The next time you have a grocery delivery from Kroger, there might not be a human delivering it.
BrightDrop is partnering with Kroger to be the first company to use BrightDrop’s new Trace Grocery system to streamline order fulfillment and pickup for customers who buy groceries online. BrightDrop’s new temperature-controlled eCart facilitates order fulfillment and pickup for online food purchases.
BrightDrop and Kroger’s new agreement follows a pilot program formed by the two companies in Lexington and Versailles, Kentucky. Currently available from BrightDrop in limited quantities, full availability is expected in 2024.
“COVID has driven a dramatic increase in online grocery shopping, and fulfilling these orders profitably has become a major challenge for retailers of all sizes. With the Trace Grocery, we saw an opportunity to help companies like Kroger tackle these challenges head on,” said BrightDrop President and CEO Travis Katz. “As online shopping continues to grow, BrightDrop is committed to developing innovative solutions to help our customers keep pace. The Trace Grocery is a perfect example of this.”
About BrightDrop’s newest product
Online grocery shopping is growing precipitously, and expected to reach $240 billion by 2025. The service requires three key steps: identifying the products being requested, collecting them and storing them for customer pickup. Employees to put orders directly into the unit for collection. According to BrightDrop, Trace Grocery is compatible with the majority of the current online fulfillment apps used by supermarkets.
BrightDrop’s Trace Grocery is built using the company’s Trace Platform that was designed for last-mile order fulfillment.
The durable, weatherproof eCart can carry up to 350 pounds of groceries and maintain food-safe temperatures for up to four hours. The eCart matchs an operator’s walking speed up to 3 mph and features automatic braking that stops the electric motor. Employees can divide products into nine sections according to order, temperature, and product kind. It can move throughout the store, as well as outside, where the eCart can be stationed curbside and wait for consumers to pick up their orders
BrightDrop says that once eCart was put into operation in Lexington and Versailles, customer and associate experience improved, according to Kroger.
Not the first robots for Kroger
Kroger is expanding in markets around the country using automated regional warehouses to fulfill online customer grocery orders in new markets across the United States, instead of opening new retail locations.
The automated facilities, called sheds, are opening in Ohio and Florida. Each shed cost $55 million, and contains several hundred robots that help fulfill orders. The sheds are a result of a deal with British online grocer Ocado to use technology, not people, to fulfill orders more profitably.
There are currently sheds in operation in Monroe, Ohio and Groveland, Florida, near Orlando. The company is trying to break into the Florida market without opening stores, depending entirely on online ordering. If successful, the company will expand the concept into the Northeast, mostly New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
For BrightDrop, a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors, it could mean substantial growth in automated EV delivery as Kroger, America’s largest supermarket, could provide a model for other retailers.
BrightDrop’s Trace eCart was designed for final mile deliveries and is powered by electric hub motors. It’s designed to fit perfectly in BrightDrop Zero delivery vans. In December 2021, General Motors’ electric commercial vehicle subsidiary delivered the first batch of its battery-electric delivery vans to FedEx. Other customers include Verizon and Merchants Fleet.
Kroger tried a similar concept in 2018, when it teamed up with Nuro in Phoenix, Arizona to try a similar grocery delivery service.