The Trace Grocery is designed to provide retailers the efficiency and cost-savings benefits their businesses need, and the shopper the convenience and flexibility they expect from online grocery services. It is built on the BrightDrop Trace Platform, which was originally created for last-mile delivery.
The Trace Grocery features include:
- Temperature management to store items at food-safe temperatures for up to four hours
- Propulsion-assistance to move up to 350 pounds of groceries, helping reduce physical strain on the labor force
- Auto-braking to stop the electric motor that matches an operator's walking speed up to 3 mph
- Nine compartments to segment items by order, temperature and product type for optimized pickups
- Flexibility to easily maneuver inside and outside of a grocer's store to help reduce costly staging and infrastructure requirements
- Weatherproofing to handle variable temperatures and outdoor elements with ease
Limited quantities of the BrightDrop eCart built specifically for groceries are currently available, but it should reach full availability in 2024. Kroger - one of the top five largest grocery providers in the United States, has already completed an initial pilot program in Kentucky and reported that it had experienced "a noticeable improvement in the customer and associate experience."
As a result, the grocer intends to sign on as the very first customer for the BrightDrop Trace Grocery and should receive its first units at stores later this year. So far, no footage of the eCart for groceries from Drop has been released, however here's a sneak peak at the original Trace eCart it was built on:
BrightDrop is an electric mobility brand formed by General Motors in early 2021 to develop electric Light Commercial Vehicles (eLCVs) for last-mile deliveries, electric smart containers, and cloud-based software to support fleets.
Source: BrightDrop