Three checkout options coexist in a modern grocery store: a shopper using a scan-and-go app on their smartphone, another using a smart cart with a digital screen, and a staffed checkout lane in the background, illustrating the distributed checkout architecture replacing the conventional lane as the default transaction point in retail.
Retail AI, Retail Innovation

Smart Cart vs Scan and Go: The Two Technologies Replacing the Conventional Checkout Lane

/

Instacart tripled Caper Cart deployments in 2025. Forbes reported this week that Physical AI is reinventing the grocery store. The market grows from $572M to $3.28B by 2030. Before you sign the purchase order, here are six things the vendor presentation will not cover.