Smart carts function like mobile checkout machines, enabling shoppers to total their purchases and avoid long lines while providing recommendations and displaying coupons.

Have you ever stood in a store aisle confused between two products without all the information at your fingertips? With a smart cart, that won’t happen again.

Self-checkout

These carts in The Bronx NY utilize advanced technology with sensors and cameras that can detect items placed inside, enabling shoppers to bypass cashier lines. Furthermore, shoppers can access a pre-prepared digital shopping list which automatically checks off items as they go. Furthermore, an LCD touchscreen display shows running totals while supporting retail media displays which highlight location-specific promotions as well as add-along products that match what’s already in their carts.

Smart carts provide information about products such as their description, ingredients, country of origin and reviews – some even provide comparison charts so shoppers can make more informed buying decisions. Unfortunately, many consumers may feel overwhelmed by all the new gadgets on offer and may choose not to use smart carts; currently the technology only works in stores that accept debit and credit cards while tobacco, hard liquor and gift cards cannot be integrated with its system.

Smart carts come in two varieties; one type requires retailers to invest in brand new techno-powered carts while the other can simply attach onto existing carts via clip-on devices. Both are supported by subscription models; Shopic charges a monthly fee for its software and hardware solutions.

Personalized recommendations

Smart carts use artificial intelligence to analyze what items you put into your shopping basket and provide customized recommendations, which appear on a tablet within your cart for easy viewing and will help guide informed purchasing decisions. Furthermore, these carts can suggest recipes and nutritional data about food products.

Smart carts also have the potential to streamline checkout procedures and minimize customer wait times and dissatisfaction, providing retailers with invaluable data that enables them to better understand customers’ purchasing behaviors and needs.

Shopic is an Israeli startup offering a smart cart solution: its clip-on touchscreen device makes traditional carts instantly smart. When tested at Israeli grocer Shufersal, this cart increased customer monthly spending by 8% while creating 78% larger basket values and increasing shopper satisfaction by 89%.

Easy navigation

Smart shopping carts offer an efficient way to navigate a supermarket. Utilizing artificial intelligence, these carts analyze your shopping habits and suggest items based on them; furthermore they make navigation simpler by providing relevant information directly on screen.

Grocers using this technology can identify trends and patterns in store traffic to optimize operations and layouts, improving shopper experiences and drawing in new customers. Furthermore, it allows them to make smarter staffing and inventory decisions, ultimately increasing sales.

Smart carts allow shoppers to see their running total and apply coupons as they shop, saving time. Many carts also sync up with customer’s smartphones or software programs so they can create shopping lists or provide recipe recommendations; others even page customers when products go out of stock, which helps increase efficiency while decreasing theft.

Product information

Smart carts allow retailers to track how many shoppers are shopping at any one time and anticipate peak times by using these insights. Furthermore, they may suggest add-on items, like chicken noodle soup and tissues, that go perfectly with customers’ purchases.

Smart carts also make contactless payments more secure and convenient for customers, something which has seen increased use during the COVID-19 pandemic and should continue post-pandemic.

Existing smart cart solutions are costly and involve extensive infrastructure and process changes for stores, while inventor Kutluhan Aktar has created a more cost-effective and user-friendly alternative based on off-the-shelf hardware and Edge Impulse development software that requires less infrastructure changes – and works with existing carts without needing replacement; his invention, known as Shopic Cart is being tested at Albertson’s, Kroger KR -0.8% Metropolitan Markets and Tom Thumb stores.