Access to consumer behaviour data allows retail networks to undertake a range of additional actions, including personalising the shopping process and enhancing the shopping experience even more effectively. While personalisation may be easier to achieve in the e-commerce space, physical stores still find it harder. However, the use of technology like smart shopping carts accompanying the customer throughout the entire shopping process has made it easier.
Revolutionising customer shopping experiences, a Polish startup ZeroQs develops smart shopping carts as an alternative to self-service checkouts. Now, the startup raised €457k (PLN 2 million) in funding from the Polish venture capital fund Freya Capital in a follow-on investment.
ZeroQs will use the funds to develop smart shopping cart technology and intensify expansion. Its solution aims to reduce shopping queues and enhance consumer shopping experiences. The company is also planning for its international expansion.
Self-checkout shopping carts
Founded by Jaroslaw Kaczmarczyk and Tomasz Brulinski in Warsaw in 2018, ZeroQs has developed technology for mobile self-checkout carts. Equipped with a weighing system, barcode reader, and touchscreen, the ZeroQs smart cart makes shopping easier and faster.
It enables customers to avoid queues by automatically scanning products as they are placed in the shopping cart and calculating the payment upon leaving the store. This enhances the customer shopping experience while also reducing the operational costs for retail chains related to employment, human mistakes, and theft.
ZeroQs smart shopping carts are already operating in stores of such chains as Społem and Detal Centrum. The company is in talks with leading retailers from Poland and Europe constantly expanding its presence in the market.
“The past year has been extremely intensive for us. After a period of research and development and cooperation with partners such as EY and Microsoft, we moved to the commercialisation phase. The introduction of our ZeroQS smart carts to the first stores was a significant milestone. The newly raised capital will enable us to continue working on the technology, intensify our presence in the country, and prepare for expansion into neighboring markets. Our priority for the coming year is to consistently continue the commercialisation of our solution. We plan full-scale implementations in retail chains both in Poland and abroad,” – commented ZeroQs CEO, Jarosław Kaczmarczyk.
“Observing the rapid growth of ZeroQs, as well as the market itself, we decided to increase our involvement in the company through a follow-on investment. 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,” added Michal Lewandowski, managing partner at Freya Capital.
