Image Courtesy of Wegmans
Wegmans, which in 2022 discontinued its popular self-checkout app, is testing smart shopping carts at three stores in upstate New York as the technology appears to be gaining some traction.
"Smart Shopping Carts is an early-state technology that we believe could be offered to our customers as an alternative way to shop in our stores in the future," Wegmans said in a statement to the Democrat & Chronicle. "Our goal is to determine if Smart Cart Technology is a fit for the unique shopping assortment offered in our stores and if it meets the shopping needs of our customers."
The test comes after Wegmans pulled the plug on its SCAN self-checkout app in 2022 because thieves were exploiting the technology to walk out of stores without paying.
Smart shopping carts, which scan and weigh groceries as shoppers put items in their carts, promise to reduce theft attributed to self-scanning overall. Analysis shared last fall by cashierless checkout technology startup Grabango showed that losses due to self-checkout terminals amount to 3.5% of sales, more than 16 times greater than traditional cashiers.
The devices also promise to reduce the still-common scanning errors at self-checkout that often require associate assistance. Beyond scanning, smart shopping carts’ displays allow shoppers to track spending. The carts further sync with grocery stores’ loyalty accounts to give customers personalized discounts or even location-based promotions and add-along items based on what’s already in the shopper’s cart or what aisle the shopper is in.
Beyond marketing, smart shopping carts for retailers provide an opportunity to analyze customer movement patterns that can be used to optimize customer flow and product positioning.
Their potential in the grocery channel received a strong endorsement with Amazon’s move in April of this year to remove its “Just Walk Out” technology — which allows customers to shop and exit without going to a register — from Amazon Fresh, replacing it with its Dash Cart smart shopping carts.
Amazon told media outlets at the time that it “heard from customers that while they enjoyed the benefit of skipping the checkout line with Just Walk Out, they also wanted the ability to easily find nearby products and deals, view their receipt as they shop, and know how much money they saved while shopping throughout the store.”
Instacart in June expanded its Caper Cart technology to Price Chopper and McKeever’s Market & Eatery grocery stores, joining ongoing pilots at Kroger, ShopRite, Schnucks, and others. Instacart acquired Caper Cart in 2021.
“We made an early bet that smart carts would be the winning technology for transforming the in-store grocery experience because it’s a form factor people recognize and it doesn’t require retrofitting a whole store with large capex investments,” Instacart CEO Fidji Simo said in Instacart’s 2024 first-quarter shareholder letter. “Our Caper Carts do so much more than allow people to skip checkout.”
One con with the technology, according to Retail Technology Review, is the need for in-store storage, with the tech-driven carts more susceptible to weather damage than standard carts. Some smart carts arriving with clip-on devices may offer a solution. Other cited drawbacks include the high initial cost of the carts, potential privacy concerns, and the need for nearby associates to handle scanning and other issues.