Kroger rolls out “edgy” new innovation for their stores. The company plans on introducing high-tech shelf display technology at 200 stores by the end of this year.
According to Business Insider, the new technology, called “Kroger Edge,” will eventually connect with customers’ smart phones and highlight products on their shopping lists as they walk down store aisles, which will help customers get their products at a quicker pace. The technology will also highlight customers’ dietary needs, allergies or other dietary restrictions.
For example, Kroger Chief Information Officer Chris Hjelm told Business Insider, “If you are standing in front of nutrition bars and you are gluten-free, we would highlight for you, in your color of choice, which of the gluten-free bars are good for you.”
This technology will be installed on store shelves where paper price tags hang. It will digitally display pricing and nutritional information, as well as display video ads and coupons for various products.
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This technology is beneficial to Kroger
This innovation is beneficial to Kroger for many reasons. First, it would let the giant retailer change prices and activate promotions at all of its locations, freeing up employee time, who would normally have to change prices by hand. Secondly, online orders could be filled faster since employees would be able to locate the products more quickly. According to Business Insider, the Kroger edge technology could “change grocery shopping as we know it.”
Using more technology and interacting with consumers is becoming a huge trend in the grocery and retail world. Recently, Kroger, along with Walmart and Amazon, had announced plans to rollout a cashier-free store. The idea, part of Kroger’s Restock Strategy, would work with store-provided hand held scanners or through the “Scan, Bag, Go” app on any smartphone.
According to Business Insider, Kroger is marketing and selling the technology to other retailers globally, which was developed with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing service.
“It’s an exciting platform for a lot of future innovation,” Hjelm said.