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Shopic announces landmark deployment of 2,000 smart cart devices.
Grocery smart cart solution provider Shopic has announced it will roll out 2,000 units of its AI-powered clip-on device across 30 branches of Israel’s leading supermarket chain, Shufersal, by March 2023. This is a significant event and a litmus test for the global smart cart sector, with no other company having announced commercial-scale deployments of smart carts to date.
This announcement comes some seven months after Shufersal led Shopic’s $35 million Series B funding round. Shopic has since doubled its workforce to 80 employees and launched new pilots in major supermarket chains across North and South America. In one pilot, Shopic’s devices have been seen in use in two branches of Wegmans in New York.
While many leading supermarket chains have announced pilot programs for smart carts, mostly in partnership with tech startups, details are vague on the scale of these deployments. Kroger’s KroGO carts, powered by Caper, for example, began piloting in early 2021, with no ramp-up announcements having been made since. Last May, Albertsons announced it was piloting at “a few dozen stores” in partnership with Veeve. Elsewhere, official information regarding Amazon Dash Cart indicates that it’s currently only available in 16 Amazon Fresh locations.
Shopic’s clip-on device is compatible with ordinary grocery shopping carts, something the company points out as a major difference between its product and its competitors’ standalone smart carts. The clip-on nature of its product removes the need for expensive in-store tech investment and shopping cart upgrades. Once the system has been trained on the line of products available at a given grocery branch, when it comes to store readiness, all Shopic needs is a charging wall for the clip-on devices.
“Shufersal’s rapid ramp-up helps place Shopic at the head of the field for smart cart solutions,” said Raz Golan, Shopic’s CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “This is a deployment of unprecedented scale, and it validates our vision for the future of frictionless grocery shopping experiences.”
Shopic’s devices are powered by computer vision AI algorithms that help them identify items placed in a shopping cart with 99.4% accuracy. The device’s screen displays the list of products added to the cart, syncs with in-store loyalty programs, and enables self-checkout.
The company also claims its devices can be used as a navigation tool, helping shoppers locate desired items on shelves quickly. From the grocer’s perspective, Shopic’s devices help to optimize store efficiency, using anonymously gathered customer data to deliver personalized promotions as part of a custom in-retail media channel, keep tabs on inventory, improve store layouts, and create efficient hiring plans. The devices also connect with existing purchasing analytics programs, giving grocers insights into consumer trends.
Shufersal served as an initial testbed for Shopic’s devices, having recently piloted the program. The supermarket chain reported that 12 to 15% of its revenue at participating stores was processed through Shopic’s devices. Customers’ cart sizes were also 78% larger in value than the average, and monthly spending by these shoppers rose by 8% when using Shopic’s solution.
Checkout times also dropped, according to Shopic. The device-enabled smart carts produced an average checkout time of less than a minute compared to 3.5 minutes in self-checkout lanes and 9 minutes with cashier-assisted checkouts. While the average shopping cart sizes of these checkouts are undisclosed, these improvements indicate the potential of improving the in-store consumer shopping experience.
Shopic’s devices have registered satisfaction scores between 85-95%, and this wider launch will likely offer further data to evaluate the potential for smart cart success in global markets.
Shufersal is optimistic about this potential. “Shopic provides a superior technological solution that delivers all the benefits of online shopping to physical stores in a personalized, effective and fully transparent manner – without the need to wait in the checkout line,” said Ori Watermann, CEO of Shufersal. “The artificial intelligence powering the technology enables us to constantly improve the shopping experience of our customers based on their purchase habits.”
