sMart

Reinventing the Supermarket Experience

Problem

In our world today, we understand that time is a precious and limited resource and many young adults find it difficult to take out some time from their busy schedules to go out of their way to the supermarket to do shopping for daily essentials.

Introducing Lazy Leo, a busy student, one of the many young adults that fit the aforementioned description perfectly. The last thing Leo wants to do is to make a long trip down to the supermarket just to restock his food supplies when he has many looming deadlines and meetings that demand his time. Leo is also constantly on the lookout for promotions to help him save money, but does not have time to scour newspapers and catalogues to find out the most recent offers. However, Leo still values quality and freshness of his groceries, and much rather handpicks his items, thus prefers the physical shopping experience.

Our Solution

Introducing sMart, a smart supermarket shopping solution that aims at helping people like Leo to ensure that he gets all the items he needs in the shortest possible time from entry to checkout. This is achieved by mapping out the shortest path through all his pre-selected items on his mobile application using a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) enabled indoor navigation system. With the aid of RFID sensors mounted on supermarket carrier equipment (SCE), such as baskets & trolleys, and RFID tags on the products, whenever Leo walks by an item on his list or an item on promotion, his sMart mobile application will ping him to notify him. Any item that he drops in his SCE is also immediately scanned. This solution also extends to learning and predicting Leo’s shopping habits and helping him acquire more items every trip he makes so that he can make fewer trips down to the supermarket overall, thereby helping him to save even more time.

With the help of sensors and understanding of the context, sMart is capable of providing a breakthrough in Leo’s shopping efficiency. sMart’s pervasive aspect lies in the recommendations provided to Leo behind the scenes. The algorithms are able to detect the needs and wants of Leo, through the identification of Leo’s shopping habits, and proceed to make subconscious decisions for him. The recommendations include but are not limited to, the navigation route when Leo begins his shopping, entirely based on his shopping list and also recommending similar items to notify Leo of better alternatives and promotions. Ultimately, sMart aims to awaken Leo’s shopping ability and to achieve his objectives completely unbeknownst to him.

Features

sMart Cart

A physical cart that has RFID sensors attached to it. Shopping items all have an RFID sensor to them. Inserting or removing items from the cart, will be automatically detected and the information will be updated to the cloud server. Customers will simply need to scan the QR code on the cart with the mobile app to begin their shopping journey.

sMart Mobile App

An Android Mobile App that enables customers to log in to their personal account. With the provision of Google or Email sign-in. At any point in time, customers are able to add items from the catalogue to their virtual shopping cart, this information is tagged to their account and accessible at any point in time.

Furthermore, customers will be able to view their transaction history as well. They are also able to update their profile settings to provide them with a more personalised experience. Allowing them to choose their shopping habits and the frequency of receiving notifications to elevate the user experience.

Indoor Navigation

Once the shopping journey has begun for the customer, they will be provided with a shopping assistant on the sMart Mobile App. The shortest path will be generated based on the customer's current location in the supermarket. The application takes the list of shopping items from the customer's virtual shopping cart, sorts them and guides the customer in navigating around the supermarket with a simple yet intuitive map layout. Providing the most ideal and time-saving path possible. Customers are also provided with the functionality to choose the item they would like to navigate to.

Recommendations

Shopping habits and patterns are identified from the customer's past transactions. The customer is also provided with the functionality to indicate their shopping habits, such as being a saver or one who focuses on quality. The application then proceeds to recommend in the form of push and in-app notifications. Should the customer not want to receive any notifications, they could simply disable it, or choose the time interval to receive recommendations.

Another form of recommendation is generated based on a trigger. Trigger marketing gets set off when the application has detected that the customer will be passing a promotional item in his current path. The app will then inform and notify the customer of this ongoing promotion.

Checkout

The checkout process with sMart is a seamless and almost instantaneous process. Just add the items into the cart, once done with their shopping, just use the mobile app and proceed with a one-tap checkout. They will also be able to review the items in the cart before checking out.

Business Benefits

The proposed solution involves the enhancement of the overall supermarket shopping experience for the customers while also raising business efficiency for the supermarket. The easier checkout process for their customers reduces the necessary manpower, all whilst providing customers with a one-of-a-kind shopping experience. The aim of this unique and pervasive experience is to increase customer retention rate and thus maximising the supermarket’s profits, with the reduction of required manpower and increased customer base. The main objective is to reduce the average in-store shopping time of customers by streamlining the end-to-end supermarket shopping experience from pre-shopping preparation, recommended in-store navigation, real-time promotion system to one-tap checkout. Providing the customers with a ubiquitous cutting-edge shopping tool that reconceptualizes supermarket shopping and taking a step into the future of supermarkets.