Waitrose is trialling an AI computer vision system that identifies items as shoppers place them into their trolley.
The “very small scale trial” of the tech at Waitrose’s Bracknell store is understood to mark the first time smart carts have been used by a UK supermarket.
“It works in a similar way to our Scan, Pay, Go handsets, with a bigger screen – that identifies every item placed into or removed from the cart, and with a real-time tally of products and prices so shoppers can keep track of purchases,” a Waitrose spokeswoman told The Grocer.
The system – first spotted by Toby Pickard, senior partner for retail futures at IGD – takes the form of a handlebar-like device which shoppers clip on to a regular trolley.
Shoppers scan the barcodes on items as they would with a self-scan handset in front of the device, then place it in the trolley. Once placed, back-facing cameras verify the product.
The devices are stored in a charging bank near the entrance to the store and released once a customer has scanned their loyalty card.
For loose produce, customers are required to weigh items at an in-aisle scale and scan the barcode. Bakery items are selected from the device screen before being added to the trolley. For reduced items, the yellow sticker must be scanned.
The spokeswoman said Waitrose was “exploring options for more frictionless payment for our customers, while still maintaining conventional checkouts for customers who value interaction with our partners”.
The devices are supplied by Israeli company Shopic, which says the devices allow retailers to “understand everything that happens on your retail floor”. Supermarkets can use location data from the devices to see how long shoppers spent in each aisle, their “shelf interactions” and their route around a store.
The large screen on the devices can also be used to serve “contextually relevant ads and offers” and as a platform for retail media, Shopic adds.
Pickard said the trial of the tech was an example of Waitrose using “technology to help digitalise the physical store”.
“Retailers that embrace the digitalisation of the physical store will gain unparalleled insights that will enable them to share more accurate and real-time information and data with suppliers to drive even more efficiencies and profits,” he said.
The Bracknell store is also trialling shelf inventory cameras from Focal Systems – which last year worked with Morrisons to install more than 200,000 of the AI-powered cameras into 498 supermarkets in just eight months – to give store staff “real-time information on what products are out of stock” as well as electronic shelf labels – from Solum – to “simplify price and compliance processes” the Waitrose spokeswoman said.
No comments yet