As of: March 9, 2024, 6:06 p.m
By: Jonah Reule
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In Cologne, shopping carts with a navigation system are being tested in a Rewe store.
Customers should be able to do their shopping more quickly.
Cologne – Everyone knows it, the fridge is empty and there are almost no drinks left in the house.
Time for some shopping.
So write a shopping list and quickly go to the supermarket.
But shopping often takes a long time right there.
Where is the strawberry jam?
How do I find the butter?
For many people, searching for individual products, especially in larger supermarkets, costs one thing above all: a lot of time.
But that's exactly what needs to end at Rewe.
In Cologne (NRW), the supermarket chain is currently testing shopping carts with an integrated navigation device.
The goal: Customers should find exactly the products they are looking for in the shortest possible time.
This is supposed to work with the help of the “Catch” project.
Rewe is testing shopping carts with navigation systems in Cologne – AI should guide customers through the supermarket
Rewe customers in Cologne-Bickendorf are navigated to the respective products using a map.
© Rewe Markt GmbH
The shopping cart with navigation system is being tested in the Rewe Center in Cologne-Bickendorf (Cologne Ehrenfeld district).
According to Rewe, a total of around 110 shopping carts were equipped with a tablet.
Technology from the Israeli company Catch Retail Inc. is integrated into it. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), the individual shelves and paths of the Rewe supermarket can be displayed on a map on the tablet.
The AI should then guide customers to the products they are looking for, explains Rewe.
This is how the shopping cart works with “Catch”
► Select shopping cart with navigation system
► Scan shopping list
► Start shopping
► AI navigates customers to the products they want
► Offers and products with discounts that could be suitable for your purchase are also suggested
► Complete your purchase
Source: Rewe
By accompanying customers, “Catch” is supposed to learn shopping routes and thus predict their route through the market.
In the supermarket, the technology is connected to a digital system.
“As soon as a customer enters an aisle in the supermarket, suitable products are suggested,” explains Frank Oliver Schmitz, Chief Innovation Engineer at Rewe Digital, in a video about the “Catch” technology.
Another technology is used at Rewe in downtown Cologne.
At Rewe am Neumarkt, customers can shop without a checkout.
Shopping carts with AI at Rewe – Shopping lists can also be scanned
So that the AI knows what customers want to buy in the supermarket, “Catch” can also scan handwritten shopping lists, digital shopping lists and barcodes.
According to Rewe, this can be done with a camera that is located on the back of the tablet.
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“Catch then recognizes the customers’ lists and handwriting and automatically leads them to the locations of the desired products,” says Rewe.
But anyone who is prone to making opportunistic purchases should also be careful.
On the way to the products, the navigation system also suggests products with discounts and offers that could be suitable for the respective purchase.
As a result, more could end up in the car than needed.
According to Rewe, the customers' personal data collected by AI is not stored permanently.
Rewe: Navigation system will be tested for four months - continuation possible
According to Rewe, the “Catch” project is initially a pilot project.
The shopping carts with AI will initially be tested for four months at the Rewe Center in Cologne Bickendorf.
The company then wants to evaluate how the navigation systems have been received by customers.
A decision will then be made about a possible continuation of the use of the tablets, says Rewe.
Since December 2022, the “Scan & Go” shopping method has also been offered in Rewe supermarkets.
Customers can scan the products while shopping and pay more quickly at the checkout.
New technologies are also finding their way into the branches at Aldi.
Aldi Süd, for example, uses digital price tags on the shelves to display the prices of the products.
(jr)