FairPrice to roll out over 1,300 smart trolleys by end-2026, with payment and navigation features
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A customer scanning an item using a Smart Cart at the FairPrice Finest in Punggol Coast Mall on April 20.
ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
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LAS VEGAS – After a successful trial in Punggol, smart trolleys that allow FairPrice shoppers to skip snaking queues and check out items anywhere inside stores are now going places.
More than 1,300 of these will be deployed in 48 FairPrice Finest and Xtra stores – including in VivoCity, Jewel Changi Airport, Nex, Junction 8 and Bedok Mall – by the end of 2026.
These are the larger outlets where customers are more likely to need a trolley to navigate the aisles, and they make up about a quarter of FairPrice’s 169 supermarkets in Singapore.
The Smart Cart initiative was launched to alleviate key friction points in a customer’s shopping journey, said FairPrice Group’s chief digital and technology officer Dennis Seah.
The friction points include queuing at physical checkout counters and seeking help to locate products and promotional items.
Users from the pilot in Punggol validated the approach, saying that the guided navigation provided by the built-in touchscreen on the Smart Carts and recommendations displayed on screen were useful. Recommendations and promotion alerts are tailored based on shoppers’ past purchases.
Shoppers must unlock the carts with the Pay/Earn QR code on the FairPrice app.
Since the trial at Punggol Coast Mall began in August 2025, shoppers have reported faster check-out times of 36 seconds on average, FairPrice Group said in a statement on April 23.
This is because shoppers did not have to queue at physical check-out counters and could pay for purchases anywhere in the store using the Smart Carts.
Shoppers need to use the built-in scanner on the trolley’s handle bar to scan items before adding them to the trolley, which has a weight sensor to tally the goods. Checkout is done by tapping the built-in touchscreen, and the purchases are reflected on the FairPrice app.
Sensors in the Smart Carts detect items on offer as shoppers browse the aisles, and the promotion is flashed on the built-in screen. Navigation instructions on the screens also help shoppers find what they are looking for.
A customer using a Smart Cart to browse items at the Fairprice Finest in Punggol Coast Mall on April 20.
ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
An increasing number of overseas grocery retailers, including Amazon, Walmart and Kroger, use smart trolleys. Many provide similar functions, including payment processing.
The Smart Cart is one of more than 60 new digital solutions FairPrice Group is trialling over three years starting from 2025, as part of the supermarket chain’s multi-million-dollar commitment to reinventing the consumer retail journey.
Its outlet in Punggol Digital District, which opened in August 2025, acts as a test bed for many of the digital projects aiming to improve operational efficiency and staff productivity.
The tech underpinning the Smart Cart is an array of artificial intelligence agents built on Google Cloud tools. For instance, the conversational agent taps Google Cloud’s advanced speech recognition model to allow shoppers to ask questions in natural language to receive tailored purchasing advice.
The knowledge agent helps process barcodes and suggests complementary items based on its ability to draw insights from online recipes and a database of products available in-store.
Other digital solutions trialled at the Punggol outlet include digital labels, which replace printed price cards in providing real-time pricing and promotional information. They are becoming increasingly common among grocery retailers.
FairPrice estimated it could save 15,000 man-hours and $138,000 annually by not printing physical price cards.
The supermarket chain will also be rolling out QR codes on shelf labels, allowing customers to browse a full catalogue of products on their FairPrice Group app, order and schedule delivery. The ShopBeyond feature is also increasingly common among grocery retailers as store space is limited.
Since May 2025, around 900,000 shoppers have verified themselves on the FairPrice Group app via MyInfo, which is the Government’s data vault on citizens and permanent residents. The integration allows the app to capture shoppers’ Chas card details so discounts are automatically applied for online purchases and at self-checkout counters.
A store manager using the Grocer Genie app at the FairPrice Finest in Punggol Coast Mall on April 20.
ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
By the end of the year, staff managers in all FairPrice supermarkets will also be able to tap the Grocer Genie app, which can analyse trends in sales and customer behaviour, allowing for better stocking decisions. All employees will also be able to use the built-in AI chatbot to get quick answers for administrative matters.
The solutions were showcased by FairPrice Group at Google Cloud Next 2026, held in Las Vegas from April 22 to 24.
AI agents, described as the next frontier of AI for the ability to autonomously complete tasks on behalf of users, are being deployed by Google Cloud customers, including global bank Citi, game developer Capcom and home improvement company The Home Depot.
Moving beyond basic chatbot assistance to an ecosystem of AI agents helps to provide smarter tools for front-line workers and create a more efficient retail ecosystem for Singapore, said Mr Mark Micallef, Google Cloud’s managing director of South-east Asia.
