Waitrose to trial home scanning

Thursday October 30th 2014

 

Waitrose has teamed up with US start-up business Hiku as it looks to become the first retailer to trial home scanning in the UK.

Hiku is a new home scanning device that will enable Waitrose customers to populate their electronic Waitrose.com shopping basket by either scanning a product barcode or speaking a product name into the device, which has a voice to text recognition capability.

A small, palm sized device that can be attached to a fridge or kept in and around the home, Hiku allows items to be added as they are taken out of cupboards or fridges, or customers can speak ingredients from recipes. There is also a phone app to enable customers to update their shopping basket on the go when outside of the home.

The device will initially be trialled by Waitrose employees and customer focus groups. This will be followed by an extensive in-home trial in early 2015.