A new survey by Instacart and studioID reveals that grocers across the United States believe smart carts are the place where artificial intelligence (AI) will have the biggest industry impact moving forward.
Instacart, maker of Caper Cart—the AI-powered smart cart—and studioID surveyed 150 grocery industry respondents to gain insights not only into grocers’ strategic technological solutions but also into the ways grocers are decreasing friction throughout the shopping experience and leveraging the innovations available now.
Key Findings on the Impact of AI and Smart Carts in Stores:
- Current AI usage focuses largely on operations such as monitoring produce freshness or detecting out-of-stock items.
- Grocers believe AI will soon take on an increasingly customer-facing role, including personalizing ads and promotions.
- 60% of survey respondents believe smart carts will soon be the most impactful application for AI in grocery retail.
“From a consumer standpoint, the experience in a grocery store has been unchanged for the last several decades,” said Ahmed Beshry, Caper Co-Founder and Senior Director of Business Development at Instacart. “Customers are seeing tech everywhere around them, but they haven’t seen their stores changing for the better. With Caper Carts, we’re able to leverage technology to bridge the online and in-store shopping experience. We’re taking what customers love about shopping online and blending it with their favorite parts of shopping in-store.”
In the survey, 47% of respondents emphasized the “high priority” of ensuring that new technology integration enhances the customer experience. In an open-ended follow-up question, grocers said smart carts, such as Caper Carts, can do this in myriad ways.
Recurring responses included:
- Increased engagement with loyalty programs
- More personalized customer deals
- Seamless item scanning capabilities
- Easier approaches to weighing produce
- Smoother checkout process
In addition, survey respondents identified ways these same smart carts can benefit grocers directly.
Among those avenues:
- Average basket size
- Capturing valuable customer data (where permitted by applicable laws and contract terms)
- Analyzing shopping patterns and trends to optimize store layouts
- Positioning themselves as innovative and customer-focused
Another survey question showed that retail media networks remain top of mind for grocers across the industry. 85% of respondents said the ability of a smart cart to generate revenue through displaying targeted digital ads was impactful to their decision-making about implementing them.
Ads on Caper Carts are a new in-store retail media offering building on the Instacart online advertising platform.
Retailers that enable ads on smart carts will grow their revenue through a revenue share model and drive increased consumer engagement in-store. With ads on Caper Carts, brands can display dynamic recommendations while customers shop the store’s aisles.
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Ads on smart carts give shoppers more customized recommendations and introduce experiences to help them discover new brands and products. On average, customers spend over 30 minutes shopping with a Caper Cart.
“The ultimate omnichannel platform for us is the Caper Cart’s screen,” said Chris McCrae, Retail Technology and Innovation Lead at Wakefern Food Corp.
“If we know you normally buy a certain laundry detergent every six weeks, and it’s been six weeks, and you haven’t bought it, well, here’s a CPG-sponsored coupon to incentivize you to add that to your cart. Take all of the best personalization and engagement opportunities on engrossing websites, and we now have that opportunity down the aisle, in front of the item, at the point of decision. This is our roadmap with Caper, and we’re off to a great start,” McCrae noted.
Wakefern is the parent company for approximately 380 stores across a half-dozen banners and deploys smart carts at many of its ShopRite stores.
Instacart said that Caper Carts are or will soon be deployed across North American retailers, including Bristol Farms, Fairway Market, Geissler’s, Kroger, McKeever’s Market & Eatery, Price Chopper, Schnucks, ShopRite, Sobeys, and other local and independent grocers as well as ALDI in Austria.