Retail technology company “StrongPoint” offers Latvian store chains to introduce smart shopping carts.
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According to the company, using this solution, it is not necessary to stand in the queues at the cash register or scan products and pay at self-service checkouts – the buyer can pick up the trolley, place his shopping bags there and make the necessary purchases with the help of a trolley-mounted scanner. Because the trolley, like the self-service cash registers, is equipped with scales, it is possible to check in the store that none of the store brings out the scanned products and, consequently, the risks of fraud are eliminated, explains StrongPoint.
Retailers in Latvia have shown interest in the product, but it is too early to talk about specific contracts.
Trolley-mounted displays provide navigation to help you find the item you need faster in the store, but if a shopping list is already on the screen, they also “make sure” that the heaviest items are initially placed in the shopping cart. Through the display, you can call a store consultant or choose the recipes on offer – and the smart shopping cart would show you where to find specific products. The shopping process itself is automated, so it does not require new, specific skills from the buyer.
“Smart shopping carts offer a variety of tools and opportunities to improve merchants’ business performance, but before implementing them in store chains, the merchant needs to understand what their goals are. It is important to assess what the merchant wants to achieve with technology, such as improving customer experience, savings employee hours at checkout, or the goal would be to increase sales by using a trolley display as an additional marketing tool.
As with other self-service solutions on the market, the shopping cart system is a significant financial investment, but they aim to offer the trader even more options than before. Technologies are becoming an additional marketing channel, facilitating communication with customers and promoting their loyalty, as well as there are much wider possibilities of data analysis, “says Uģis Začs, Customer Service Manager of StrongPoint Latvia, about the usefulness of the solution for merchants.
Although self-service checkouts will continue to be the main form of shopping, they will be complemented by other self-service shopping solutions, Začs predicts. “Self-service scanning devices and self-service checkouts are now popular, gradually being supplemented by smart shopping carts, and then by mobile shopping, which targets shoppers who buy fewer goods, and finally, stores without cashiers,” he estimates.
“For a practical example, smart shopping carts are now widely available in Germany, in Edeka retail chain stores, and are being tested in countries such as Israel, Italy, Canada and other. This solution is becoming more widely used ASV – such as a company “Amazon“in stores that aim to keep up with the latest trends and increasingly provide convenient shopping without the involvement of cashiers.
As supermarkets increasingly optimize their processes, there are often concerns that machines and artificial intelligence will leave people without jobs in the future. Meanwhile, retailers deny this myth – employees have the opportunity to work with greater added value, such as focusing more on customers and advising them, “explains Začs.
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