When smart carts began entering grocery stores, they were first seen as bringing more convenience and speed to the in-store shopping experience. Skipping a long checkout line was the hook. It made intuitive sense because a long checkout line is the most friction-filled part of a grocery trip, and reducing it seemed like an obvious win for consumers and retailers alike.

However, after rolling out Caper Carts to more than 100 cities, the data points to a different conclusion, that the improvement to the shopping experience is the main benefit to consumers. Things like being able to see a running total as they shop and getting served relevant promotions that save them money are what consumers value most. 

This changes the rationale for retailers considering deploying smart carts into their stores. It’s less about making shops in your stores faster but better by giving consumers more control over their shop in a way no other in-store technology can. 

The importance of certainty

Grocery consumers typically carry a mental budget in their heads when they go shopping. Traditionally, managing this budget meant shopping with restraint, holding back on items they’re uncertain about, putting things down rather than risking a checkout surprise. And a lot of mental math. 

When shopping with a smart cart, like Instacart’s Caper Carts, consumers see a running total that gets updated with each item they add. This completely eliminates the need for mental math. It provides consistent clarity and certainty so there’s no surprises at the register so they don’t have to shop with the same restraint or second-guessing. 

This running total has another benefit in that it shows, immediately, the savings of promotions or coupons because they’re applied right then and there without waiting for the cashier to scan or enter a code. Again, this provides certainty. Consumers can see the 12.99 item that’s 50% off hit the total at its reduced price. No need to remember to check a long bill at the end of the shop that all the coupons or promos went through.  

The compounding benefit of relevant promotions

Forty percent of consumers shopping with a Caper Cart clip at least one coupon per trip, saving an average of $2.50 each time they shop, highlighting another key benefit of smart cart technology. 

A promotional offer delivered on the cart screen, when customers are logged into their loyalty account, can be highly personalized and contextual to the aisle they’re in, lands at exactly the right moment. It adds to the shopping experience with relevance and timing that can surprise and delight the consumer.

What this means for retailers

Caper Carts provide certainty to consumers with a running total, surprise and delight with highly personalized and contextual promotions, and ultimately improve the in-store shopping experience. This has earned Caper Carts a Net Promoter Score of 74, an exceptional score reflecting an overwhelming number of promoters among those surveyed. 

So the self-checkout angle, framing smart carts as a way for retailers to save on labor while delivering speed and convenience to consumers may still apply. But the real value of smart carts is as a revenue, engagement, and loyalty play—

• Revenue. Caper Carts drive a 10% incremental increase in basket sizes, meaning more sales for the retailers who have deployed them in their stores. They also provide additional ad revenue with more ad inventory that’s valuable for being personalized and contextual. 

• Engagement. Consumers spend an average of more than 30 minutes per session actively engaged with the cart screen. That is 30 minutes of attentive, in-aisle interaction with personalized content. 

• Loyalty. 94% of shops using Caper Carts are completed by a logged-in loyalty member, meaning the vast majority of in-store cart activity is tied to a known consumer identity, making every trip measurable. 

This distinction matters for how retailers should think about deployment, measurement, and the opportunity ahead. 

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^{Source Instacart data. Revenue, engagement, loyalty results are based on Caper’s average year-to-date performance across stores as of March 2026. Prior results do not guarantee future outcomes.}