Using AI Shopping Carts Could Lead You to Spend More Money, Study Says
Smart screens mounted on shopping carts might change people’s behavior at grocery stores in a few interesting ways.
A new study from Bayes Business School at City St. George’s University of London suggests that smart shopping carts equipped with AI devices may cause consumers to spend more money at the store. These AI-equipped carts led shoppers to buy 25% more items and spend 23% more time shopping in the store, compared to those using regular shopping carts.
The average spend from smart cart users was 32% more. However, the study also found that users who interacted with the screens more than 20 times spent less and purchased fewer items, suggesting they were using the technology for entertainment rather than shopping. This indicates the possibility of digital nudging and dark patterns, which are sophisticated techniques used to manipulate people into buying products or sharing personal information without their consent.
While e-commerce can benefit consumers, digital shopping experiences through smart carts may introduce new issues, such as digital nudging and dark patterns. The study's lead author, Sabrina Gottschalk, emphasized that while the data shows patterns, it cannot establish causation, and shoppers who use smart carts may simply have different shopping habits than those who do not.
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