Israeli company A2Z Smart Technologies is to supply smart carts to Carrefour’s hypermarket and supermarket division in France, starting with an initial delivery of 2000 of shopping trolleys.

Carrefour (www.carrefour.com) is the seventh largest global grocery retailer by revenue, operating 13,650 retail stores worldwide under various banners including hypermarkets, supermarkets, convenience stores, cash and carry outlets, and soft discount stores. Its hypermarket and supermarket division in France has aggregate sales greater than €30bn across approximately 1300 stores that are equipped with approximately 600,000 carts.

The first phase, the delivery of 2000 smart carts, is expected in the first half of 2024, at two Carrefour hypermarket retail locations in France. The smart carts have been specially designed to meet Carrefour’s specifications.

A2Z’s flagship product is a mobile self-checkout shopping trolley. With its user-friendly smart algorithm, touch screen and computer-vision system, Cust2Mate streamlines the retail shopping experience by scanning purchased products and enabling in-cart payment so shoppers can simply pick and go, and bypass cashier checkout queues. This results in a more efficient shopping experience, less unused shelf-space and staffing requirements, and command and control capabilities for store managers.

“As one of the leading global providers of smart carts, we are thrilled to have been selected as the smart cart provider by one of the world’s leading grocery retailers,” said Guy Mordoch, CEO of Cust2Mate (a2zas.com). “We will provide Carrefour with our Gen3 smart carts that have been specifically designed to Carrefour’s specifications. We are committed to serving Carrefour with excellence as we grow our relationship and expand our rollout in Carrefour’s hypermarket and supermarket division.”

• A2Z’s channel partnership with IR2S will see 30,000 smart carts deployed across France between 2023 and 2026 to retail chains, starting with Monoprix stores.

Monoprix operates a diverse portfolio at over 700 locations and operates as part of the Casino Group, which has a global footprint spanning over 11,500 locations worldwide.

The initial phase of this partnership involves the delivery of 250 smart carts, with anticipation for deployment at 20 Monoprix locations starting within the current quarter of 2023.

“We are thrilled to announce our first purchase order from the IR2S partnership for delivery to such a prestigious French retail chain,” said Mordoch. “I believe that we, together with IR2S, are well positioned to further expand our presence in the French market with our new detachable smart carts that enable an elevated shopping experience for customers.”

Marc Dahan, CEO of IR2S (ir2s.fr), added: “I am delighted that the partnership with Cust2mate has taken off so smoothly. Through the powerful synergy of Cust2Mate’s smart carts and IR2S’s integration prowess and market presence, we are well-positioned to meet and hopefully surpass our target in France. From deep and many years of knowledge of the food retail market in France, we are convinced that Cust2Mate’s smart carts will be important and necessary in many groceries in France.”