Retailers perspective What is a smart shopping cart

Smart shopping carts are mainly developed to improve customers’ shopping experience ,but retailers are the direct buyers of smart shopping carts .

“Buyers will pay for products which could bring them benefits or profits . “So what benefits or profits could smart shopping carts bring to retailers ?

Last week , I interviewed several retailers who have deployed smart shopping cart project and then concluded their answers .

Features &Benefits of a smart shopping cart

Most retailers think that smart shopping cart has some distinct features , it looks quite different from an ordinary shopping cart as it has a tablet Pad .It is easier to manage as there is a bluetooth positioning module , retailers could know where every smart cart is located in .

In the past , physical retailers have no idea to know customers’ shopping preference , as they could only acquire little information from customers’ membership card . A smart shopping cart could collect and record customers’ whole shopping data , including shopping preference , staying time at a certain area ,items’ selecting records ,etc .Based on these shopping data , the smart shopping cart could send precise and promotional information or coupons to customers .

This feature is very important to retailers , as retailers could implement precise marketing just as online retailers and boost their sales .

Advantages of a smart shopping cart

For retailers , a smart shopping cart has an outstanding advantage ,that is it supports customers purchase items by themselves and check out by themselves . Retailers could hire less cashiers and supermarket staffs , it is a significant advantage in recent years when the labour cost is increasing year by year .

Due to the Covid-19 , customers care more about their safety and health in public places such as in a supermarket or a retail store . there were always long queues at the cash counter ,it was not so safe for every customer . Besides , the long queues have caused long efficiency. With smart shopping carts launched in supermarket ,retailers efficiency to serve customers have improved sharply ,and there won’t be long queues any more .

Substitutes

Initially , some retailers think a self-checking out machine is a substitute of a smart shopping cart . After they compared with these two , they found they were quite different .

A self-checking out machine only involves in customers’ checking out process ,and it requires customers to scan items one by one , just as a cashier do . It couldn’t solve the long queues problem , as customers need to wait in line just at its side .

A smart shopping cart involves in customer’ whole shopping process , including purchasing and checking out process . It also supports customers check out at any where in the supermarket .

To retailers , they couldn’t find a substitute of a smart shopping cart now .And they think the smart shopping cart is a very good project and promising project .