ZeroQs Secures $496,000 to Expand Smart Shopping Cart Tech

Warsaw-based retail startup ZeroQs has reportedly secured 457,000 euros (about $496,000) in funding from Freya Capital.

The firm will use the new funding to further develop its smart shopping cart technology and expand its market presence, EU Startups reported Tuesday (Jan. 30).

“We plan full-scale implementations in retail chains both in Poland and abroad,” ZeroQs CEO Jarosław Kaczmarczyk said in the report.

ZeroQs did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Retailers Społem and Detal Centrum have already adopted ZeroQs’ smart shopping carts, according to the report.

ZeroQs’ solution aims to address the pain point of long shopping lines and enhance consumer shopping experiences, the report said.

Equipped with a weighing system, barcode reader and touchscreen, these smart shopping carts allow customers to place items in a cart, scan them with the built-in scanner, and leave the store, with the bill being automatically charged to their account, the report said.

For retail chains, ZeroQs’ smart shopping carts not only improve the customer experience but also enhance security and streamline inventory management by verifying products with the weighing and visual systems, per the report.

Another key advantage of ZeroQs’ technology is its ability to collect consumer behavior data, according to the report. With this data, retail chains can personalize the shopping process and further enhance the shopping experience.

“Retail chains are looking with increasing interest at accessing data on customer behavior, and ZeroQs’ smart shopping cart could become a key provider of this information,” Michał Lewandowski, managing partner at Freya Capital, said in the report.

Smart shopping carts are expanding to more grocery chains, even as those that try to rely solely on the technology for checkout are finding that many consumers would rather stick with more traditional methods, PYMNTS reported in November.

Some consumers remain hesitant about the technology, leading Amazon, for example, to return to offering more traditional self-checkout locations at its Fresh stores.

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that retailers are looking to defeat point-of-sale (POS) checkout friction by implementing unattended retail solutions like self-checkout lanes and fully autonomous stores.

Forty percent of U.S. retailers said they believe customers would be very or extremely likely to switch away merchants not offering scan-and-go technology, according to “Big Retail’s Innovation Mandate: Convenience and Personalization,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and ACI Worldwide collaboration.