Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt is testing a smart shopping trolley, which is being well received at the start of the trial. The retailer hopes that one in five customers will use the trolley to shop shop cashier-free in the future.
92 % in favour
The smart shopping trolley, similar to the Dash Cart with which Amazon will replace its Just Walk Out technology, is developed in-house and cart has four cameras, two barcode readers and a three weighing scales. This allows the cart to recognise what shoppers put in it, and to show their progress on their shopping list on a built-in screen.
During an initial test, 100 employees were allowed to use the trolley. They were almost unanimously enthusiastic: 92 would like to use the smart shopping trolley again, press officer Eva Biltereyst told Trends. Above all, they find it a convenient time saver. Other assets are the possibility to track shopping list progress on the screen, and the fact that people have their hands free while scanning, unlike with handheld scanners.
Colruyt Group does stress that it is only a prototype. The trolley may get bigger after customer feedback and will also get a system to scan fresh food without a bar code. There is no sign of a wider implementation at the moment, however. Should that happen after all, Colruyt does hope that one in five customers will eventually choose to shopp cashless with this trolley.
