General Motors Upgrades Its E-Cart for Grocery Pickup

GM subsidiary BrightDrop has made improvements to its e-cart for curbside pickup of grocery orders.

General Motors is enhancing its retail solutions with a new dedicated grocery pick-up option. Feature from GM’s electric commercial vehicle and equipment subsidiary BrightDrop enables shoppers to return their orders online directly from a secure location at the store’s curbside pickup location, without the need for associate assistance.

BrightDrop’s temperature-controlled Trace Grocery e-cart add-on is designed to simplify the curbside pickup experience for customers and store team members alike. The process is straightforward: Associates select and load order items into electronic cart compartments, sort products by temperature and then move the cart to a designated curbside location. When they arrive at the store, shoppers use their smartphones to open specific compartments and take out their products.

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According to GM, the dedicated system can reduce the time to issue online orders by up to 34% by eliminating the input and output steps. It also eliminates the need for the retailer to add free lockers to their pickup locations. Finally, this system frees up employees to continue fulfilling orders and also ensures that customers are not waiting for partners.

There are other additional functional benefits to the system. The carts have a number of batteries that reduce the physical stress on store associates.

Taking advantage of the e-commerce channel through its BrightDrop group, GM introduced the Trace Grocery e-cart in 2022 following extensive market research and prototype design. The cart was tested by The Kroger Co.

The new self-driving feature will be available on e-carts from early 2024, the company reported. GM’s BrightDrop also emphasized its commitment to innovation in the grocery segment, citing estimates that the online grocery market is expected to reach $240 billion by 2025 and double that in the next decade.