a shopping cart designed to replicate the Amazon Go experience without all the tech overhead.

The way the technology works with you is it enables the shopper to select a grocery item, scan it on the shopping cart's camera, and put it in the cart. The smart cart will allow you to skip the checkout line and wheel the cart right outside to your car.

The smart shopping cart is outfitted with a touchscreen at the front so when a customer scans the bar code of an item it will automatically be displayed on the cart's screen. When the next item is scanned, the cart will display the price of the following product, and so on. The touchscreen on the cart is connected to the store's internal system and will assist with shopping list recommendations, alert you to promotional offers and help navigate your way through the aisles of the store.

What about the red potatoes you just selected from the produce bin and put in a mesh bag? The cart is equipped to use a built-in scale and camera with computer vision to scan, weigh, and total your purchases as you shop. The device can call for assistance if needed.

When you're ready to wrap up the shopping trip and check out, the cart technology will scan your loyalty rewards card and allow you to pay from the credit card reader equipment right on the cart.

Which Stores Are Currently Using Smart Grocery Carts?

Grocers across the country have carts at the ready for a new kind of shopping experience. Stores like Kroger and Albertsons are offering their customers a new fleet of savvy smart carts to blend the online shopping experience with a real-life trip to the market.

Popular grocery chain Albertsons is using self-checkout carts in some of its stores. The carts are made by Veeve, a start-up founded by two former Amazon engineers. Companies like Amazon, Instacart, and others have introduced smart grocery carts to speed up the shopping experience.

Similar programs have been around for some time, but the new carts are expanding on the current experience. Three years after the pandemic changed the guidelines of our outings, retailers are looking for ways to keep up with our changing shopping habits.

What Are the Benefits of Smart Grocery Carts?

Smart shopping carts can help customers skip long lines at checkout.

The smart shopping cart is designed to help customers skip any lines at counters or kiosks and check out by themselves. Most customers want to avoid waiting in lines. Smart shopping carts function like a moving check-out machine. Busy customers can get the best deals and bargains available in the store, total the prices of the items from the trip, and avoid having to stand in a line.

Smart shopping carts provide a contactless shopping experience.

Covid-19 changed the shopping experience in stores with requirements of social distancing and negotiating contact with each other in public places. We had been used to a shopping trip where customers needed to have contact with the supermarket staff or cashiers to complete the process. A smart cart gives customers the opportunity to make purchases by themselves and check out without any assistance from staff. Customers are able to weigh fruits and vegetables via the smart cart. Customers can continue to have a contactless shopping experience if that is what they are interested in as a consumer.

Smart shopping carts provide more customer functions.

Smart shopping carts are able to make any ready-to-use coupons and related sale offers and item information easily available to customers right on the screen. This ensures customers don't miss out on store offers and can help guide decisions. The smart shopping carts also have mobile phone charging ports so customers can charge their mobile phones while they are shopping.

Are There Any Downsides to the Smart Grocery Carts?

All this tech convenience comes at a price and these carts certainly aren't cheap. Carts can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 compared to the price of manufacturing a typical $100 cart.

But carts can only be effective when people use them. If the carts are unused it doesn't matter what bells and whistles they can offer the customer. Amazon has run into this problem and recently made the decision to close eight Amazon Go stores known for their Just Walk Out technology.

We are bombarded with technology these days, and shoppers will not be impressed or want to use gadgets that don't solve a problem. The offer of technology isn't enough to make a shopper want to reach for a new jar of salsa or bag of pretzels they can easily pick up somewhere else. Currently, tobacco, hard liquor, gift cards, and behind-the-counter pharmacy items are not part of the program. Plus, you'll need to use a debit or credit card to pay. Cash is not accepted through the cart.

There's also the matter of where the carts are stored when they are not being used. Metal shopping carts take up a good amount of space and a store needs a location to store them either inside or outside a building. The metal carts we have known for years have been weather resistant and resilient. High-value smart carts with their screens and technology are susceptible to weather damage and need a place to be stored for protection.

Will Smart Carts Be In Stores Everywhere Soon?

According to Research and Markets, the global smart shopping cart market is estimated to reach $1.8 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow to $5.7 billion by 2028.

Shopping carts have remained relatively the same for decades with their build and purpose. The humble shopping cart has endured for its reliability. Does this piece of grocery store equipment need to make technological advances to keep up with changing customer needs and wants? Shoppers are pretty much in agreement that standing in a long line at the end of the day is not something that makes the overall shopping experience a pleasant one. A tech-forward checkout option means a trip that doesn't add time or stress. Companies are looking to make the shopping trip a more pleasant and efficient experience.

Smart cart makers at the National Retail Federation (NRF) show in New York recently demonstrated their ability to bring advertising and promotions to customers while they shop. Instacart's Scan & Pay solution is part of a system that delivers online options and in-store visits. Veeve, the smart cart maker partnering with Albertsons, Kroger, and Metropolitan Market offers a plug-and-play system that can be added to existing carts to allow them to work like smart carts.

This technology for carts means shoppers can view deals and watch videos, see recipes, and find items on a store map. It helps to follow a customer grocery list and watch the shopping receipts on the snap-on screen.

The availability will likely be based on demand, as is true with most consumer products. So, will you be trying out a smart cart if you see one in your local store?