Anne reveals her pick for the most overhyped retail technology of the year: Smart Carts. She has an issue with a particular headline from Instacart this year about the number of stores that had deployed the technology. The problem is that the public doesn't know how many smart carts are in those stores or what the payment structure is. This gave "false confidence for retailers who were considering those putting smart carts in".
Many grocery retailers currently testing smart carts only have about 10 or 20 carts in a store. While the technology has possibilities, grocers who are deciding how to continue the success of their business should not be leaning into smart carts. Instead, the speaker suggests focusing on:
Transparent pricing
Electronic shelf labels that can return a quick ROI
In-store robotics to get shelf view technology
Anne would not recommend investing "tens of thousands of dollars per cart" into a store right now.
