Smart carts, smartphones and smart coupons – those are just some of the things that grocery shoppers expect to use more of in the future, as they try to get smart about saving money and time.
The retail data analytics company 84.51° asked shoppers to peer into their crystal ball to picture what grocery shopping will look like in the future. Not the distant future, when grocery shopping could be as simple as asking your AI companion to 3D print everything on your grocery list. Instead, they narrowed their predictions to just a few years from now, when the pace of change will be slightly less head-spinning.
Nevertheless, “customers predict an evolution in grocery shopping over the next 2-3 years,” 84.51° found, “primarily driven by technological advancements.”
Some of shoppers’ predictions seem entirely plausible: “We will get digitized shopping carts,” one said. Others are more imaginative: “Grocery stores will try to implement AI to help customers buy ingredients from a recipe they create using AI.” Some sound somewhat drastic: “We won’t actually go into stores. Everything will be picked online and brought out to your car. Brick and mortars will be a thing of the past.”
And some predictions seem downright quaint: “I plan to use more coupons to help save more money”
So it may come as a relief that some shoppers’ vision of the future still includes an old favorite way to save money. It makes sense, since all the technological tools in the world won’t be worth much, if it means having to pay too much for your groceries.
As it stands, the most common high-tech tool used by shoppers today is digital coupon apps. 48% currently use them and plan to continue doing so, while 31% who do not currently use them expect they will in the future. That means four out of every five shoppers expect to be clipping digital coupons in the next few years.
And that’s not the only high-tech tool shoppers envision themselves using. Going down a list, from cash back apps to price comparison apps to meal planning apps, the percentage of shoppers currently using them decreases, while the percentage of shoppers who expect to use them in the future increases – culminating in smart shopping carts, currently used by only 11% but with 41% saying they are likely to use them in the next few years.
Overall, shoppers predict that technology will “contribute to a more automated shopping experience,” as they expect “to use smartphones, apps, and online platforms more frequently for both shopping and meal planning.”
While there are some things shoppers expect to see in the future, like the increased availability of smart carts that will help them check out faster, and AI integration that can suggest items to purchase, there are other things they’d like their grocery stores to offer right now. One is “a broad range of digital coupons,” with most preferring “automatic application” so they don’t have to go through and clip the ones they want. They’d also like their store’s website and app to include “real-time inventory updates” so they know if an item is in stock.
Technology aside, more survey respondents are optimistic about grocery shopping in the months and years to come. Fewer people are concerned about inflation, fewer are cutting back on non-essentials to save money, and fewer are switching to lower-cost brands. Yet it appears some money-saving habits are here to stay – 71% say they’ve “been looking for sales/deals/coupons more often,” way up from 66% just last month.
So the desire for savings combined with new grocery technology could make shopping and saving money even easier in the years to come. And the best news for those who like coupons – whatever technology comes along next, it seems couponing and saving money may never go out of style.
Image source: Amazon
