Amazon Introduces Smart Shopping Carts At LA Supermarket

Amazon has introduced the next generation shopping cart that lets customers skip checkout lines, CNBC reported.

On Tuesday, the “Dash Cart” will debut at its Woodland Hills, California grocery store. It may resemble any other cart, but with its use of sensors, cameras, and a display screen that tracks orders, it takes the amount due from the linked credit card. All that’s left to do is bag groceries and go.

If the concept sounds familiar, the “Dash Cart” mirrors Amazon’s cashierless Go stores which opened two years ago. It’s built on the “Just Walk Out” technology first deployed by Amazon Go to eliminate lines and cashiers.

Shoppers will need a smartphone and an Amazon account to use a Dash Cart. One inside the store, users scan a QR code in the Amazon app that signs them into the cart and loads Alexa shopping lists and a coupon scanner that will apply discounts while people shop.

The cart will beep when the product is correctly identified or flash orange if it needs to be re-added.

Amazon says the Dash Cart is designed for small-to medium-sized grocery trips and fits two grocery bags.

The receipt will be automatically emailed to the address on file.

Want to put something you grabbed back on the shelf? No problem, a display on the front of the cart adjusts the tally.

While Amazon Go stores offer snacks and on-the-go meals, the Woodland Hills grocery store looks more like a traditional supermarket. Amazon says it’s a model of the company’s future new chain of grocery stores, expected to open later this year.

Dilip Kumar, Amazon’s vice president of physical retail and technology, told CNBC that the California store’s expanded offerings presented a series of new challenges when Amazon designed the Dash Cart because full-size supermarkets feature so many products.

“You need to be able to add that and keep track of all of that and it just increases the complexity,” Kumar told the network. “Plus, the weighing component of it also has to be very robust to be able to allow for a very accurate receipt experience for a customer.”

In addition, Dash Carts are embedded with all the technology to make the experience a breeze, but with the exception of the display — think iPad — they look just like any other standard shopping cart.

“We try to hide that complexity away from customers so you don’t have to learn any new shopping behaviors,” Kumar told CNBC. “Once you’re signed in with your phone, you can put the phone away and your normal way that you shop stays the same.”

Earlier this month, PYMNTS reported the expansion of its supermarkets could make Amazon a serious contender in the $900 billion U.S. grocery industry.