arrow
October 28, 2022

How is Computer Vision Used in Supermarkets?

Frictionless shopping
Enhance in-store shopping experience
Computer vision
AI
share
Link copied
arrow
Share
backgroundarrowsarrowbackground

In the Shopic user experience, shoppers clip the Shop-E device onto a standard shopping cart handle, transforming it into a smart cart. The smart cart automatically identifies each item as its placed in the cart, and displays the item and price on the Shop-E screen. The technology that recognizes items as they are placed in the cart is a type of artificial intelligence (AI) called computer vision.

Computer Vision: A Short History

Computer vision's roots date back to the 1950s and '60s. In 1966, MIT scientists linked a camera to a computer and tried to get the computer to describe what it saw. While those efforts met limited successes, they established the groundwork that computer vision is based on today. In 2012, a team from the University of Toronto at the ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge entered a deep neural network called AlexNet that correctly identified objects 83% of the time, 10% better than any efforts to that date.

In the decade since, computer vision has advanced significantly. Computers with cameras can correctly identify objects and people with 99% accuracy, often recognizing items faster than people can.

Computer vision is used by autonomous vehicles to recognize their surroundings. Healthcare professionals use it to automate tasks like detecting cancerous skin moles, and security personnel use it for facial recognition. And of course, computer vision is used in the supermarket.

Amazon Brings Computer Vision to the Supermarket

Last June, Amazon implemented computer vision in its Amazon Fresh grocery stores. Amazon outfitted its stores with cameras and sensors. The Computer Vision identified every item that customers placed in their carts, and when customers finished shopping, they could automatically pay and just walk out of the store.

In addition to the shopper’s experience, wall-to-wall computer vision provided Amazon with inventory data that they could use to optimize their ordering and ensure that there were always enough products on the shelf.

This was the first implementation of Computer Vision in a supermarket, and while the technology worked, the implementation was rather inelegant. The surveillance infrastructure in the store followed consumers' every step, and consumers had no idea what was being done with the data. This raised concerns about privacy and is just one more example of what Business Insider calls "Amazon’s Empire of Surveillance.”

Taking a Micro-View of the Supermarket

Shopic takes a much smaller, more efficient approach to computer vision. Rather than outfitting entire stores with cameras and sensors, Shopic’s computer vision is focused solely on the shopping cart. The Shop-E is currently equipped with two cameras and monitors everything that goes in and out of the cart.

Rather than outfitting entire stores with cameras and sensors, Shopic’s computer vision is focused solely on the shopping cart.

Customers place items in their cart the same way they have always done, and computer vision takes care of everything. It identifies the product and adds it to the running list of products on the device’s screen. Computer vision can even capture items that are tossed into the cart from across the aisle (not that we advocate throwing merchandise that is heavier than marshmallows around the store).

Ready for the future of retail?

Future versions of the Shop-E will include two additional cameras placed on each side of the device. These cameras will scan the shelves, identify products that need to be restocked, and alert store employees when items are sitting on the wrong shelves.

Like the cameras facing the cart, these cameras aren't being used to capture consumer data. They eliminate many of the privacy concerns that are inherent in the Amazon system.

Accuracy You Can Rely On

Unlike the AlexNet, which accurately identified 83% of items back in 2012, Shopic’s computer vision accurately identifies 98.5% of all items that it has been trained on. Furthermore, it detects when an item is added or removed from the cart with 99.4% accuracy.

According to Eran Kravitz, Shopic’s CTO and co-founder, “We need to differentiate between thousands of items, some of which are very similar to one another in an environment with many edge cases. The system is incredibly accurate and user-friendly – it kind of feels like magic. Our algorithms recognize the item itself based on its visual features; all shoppers have to do is place them in the cart as they usually would.”

When new, untrained items are added to the cart, the system alerts customers, who scan a bar code on the device. Scanning and adding the product into the cart seamlessly train the system to recognize new products.

As a result of this high degree of accuracy, supermarkets can trust the carts with unsupervised checkout and payment tasks.

Improving the In-Store Shopping Experience

Computer vision is ideal for supermarkets. Customers can place their groceries into bags within their cart. When they finish shopping, they can pay directly on the cart, remove the Shop-E device from their cart, and bring their groceries to the parking lot.

It’s a vastly improved experience over loading a shopping cart, waiting in line, unloading it at checkout, bagging all the items, and then placing the bags back in the cart.

Interested in seeing Computer Vision in your store? Contact us today for a demo

arrow
hello world!
arrow
Shopic in the media

Recent News & Coverage

June 8, 2023
Harnessing E-Commerce Analytics Mindsets for Offline Retail Success
"E-commerce websites use extensive tracking to analyze shopper behaviors. Customers are tracked on which pages they visit, how much time they spend on different pages, and what actions lead them to purchase or abandon their shopping cart. New smart devices are poised to provide similar analytics for offline retailers. For example, Shopic."
Read
June 8, 2023
Optimizing Computer Vision to Improve the Grocery Shopping Experience
“Having a separate, detachable, lightweight device, with no other hardware required, is part of our differentiation,” Kravitz says. “Therefore we must put all of our algorithmic efforts into computer vision.”
Read
May 29, 2023
Trending Developments in Computer Vision to Keep an Eye On
Shopic’s Director of Innovation just published a captivating column on CDOTrends, highlighting the trending developments in computer vision. Explore this evolving landscape, fueled by recent leaps in AI capabilities.
Read
May 23, 2023
Smart Cart Startup Shopic to Present its Solution at Microsoft Experience Center in Munich
“Microsoft has provided us with an effective platform to showcase our technology to customers in Europe and beyond. We’re delighted that Microsoft shares our confidence in the potential of Shopic to transform grocery shopping.”
Read
March 11, 2023
How Smart Shopping Carts Could Change How You Shop
Raz Golan, Shopic’s CEO and co-founder, recently shared with Best Life how this technology will transform the in-store shopping experience. "We're bridging the gap between e-commerce and in-person shopping experiences".
Read
March 1, 2023
Shopic’s Smart Cart Solution Highlighted by Microsoft at EuroShop 2023
“We’re delighted that the team at Microsoft has selected our solution as one of its retail tech partners to highlight at EuroShop. We see it as an affirmation of our team’s hard work in bringing the Shopic smart cart solution to market”
Read
February 28, 2023
Shopic-Shufersal Smart Cart Partnership Wins 2023 RETA Award for Best AI at EuroShop
“It’s a testimony to the hard work of both our own teams and our partners at Shufersal, who have enthusiastically invested in Shopic’s smart cart solution to deliver the best possible shopping experience.”
Read
February 22, 2023
Grocery Shoppers Turn to Self-Checkout Amid Dissatisfaction With Traditional Experience
"Shoppers are happier when they have a better experience in the store," said Raz Golan, CEO and co-founder of Shopic. The grocery industry, for its part, has been working hard on innovating the checkout experience, tapping new technologies to improve efficiency and remove friction for consumers.
Read
February 21, 2023
Shopic To Deploy 2000 AI-Powered Smart Shopping Carts
As Forbes put it, ”This is just the beginning of the Smart Carts revolutionizing the grocery shopping experience. As the grocery industry faces challenges from the rise of e-commerce, it's more important than ever for retailers to experiment with new technologies.”
Read
February 21, 2023
Shopic to Deploy 2000 Smart Carts in Partnership With Israel’s Leading Supermarket Chain
“Shuferal’s rapid ramp-up helps place Shopic at the head of the field for smart cart solutions,” said Raz Golan, Shopic’s CEO and co-founder. “This marks deployment at an unprecedented scale and validates our vision for the future of frictionless grocery shopping experiences.”
Read
December 30, 2022
Tech trends that will transform retail customer experience in 2023
In a new column for Retail Customer Experience, Shopic's Innovation Director, discusses tech trends that will shape retail customer experiences in 2023
Read
December 26, 2022
Why could Shopic's AI Smart Cart be the supermarket experience's future?
"AI is making its way into supermarket shopping through a new technology developed by Shopic. With its focus on customer convenience and merchant insights, it certainly has the potential to become an integral part of the evolving grocery store experience."
Read
November 28, 2022
How Today’s Businesses Are Using Partnerships To Improve The Customer Experience
“Technology partnerships have become an increasingly valuable way for businesses to deliver more streamlined and efficient customer experiences. As Forbes shares: "One great example of this comes from Shopic and its clip-on grocery cart tec".
Read
November 14, 2022
Transform your existing shopping cart into a “smart cart” Clip-on device
TECHBLITZ, a media that connects Japan and the global startup ecosystem, recently interviewed Shopic's CEO and co-founder Raz Golan. "With our unique approach to digitalizing the retail front end, you can enjoy all the benefits of online shopping without straining your store, operations, or infrastructure."
Read
November 4, 2022
How Shopic’s Smart Cart Technology Provides Brick-and-Mortar Grocers With Invaluable Data
"When you collect data from each shopping trip, you can implement changes that directly impact the customer experience and your bottom line. All that information can and should influence the products you stock, the promotions you run, how you design displays, and so on."
Read
September 23, 2022
7 retail AI startups aim to give stores a happy holiday season
VentureBeat says that retailers are turning to AI to tackle everything from supply chain challenges and price optimization to self-checkout and fresh food. Shopic is 1 of the 7.
Read
August 31, 2022
Smart Shopping Cart Technology Developer Shopic to Hit U.S. Market Soon, CEO Says
"We don't build a cart from scratch. We've created a device that connects to standard shopping carts and turns them into smart carts only when shoppers use them. So we're allowing grocers to bring all the benefits of online shopping to their physical supermarkets, but without changing the operational overhead or the infrastructure in the store."
Read
August 23, 2022
Grocery smart carts aim to be the saving grace for self-checkout hate
CBInsights's Kennedy echoed that it has historically been difficult for retailers to "overhaul systems that are really entrenched," noting there's "a lot of value around solutions that bolt on to existing technology and allow a store to be retrofit for the technologies."
Read
August 10, 2022
Shopic Announces $35M Investment to Bring Its AI-Enabled Smart Cart to Top U.S. Grocery Chains
Shopic, the smart grocery shopping cart startup, has announced a $35 million Series B investment round led by Qualcomm Ventures, bringing its total funding raised to $56 million.
Read
August 9, 2022
Shopic lands $35M to bring its item-scanning ‘smart cart’ tech to more stores
"We support Shopic's vision of hybrid retail, where the best of online shopping and physical store experiences merge. Shopic's smart cart, which is a compelling and pragmatic smart retail solution, is helping enable this future."
Read
March 2, 2022
Shopic’s Smart-Cart Technology Won the RETA Awards
We are proud to announce that our smart cart clip-on solution has won the Top Technology Partner RETA Awards in the “Best In-store Solution'' category from the EHI Retail Institute. The news comes on the heels of our recent partnership announcement with Shufersal, Israel’s largest supermarket chain
Read
December 5, 2021
Shopic Joins The Race To Develop Smart Shopping Carts
Using our expertise, grocery stores can digitize their retail front-end without changing their operational overhead. The unique clip-on device easily attaches to existing shopping carts, eliminating the need to replace them.
Read
October 20, 2021
How to Win the Age of Cashierless Grocery
To meet shoppers' needs for speed and convenience, traditional retailers should consider ways to cater to their expectations for efficient and frictionless experiences. There are several ways retailers can streamline the shopping experience.
Read
August 15, 2021
Shopic Secures Additional $10 Million to Take its Frictionless Shopping Solution to the World’s Largest Grocery Chains
Already deploying our solutions in stores of major grocery chains worldwide, we will use the new funds to accelerate commercial activities and expand our team.
Read
Harnessing E-Commerce Analytics Mindsets for Offline Retail Success
"E-commerce websites use extensive tracking to analyze shopper behaviors. Customers are tracked on which pages they visit, how much time they spend on different pages, and what actions lead them to purchase or abandon their shopping cart. New smart devices are poised to provide similar analytics for offline retailers. For example, Shopic."
Read
Optimizing Computer Vision to Improve the Grocery Shopping Experience
“Having a separate, detachable, lightweight device, with no other hardware required, is part of our differentiation,” Kravitz says. “Therefore we must put all of our algorithmic efforts into computer vision.”
Read
Trending Developments in Computer Vision to Keep an Eye On
Shopic’s Director of Innovation just published a captivating column on CDOTrends, highlighting the trending developments in computer vision. Explore this evolving landscape, fueled by recent leaps in AI capabilities.
Read
1 2 3 8
View more
NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES © NEW SHOPPING EXPERIENCES ©

Ready for the future of retail?

You don’t have to wait. Contact our team, see it in action
arrowarrow
arrow
hello world!
hello world!