Smart shopping carts are bringing autonomous checkout to larger grocery stores, giving consumers a faster and more convenient way to complete their shopping trips. By combining computer vision, sensors, mobile apps, and artificial intelligence, these carts can automatically identify products and process payments without requiring shoppers to wait in traditional checkout lines. Amazon Dash Cart represents the next evolution of autonomous checkout, extending frictionless shopping beyond convenience stores into full-size grocery environments.
Watch out for that high-tech grocery cart rolling toward you in Aisle 5. That would be Amazon’s new Dash Cart, a self-service checkout system on wheels. Playing on the self-service theme that many shoppers prefer, including contactless payments and no checkout lines, Amazon intends to provide these carts in its own conventional grocery store in the LA area later this year.
The carts will have a dashboard-like cluster of camera, scale, and video screen that identifies and prices the items that the shopper places in the cart. Integration with an Amazon mobile app for payment plus shopping list assistance with Alexa is also featured. Unlike the grab and go shopping routine in Amazon Go and Go Grocery, these carts are meant for a longer shopping trip purchasing more items. But shoppers will still be in self-service mode and avoid lines and the checkout cashier interface, something that aligns very well in this time of COVID-19-induced social distancing.
The following CNBC article reports more on the topic:
Amazon is launching shopping carts that track items as shoppers add them, then automatically charges them when they remove the grocery bags, allowing them to skip the checkout line.
The Dash Carts will roll out at Amazon’s new Los Angeles-area grocery store, which is slated to open this year, the company announced Tuesday.
Dash Carts build on the “Just Walk Out” cashierless technology first deployed at Amazon Go convenience stores. Amazon Go stores, which opened to the public in 2018, let customers buy items without waiting in checkout lines. The company has made inroads into the grocery market over the past several years, but with cashierless technology, Amazon is hoping to make the shopping experience more enjoyable and set itself apart from other physical retailers.
Shoppers must have an Amazon account and a smartphone to use a Dash Cart. After entering the store, users scan a QR code, located in the Amazon app that signs them into the cart and loads Alexa shopping lists.
As retailers continue investing in automation, smart shopping carts are poised to become an important part of the modern grocery experience. By reducing checkout friction while integrating digital shopping lists and contactless payments, technologies like Amazon Dash Cart demonstrate how autonomous checkout can improve both customer convenience and operational efficiency in brick-and-mortar retail.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Services at Mercator Advisory Group
