- Kroger is rolling out new technology to stores that’s designed to make grocery shopping easier than ever before.
- The technology communicates with customers’ smartphones and uses emoji-like icons to highlight products on their shopping lists as they walk down store aisles, helping them quickly select items in a sea of similar-looking products.
- It also allows Kroger to better manage out-of-stock items and rapidly change prices using digital price displays.
- Kroger worked with Microsoft to develop the technology. The companies announced on Monday that they were marketing it to other retailers globally.
Kroger is rolling out new technology to its stores that could change grocery shopping as we know it.
The technology, which digitally displays pricing and nutritional information, video ads, and coupons, is installed on store shelves where paper price tags hang. The digital shelving is being tested throughout two pilot stores and has been rolled out to about 100 Kroger stores’ end caps, an industry term for the space at the end of store aisles.
The digital price tags give Kroger the ability to instantly change prices and activate promotions across its stores, enabling it to undercut sales at other retailers and freeing up employees who would otherwise change prices by hand.
The technology also communicates with customers’ smartphones to help them complete their shopping lists.
Here’s how it works.
As customers move through a Kroger store’s aisles, digital price tags will light up with a personalized icon that signifies an item on their shopping list.
KrogerThe icon, such as a pumpkin, is selected by the customer and stored in their shopper profile.
KrogerCustomers can scan items using their smartphones as they place them in their carts.
KrogerThis allows them to bypass checkout lines when they’re done shopping.
KrogerThey can also scan products using a handheld device provided by Kroger.
KrogerWhen a shopper is done scanning an item, an app will show them where to find the next product on their list.
KrogerThe app will also show them coupons and ads.
KrogerIt can even help customers select items based on their dietary restrictions. “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,” Kroger’s chief information officer, Chris Hjelm, told Business Insider in an interview last year.
Kroger
