General Motors Subsidiary BrightDrop Enters Grocery Sector and Partners With Kroger; Travis Katz Shares

An advantageous innovation is getting ready to hit the retail sector, and Kroger will be the first to welcome it to its stores. General Motors subsidiary BrightDrop has announced it will be expanding its presence in the online grocery sector by rolling out a new e-Cart designed to expedite grocery orders.

“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 Chief Executive Officer Travis Katz in a statement.

As noted in a release, BrightDrop’s first customer will be Kroger, and the grocer will start using the cart in its e-commerce operations this year.

The two companies completed an initial pilot program in Lexington and Versailles, Kentucky, during which Kroger reported noticeable improvement across its customer and associate experience.

BrightDrop has gained valuable expertise through a series of rapid prototype builds, market research, and customer pilot programs over the past year, the release went on to note. With these insights, the company has been able to develop, test, refine, and commercialize Trace Grocery, BrightDrop’s first product purpose-built for online grocery and retail order fulfillment.

The Trace Grocery is designed to provide retailers the efficiency and cost-savings benefits their businesses need, including:

• Temperature management to store items at food-safe temperatures for up to four hours
• Propulsion-assistance to move up to 350 pounds of groceries, helping reduce physical strain on the labor force
• Auto-braking to stop the electric motor that matches an operator’s walking speed up to 3 mph
• Nine compartments to segment items by order, temperature, and product type for optimized pickups
• Flexibility to easily maneuver inside and outside of a grocer’s store to help reduce costly staging and infrastructure requirements
• Weatherproofing to handle variable temperatures and outdoor elements with ease

Click here to read more about this tech-forward collaboration.

Deli Market News will continue to report on the evolution of this strategic partnership.