by Bob Larson
Something new will be arriving at several grocery store chains this year, and eventually at local retail stores. A new smart shopping cart can talk or text you, even let you know when you last bought an item, give you prices, provide appealing recipes and digital coupons for the purchased items, and some carts will even follow you. All this to make your trip to grocery stores more pleasant, efficient, and keep you coming back!
Whole Foods and others have been using these carts on a trial basis since ten years ago, but today are more user friendly. More grocery chains are expected to implement the smart carts to increase the overall shopping experience.
According to Forrester Research, “Many of the new smart cart applications can be used in any retail setting, but grocers are under tremendous pressure to create a better in-store experience for their customers or they’re going to lose them on price to Wal-Mart.” IBM, one of the cart developers, states that the shopping experience will see more changes in the next five years than in the last 20.
The smart shopping cart looks like a normal cart except for an interactive screen and scanner mounted on the cart as shown here. Once shoppers swipe their personal store card on the display, their shopping history is available from presenting a suggested shopping list to providing weekly discounts on selected items, track your purchases, to checking out without stopping at a checkout stand. The scanners can even tell the difference between the individual veggies and fruits during checkout.
It’s rumored staffed grocery checkout stands will be history within five to ten years, which means you may have to bag your own groceries. Homemakers should love this! Robots for your personal shopping concierge or home servant within 20 years!
~ Bob Larson is a technologist and Marketing Director for 50 Plus Media Solutions. Contact Bob at Marketing@50plusmediasolutions.com