In the coming weeks, ShopRite of Spotswood in New Jersey and a Fairway Market in Manhattan will introduce tech-enabled smart shopping carts from Instacart. The Caper Cart automatically recognizes and rings up groceries, provides tailored shopping recommendations, and allows for checkout directly from the cart.
“We’re delighted to work with Instacart to bring this innovative technology to our customers at some of our stores,” said Cheryl Williams, chief information officer at Wakefern Food Corp, a retailer-owned cooperative that is parent to ShopRite and Fairway Market, in a statement. “Our goal is to offer our customers the best possible shopping experience, and the new, enhanced Caper Cart streamlines the shopping and checkout process while offering new opportunities to engage with customers at the point of purchase.”
To get started, customers will grab a Caper Cart at the front end of the store. Powered by AI and computer vision technology, the Caper Cart recognizes and scans items as they are placed in the cart, allowing customers to easily stay on budget with a running total shown on the screen. Customers scan the barcode displayed on the cart’s screen to finish their purchase in the store’s self-checkout area.
The newest Caper Cart builds on existing deployments at other stores and is slimmer, lighter, and holds 65 percent more than the previous version, according to Instacart. Caper Cart also offers customers the ability to link their ShopRite loyalty account directly to the screen to apply digital coupons while shopping.
“Customers’ shopping preferences are rapidly evolving, demanding greater convenience and personalization in physical stores. To meet these changing expectations, we’re committed to developing innovative solutions that connect the best of online shopping with in-store technologies, creating a truly unified shopping experience,” said David McIntosh, VP and GM of connected stores at Instacart, in a statement.
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