Telecom’s Smart Cart


Some of you might remember when we reported on the virtual grocery store at train stations, and here is another advancement in grocery shopping technology with SK Telecom’s “Smart Cart”.

The “Smart Cart” has a tablet that can sync with your smartphone, and it knows where you are in the store. Yes, the cart has an app that syncs up with the store’s Wi-Fi network for “real indoor positioning”.

As customers walk through the aisles, the tablet will display deals. For example, if you’re going through the cookie aisle, you might see a quick virtual coupon show up for Oreos or Fig Newtons. It will also inform you of updates on new products as well.

So far, the SK Telecom “Smart Cart” program is a pilot program in Shanghai’s Lotus Supermarkets. I suppose that if it is successful, it will be adopted by others.

So is this what we’re looking at? A future where every shopping cart has a tablet? If they can fit together like regular shopping carts, I don’t see why not.

However, if every cart is going to have a tablet PC on it, that represents a big investment, as tablet PCs are expensive. Perhaps it would be easier to create a tablet mount for each cart, and the customer can bring in their own cart to sync with the app.

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