Will Wegmans customers check out smart carts in a big way?
Photo: Shopic

Will Wegmans customers check out smart carts in a big way?

Wegmans last September reluctantly discontinued use of its popular SCAN self-checkout app because thieves were exploiting the technology to walk out of the grocer’s stores without paying for their purchases. The family-owned chain is now testing smart cart technology that they hope can replace the SCAN app without the security concerns that came with it.

Stores in the Buffalo and Rochester, NY, areas have begun a pilot that involves a rectangular device from the Israeli firm Shopic that clips to the handles of Wegmans’ shopping carts and includes a long bar with cameras and sensors to track and tally items as they are picked by customers. The artificial intelligence-driven device called Shop-E is able to catalog over 50,000 SKUs and can identify products when they are in motion or if multiple items are placed in the cart at the same time. Customers remove it when they’re done shopping and before they head out to the parking lot. 

Wegmans has not provided much information on the early stage pilot. Company spokesperson Michele Mehaffy told The Buffalo News, “We recently selected customers to test the new technology as we take an iterative approach and focus on gathering feedback.” 

Security is a major concern for Wegmans after its previous experience with its self-checkout app. Self-checkout technology has always been susceptible to theft. As many as 20 percent of individuals using self-checkout tech have admitted to having stolen something at some point in time. 

Wegmans in September made clear that its setback with SCAN did not mean it was abandoning solutions to speed the checkout process. The chain told its customers, “We’ve made the decision to turn off the app until we can make improvements that will meet the needs of our customers and business. We’ve learned a lot, and we will continue to introduce new digital solutions to streamline the shopping experience for the future.”

Shopic, the company behind the technology being tested by Wegmans, last year raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Qualcomm Ventures with an eye towards the U.S. market. Shufersal, the largest grocery retailer in Israel, was among the investors. 

BrainTrust

"Self-checkout grocery stores have a long way to go and while I applaud the innovation, I don't like the shopping experience."

Karen S. Herman

CEO and Disruptive Retail Specialist, Gustie Creative LLC


"Generally, the grocery channel does not lead with innovation, but we have to give them credit for the continued efforts to expedite and remove friction from checkout."

Rachelle King

Retail Industry Thought Leader


"My first prediction is that we haven’t seen the technology yet that will make the shopping experience more convenient and faster."

Gene Detroyer

Professor, International Business, Guizhou University of Finance & Economics and University of Sanya, China.


Discussion Questions

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Will self-checkout technology become a more prominent feature in retail stores over the next five years? What self-checkout solutions do you think offer the most promise for retailers looking to increase sales, cut labor costs and reduce shrink?

Poll

19 Comments
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Mark Ryski
Noble Member
1 year ago

According to a Wall Street Journal article in 2022, 30 percent of all grocery transactions in 2021 were conducted by self-checkout. Self-checkout is already pervasive and it will only penetrate deeper as time goes on. While it’s impossible to say how things will progress in the next five years — after all, self-checkout has been around for 30+ years — it will become a standard check-out feature for many retailers, and broaden beyond grocery where it’s most pervasive. No self-checkout solution is perfect, but I think the self-scan checkout solutions still offer the best mix of features, cost of ownership, and security. I remain bullish on self-checkout and I have no doubt that it will continue to evolve, be more accurate and deliver a better experience for shoppers.

Bob Amster
Trusted Member
Reply to  Mark Ryski
1 year ago

More prominent yes. But, as Mark states, not ubiquitous.

Jeff Sward
Noble Member
1 year ago

Sounds like this technology solves a couple of different problems. One for the grocer and one for the shopper. The security problem is solved for the grocer. And the ease of checkout problem is solved for the shopper. When you are done shopping, you’re done. No need to go through the store’s manned checkout line or the self-service checkout line. Seems like what we used to call the checkout process just evaporates.

Neil Saunders
Famed Member
1 year ago

I maintain my view that smart carts are an over-engineered, expensive solution to self-checkout. Assuming a reasonable level of customer usage, it would cost a fortune to roll out and maintain a fleet of smart carts across a grocery chain. Self-scan is a better option, but there are clearly problems with theft. The issues with the Wegmans scan app that may have contributed to shrink are that it was difficult and fiddly to use, had very few in-built checks to the process, and relied on customers’ own technology — i.e. their phones.

David Naumann
Active Member
Reply to  Neil Saunders
1 year ago

I agree that the camera technology on carts may reduce theft, however it is an expensive solution. It seems like there has to be a better way to control theft in the consumer self-scanning processes. Maybe something like the Costco receipt check, but on a random basis, would make theft more risky for consumers and help prevent abuse.

Neil Saunders
Famed Member
Reply to  David Naumann
1 year ago

Exactly, David. There are simpler solutions. We used the Wegmans scan app quite a lot when in New England and not once did we have a random check. Oftentimes there was no one even manning the payment point.

Karen S. Herman
Member
1 year ago

In my view, the best self-checkout solution for both the retailer and the shopper is the self-checkout kiosk. Unattended retail is growing in leaps and bounds and a self-checkout kiosk can be loaded with emerging technologies as it expedites shopping, reduces labor costs and, as it is employee monitored, reduces shrink. Self-checkout grocery stores (Amazon Fresh, Wegmans’ cart app) have a long way to go and while I applaud the innovation, I don’t like the shopping experience.

Dave Bruno
Active Member
1 year ago

Self-checkout is definitely on the rise, but I am not yet sold on smart cart technology. It feels like a high upfront cost and a high ongoing maintenance cost solution. Certainly less expensive than a complete grab-and-go infrastructure, to be sure, but I suspect retail teams will soon tire of the high maintenance burdens of these devices subjected to the daily rigors of customer use.

Karen S. Herman
Reply to  Dave Bruno
1 year ago

I agree with your points here, Dave. Smart cart tech is an expensive build with ongoing software and hardware maintenance and putting it on a grocery cart with rigorous customer use is burdensome in many ways.

Melissa Minkow
Active Member
1 year ago

Some form of self-checkout will be the way of the future, I’m just not positive this is it, though it seems more accurate than other forms. For consumers, the key has to be that the technology speeds up the process. So far, traditional self-checkout isn’t really doing that. I know Amazon has slowed down its Just Walk Out tech, but if it were less expensive and easier for stores to implement, that would be the silver bullet.

Susan O'Neal
Member
1 year ago

Smart carts are an expensive capital outlay, the ROI of which requires retailers to both make it almost a requirement (i.e. the lines for self-checkout and assisted checkout have to be painful) and monetize the asset itself through ad revenue. If both of those things were in place, this could be the final move turning retailers into media properties who happen to also sell products. It would also further distance the big players from smaller niche and regional players.

Doug Garnett
Active Member
1 year ago

Sadly, these types of cart scanners will I likely become more common. Why sadly? Because there are far better places for retailers to focus their investments — like in the fundamental store, stocking, help, and inventory. I just don’t see any big win moving self-checkout onto the cart.

Ryan Mathews
Trusted Member
1 year ago

Self-checkout technology is already a prominent feature in retail stores and, yes, I believe it will continue to evolve and grow incrementally. There are any number of good technologies out there but they all share two common problems. First, the better the technology, the more expensive. And second and far more importantly, we haven’t engineered people who don’t steal yet and thieves seems particularly adept at finding the Achilles’ heel in any POS technology. You can design a better system, but it won’t work until we design better humans.

Gene Detroyer
Noble Member
1 year ago

My first prediction is that we haven’t seen the technology yet that will make the shopping experience more convenient and faster.

However I like the smart carts. Surely in five years they will be much smarter and cost a fraction of what they cost now. We will see the same progress we have seen in our computers and phones in terms of speed, cost, and smarts.

Mark Price
Member
1 year ago

Applause to Wegmans for going out on the cutting edge to explore new technology that can positively impact customer experience. Self checkout will definitely become a more prominent feature in retail stores over the next five years, due to advancing artificial intelligence technology. The benefits of retailers of such technology hopefully focus more on customer satisfaction and less on reducing labor costs. As we know, retail store associates are facing challenges, resulting in high turnover. The goal should be to improve the experience and retain these employees to facilitate incremental orders and incremental volume. Any benefit and shrinkage is even more to the good.

I would imagine the technology that will succeed in five years has not even come to market by this point, so it’s hard to say who will be the winner. But those who get into the game early will get the benefit of the experience curve and first mover advantage.

John Karolefski
Member
1 year ago

This is just another example of technology for technology’s sake. If it can be done, it must be good. First of all, it’s too complicated. Second, shoppers won’t like it. Third, grocers should just add more checkout lanes with capable cashiers, which would increase a store’s customer service. What was it that Spike Lee said?

Rachelle King
Rachelle King
Active Member
1 year ago

Generally, the grocery channel does not lead with innovation, but we have to give them credit for the continued efforts to expedite and remove friction from checkout.

Still, smart carts are ahead of their time. Grocery shopping is a habitual and routine tradition. It will take some time to evolve consumer mindset to bypassing the checkout lanes, even if it is more convenient.

Anil Patel
Member
1 year ago

There is no doubt that smart carts will be adopted in the future. Of course, as technology advances, the form it takes will change. In my opinion, retailers must experiment with new technologies to face challenges brought by a competitive retail environment.

Wegmans’ shift towards smart cart technology is an excellent long-term investment. Since adopting new technology is costly, Wegmans should have a long-term business vision. They will surely have a first-mover advantage as long as they are clear on how they intend to use this technology.

Oliver Guy
Member
1 year ago

I first saw supermarket self-scanning featured on TV as a concept in the 1980s. It was over 20 years before I saw it in use and another 5-10 before it became mainstream which in the UK it now is.

Self-checkout and other technologies such as autonomous or smart carts and self-scanners are going to increase in use for multiple reasons. A key reason is the cost of labour — as retail margins are squeezed making the barrier of entry for technology (i.e. the investment cost) lower in relative terms.

We have seen this with self-order screens at McDonald’s but also some UK grocers (Asda for example — currently divesting from Walmart) have significantly reduced the number of person operated Point of sales — such that about two thirds of the space taken by point of sales is not associated with self-scan.