“I save half an hour”: what does the first connected trolley tested by Intermarché give?

It’s been four months since a brand new tool appeared on the shelves of the Intermarché supermarket where our team visited. With more or less success. “Here they just installed it, so I haven’t used it yet”concedes a woman in the TF1 news report visible at the top of this article. Same observation for a man met by our journalists. “I’m too old, maybe.”he laughs. Another customer qualifies: “No, it’s not complicated but it’s not always super intuitive so I’ll move on.”

Danielle uses this interactive basket during each of her shopping trips. It is equipped with a digital box that she clips to her cart. “There I have to press ‘start’. (…) And then there we go”she shows us.

I can save half an hour.

Danielle, customer using the connected trolley

Two cameras are integrated into the case. They recognize the weight and format of the product using artificial intelligence. “I took it, I put it in the shopping cart and it worked”also presents Danielle, who can also follow the total amount of her purchases in real time. Sometimes learning is more complicated. Like when the customer has to scan the barcode herself.

This hypermarket in Seine-et-Marne is the very first store in France to test this interactive basket. Around forty boxes are made available to customers, for 100 euros paid by the brand per box per month. And the experimentation continues: the founders of the tool are preparing to offer targeted advertisements directly to the consumer’s device. “For example, if [le client] has some pasta, we can offer a sauce that will go with the pasta”explains Jacob Chekroun, director of operations in France for the company Shopic.

At the checkout too, the time saving is considerable. “There, I don’t have a lot of shopping, but when I have a lot, it’s important not to have to unload and reload. I can save half an hour”adds Danielle.

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With this connected cart (new window)the brand can collect data on the preferences of its consumers. “It makes it possible to retrieve data, data which can be extremely interesting for potentially personalizing product offers that would be presented on the screen”explains Sandrine Heitz-Spahn, teacher-researcher specializing in mass distribution.

For four years, the first intelligent shopping carts have been tested in other supermarkets. But never before has such a device, coupled with artificial intelligence, been made available to the general public.