Trade is in a state of constant change. From Amazon Go to self-propelled vans at Wallmart, new technologies have found their way into classic retail. But one thing has been an unchanged companion to every purchase for years – the shopping cart. The Startup Caper declares war with an AI-controlled shopping cart at the supermarket checkout.
“If you walked into a grocery store 100 years ago versus today, nothing has really changed.” – Lindon Gao , Caper co-founder and CEO
Caper’s new shopping cart has a built-in barcode scanner and credit card reader to automate all processes that are currently running at the checkout. Thanks to the built-in scanners, the products that are inserted are automatically recognized by the three built-in image recognition cameras and, if necessary, weighed by weight sensors. In this way, purchasing should not only become more efficient, but should also be fun.
Caper Smart Cart – Make Shopping Magic (Source: Caper AI)
The AI-supported shopping cart is already in use in two stores in New York and lists retail partners such as Key Food Fresh, Met Fresh and Pioneer supermarkets. So far, according to the startup, buyers equipped with Caper’s shopping carts have been able to register up to 18 percent more purchases per visit than in comparable stores.
The shopping cart also shows customers current product recommendations and helps them with their shopping. With this technology, Caper has already collected $3 million, including a $2.15 million seed round.
Innovation Profile: Caper Shopping Cart
Caper’s long-term goal is to completely eliminate the cash registers in supermarkets with its modern scanner technology and to support customers with the artificial intelligence built into the car. The innovation profile is as follows:
Self-Check-Out and smart shopping carts already existed in the past. Both Microsoft and other technology companies have always had the desire to change the way they shop. In spite of everything, many components that seamlessly merge at Caper are an innovation. The novelty factor is still in the mean value. Insecurity and Complexity are very low. The use of a classic shopping cart has been learned and Capers solution simply takes these processes into the next century. The conflict content on the other hand is still quite high. Many people will distrust the solution at the beginning and only critically examine whether the listed goods were really recorded correctly.
Fazit: All in all, Caper is going in the right direction with its AI shopping cart. So much has changed in the course of digitalisation, but the retail trade has so far stuck to methods that have not been modernised for decades. The combination of traditional processes and new technology in the shopping cart is therefore exactly the hybrid that the retail trade needs.
Post Picture: Caper
