Technology and shopping habits. a good read

How technology will fill your shopping basket

You’ve just finished off the last of the corn flakes, your other half is clearing up the breakfast things and about to throw away the empty box. Hang on a minute!

You grab your new scanning device and zap the box before it hits the bin. The scanner is synced with your online supermarket account, so corn flakes are instantly added to your shopping list. The milk, eggs and flour are about to run out too, so you scan them for good measure.

Will this type of gizmo make your life easier, more fun even? Supermarket chain Waitrose thinks it will. It’s in the latter stages of trialing its “hiku” home scanner and plans to roll it out within the year.

“It’s basically a fridge magnet with a scanner on it. I like to think of it as taking online shopping off the screen and into the kitchen,” says Tom Fuller, Waitrose’s head of technology innovation. And it has voice recognition, so you can tell it what to add to the list.

Of course, this isn’t just about making shopping more fun. Across our high streets, from supermarkets to fashion stores, Britain’s retailers are tripping over themselves to digitise and personalise our shopping experience. The aim is to inspire brand loyalty and drive up sales at the same time.

“New technology initiatives are about trying to create loyalty, and about trying to push the message that supermarkets have a hi-tech, progressive aspect to their brand,” says Richard Cope, a retail trends analyst at Mintel.

In some small format Tesco stores, for example, they have begun installing “endless aisles” – huge touchscreen displays that make their entire online selection available for purchase.

And just as pop-up ads target our specific likes online, special sensors, called iBeacons, will soon do the same in stores as well. As you walk around the supermarket, ads are pushed to your mobile phone, prompting you to pick up that chocolate sponge you bought the week before or how about some half-price cream to go with those strawberries? Waitrose says it hopes to roll out the technology within the year.