Kwikkart, a Techstars-backed company, officially unveiled its technology in the Foodservice Innovation Zone at NRF 2024. Following their public debut, many believe kwikkart’s innovative technology promises to revolutionize the grocery delivery industry by increasing efficiency for delivery providers, reducing operating costs for retailers (checkout labor & card processing fees), and improving the daily work-flow of over 1 million delivery drivers. 

After 3 years of research and development, kwikkart’s team of 16 UC Berkeley engineers have developed an advanced self-checkout device that attaches to shopping carts to enable secure walk-in-walk-out shopping in any store. The debut of kwikkart’s unique checkout solution comes as the rapidly growing Grocery Delivery Industry, which will generate over $257B in 2024, is beginning to face major challenges regarding efficiency and profitability.

Despite dramatic growth, “The majority of US grocers are failing to reach profitability on 3rd-party delivery” states McKinsey.” Now, with major delivery providers like DoorDash and UberEats competing with legacy players like Instacart and Shipt, it’s projected that over 1 million delivery drivers will be shopping in US stores daily. Kwikkart’s founding CEO, Aaron Gyure states, “As delivery grows, our uniquely scalable technology is positioned to revolutionize the delivery ecosystem by enabling delivery drivers across the country to walk into stores, grab the items they need, and walk out.

The kwikkart device (seen below: Driver scans product using kwikkart in San Francisco grocery store), which will be launched for private testing in 2024, makes the shopping process seamless for delivery drivers. Drivers simply connect to the kwikkart (using their delivery apps) and scan product barcodes using the device. Kwikkart then uses advanced computer vision and AI to verify only correct items enter the shopping cart (in real-time). This technology prevents theft and enables digital payments between delivery providers and retailers. Thus, allowing delivery drivers to skip the checkout process and walk out the store once they have the items they need. 

In addition, kwikkart has developed an innovative payments platform that integrates directly into retail POS systems to provide real-time digital payments ‘directly from delivery providers’ when a driver fulfills an order using kwikkart. Arguably the most valuable aspect of kwikkart’s solution, this digital payments platform completely eliminates the ~3% credit card processing fees that stores currently incur on all delivery driver checkouts.

With regards to scalability, kwikkart’s secret weapon is their proprietary sensor-fusion technology, that transforms any standard shopping cart into a smart shopping cart and enables the company to build the first and only low-cost and easy-to-adopt seamless checkout solution. This unique advantage, when compared to smart carts that cost over $10,000, positions the early-stage startup to become a leader in autonomous shopping and positively impact in-store operations for thousands of US stores.