What’s new in grocery tech?

From supply chain innovations to food waste reduction to helping shoppers more easily navigate the aisles, new technological innovations continue to dominate the headlines in the grocery store industry.

Over the last several months, we’ve seen big moves by Walmart, particularly in its decision to build four automated perishable distribution centers. We’re interested to see how that moves the needle in terms of Walmart’s produce offerings.

Meanwhile, Upshop made big news in July with its purchase of Toronto-based Invafresh and the announcement that it will double down on its efforts to help grocers reduce food waste.

We also took a look at a number of customer-focused tech upgrades on self-checkout, smart carts, and more.

Walmart expands automation for perishables

In a move expected to streamline labor and improve speed-to-shelf, Walmart is adding four highly automated perishable distribution centers around the country and adding automated technology to five others.

The technology, which includes an automated storage system nearly 80 feet tall in a temperature-controlled environment, will help build pallets that are engineered to optimize efficiency for merchandising at the store level and minimize product damage, Dave Guggina, executive VP of supply chain operations, Walmart U.S., said in a blog post.

“We’re adding state-of-the-art tech to our facilities … to enable greater speed and capacity that allows us to serve customers even more reliably,” he said.

For example, the automated DCs can store twice as many cases and process more than twice as many cases per hour than a traditional perishables DC, Guggina said.

Walmart has operated one such automated perishables DC in Shafter, Calif., since 2021, and it is ramping up another in Lancaster, Texas. Additional DCs are planned for Wellford, S.C.; Belvidere, Ill.; and Pilesgrove, N.J.

Walmart is also expanding four of its traditional perishables DCs by adding more than 500,000 square feet of automation per site to increase capacity for fresh products. These facilities are located in Mankato, Minn.; Mebane, N.C.; Garrett, Ind.; and Shelbyville, Tenn.

The company also plans to renovate its Winter Haven, Fla., perishables DC to retrofit the facility with automated technology.

“Our goal is to learn more about the feasibility and requirements of retrofitting an existing grocery building with automation technology,” said Guggina.

Upshop buys Invafresh, plans food waste initiative

Grocery tech company Upshop acquired Invafresh with the goal of addressing challenges in the industry, including availability, affordability, and food waste.

Invafresh will rebrand as Upshop, and its CEO, Tim Spencer, will step down from his position and serve as an advisor to the combined companies.

Bringing Invafresh into the fold will grow Tampa, Fla.-based Upshop’s client reach to more than 400 retailers in 35 countries, operating in more than 50,000 stores, the company said in a press release.

“The challenge of introducing more affordable, healthy options into stores has been compounded by issues with technology that associates have struggled to adopt. A unified Upshop platform addresses these challenges with a single app, empowering associates to efficiently ‘win their day’ and deliver the best experience for shoppers,” according to the Upshop press release.

Upshop CEO Shamus Hines told Supermarket News in an interview that the acquisition not only boosts its customer base from about 150 to more than 400 clients across the two businesses but also brings major retailers like Albertsons into the fold.

“We’ve picked up a number of different retailers like Fresh Market, Coburns, Albertsons, H-E-B — these are some of the retailers that we’re now doing business with that we hadn’t historically,” Hines said.

A big motivation behind the merger was due to Invafresh’s purchase of Whywaste, a tech company out of Gothenburg, Sweden, that developed a suite of food waste reduction tools for grocers.

Invafresh’s purchase of Whywaste in October of 2023 was an effort to merge Invefresh’s AI-enhanced forecasting capabilities to help customers reduce food waste.

“It's nice to bring the world's best together and have the knowledge that both of our companies have to absolutely obliterate these problems around inventory in the store … and eliminating food waste,” Hines said.

Upshop also plans to launch a global Food Waste Initiative “powered by a leading product suite, unmatched analytics, and deep industry partnerships.”

Making stores more shoppable

Despite the challenges some retailers are facing with self-checkout, traditional supermarkets and other big-box retailers will continue to leverage technologies and merchandising innovations to improve the in-store experience for customers, while minimizing labor costs, according to one analyst.

“I think the days of standing in long lines are over,” Keith Daniels, managing partner at Carl Marks Advisors, told Supermarket News. “That’s very frustrating for the consumer.”

Retailers will continue to tweak their checkout offerings by limiting the number of items and possibly through the use of smart carts or phone-based scanning, in order to make self-checkout more convenient, he said.

Retailers overall are increasing their investments in making stores more shoppable and enhancing the overall experience, Daniels said, citing innovations such as the walk-in refrigerated produce rooms at Food Lion and the “store within a store” departments at Target, for example. In addition, retailers will increasingly make use of artificial intelligence and other technologies to optimize product freshness and to help maintain inventory levels.

“People are really embracing online ordering and pickup, but at the same time people are also coming back into the store and shopping the aisles a bit more, and stores are challenged to enhance that experience,” Daniels said.

In the refrigerated produce rooms at Food Lion, for example, the merchandising represents an improvement over the more utilitarian refrigerated produce rooms at Costco, he said.

“They are trying to enhance that experience around produce, and giving the impression that they are keeping it fresh,” Daniels said.

Walmart has also significantly enhanced its produce offerings, he noted, which the company has said has helped drive increased sales.

“We’ve definitely experienced benefits from improvements in quality [of fresh foods],” said John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart U.S., in the company’s first-quarter conference call with analysts, citing improvements in both produce and meat offerings.

Mobile apps are also providing tools for retailers to improve the in-store shopping experience, Daniels said. Consumers can increasingly download mobile coupons while shopping and receive more personalized offers, and retailers such as Walmart are beginning to leverage AI to optimize this experience for consumers in the store by reminding customers of things that may need to be replenished or suggesting alternative product solutions. Technology such as mobile apps and in-store kiosks are also making wayfinding within the store easier for shoppers, he said.

In addition, Walmart’s announcement that it will switch to electronic shelf labels through its stores signals the retailer’s commitment to both the in-store experience and labor efficiency, Daniels said.