Tech
Smart Shopping Cart Is A Self-Service Checkout On Wheels…
Kroger and Microsoft were working on smart shopping solution that uses your phone to scan groceries as you shop. Now a startup company called Caper Labs has taken the idea a step further, it has built in both a scanning hardware ad a payment terminal directly into a shopping cart.
The shopping cart even has a small touchscreen designed to help you navigate the store and advertise relevant promotions. The cart’s scanner acts like a traditional barcode reader as you shop, but the company plans to eventually make the process a lot more seamless, thanks to a weight sensor and three image recognition cameras that are built into the cart.
Obvious benefits for supermarkets is that they’ll need fewer cashiers to ring up sales, but there are also a couple of benefits for shoppers. As well as being able to skip the queue, the cart’s touchscreen can point out nearby items that are on sale, and it could one day recommend purchases based on items you’ve already put it your cart. Its built-in tablet can also act as a map of a store.
Caper’s shopping cart is already installed in two retailers in the New York City area, which the company claims are seeing increased sales as a result of using them. They might not be quite as seamless as Amazon Go’s “just walk out technology,” but they’re also a lot less complicated than the hundreds of cameras and weight sensors needed to make its stores work.