Retail technology innovation of the week: Morrisons scores a smart carts first in the UK
Retail Technology Innovation of the Week is a series brought to you by RTIH, highlighting stand out deployments, launches, and initiatives by retailers and tech suppliers. Every week, we showcase forward thinking tech plays that have impressed our Editor and the Retail Technology Innovations Report judging panel, building up to the publication of the 2026 report later this year.
And this week we’re focusing on Morrisons which has launched Instacart’s Caper Cart smart trolleys at a Preston supermarket, marking North American firm Instacart’s first retail partnership in the UK for its AI powered solution. These automatically recognise items as they are placed in the trolley, including weighing fresh produce on the spot.
Customers can bag items as they shop, saving time throughout the trip and making checkout quicker and easier. The trolley's touchscreen displays a running basket total to help customers stay on budget, makes relevant product recommendations, and enables them to scan their Morrisons More Card to access loyalty savings and promotions throughout their shop. At the end of their trip, they scan the barcode displayed on the trolley's screen at a dedicated Caper checkout lane to complete payment.
"Caper smart trolleys represent a new era for in-store grocery shopping - one where the physical store is as intelligent and personalised as the best online experience," says David McIntosh, Chief Connected Stores Officer at Instacart. “Customers want technology that helps them stay on budget and discover products they love, and Caper smart trolleys deliver both, directly in the aisle. We're proud to bring this to the UK for the first time through our partnership with Morrisons, who share our belief that technology should make the weekly shop not just easier, but genuinely more enjoyable."
"Our customers are at the heart of everything we do, and we're always looking for ways to make their weekly shop easier, more rewarding, and more enjoyable, to give them more reasons to shop at Morrisons," says Gordon Macpherson, Productivity Director at Morrisons. “Caper smart trolleys do exactly that, giving customers real-time visibility of their spending, instant access to their More Card savings, and a more seamless experience in the aisle. We're proud to be the first UK retailer to bring this technology to our customers, and we look forward to seeing how shoppers in Preston and across Lancashire respond to this innovative new trolley in this in-store trial.”
And honourable mentions this week to...
Tesco
ICE recently announced a partnership with Tesco, launching autonomous cleaning robots across 600 Express stores. The pair said that this was the first deployment of this scale in the UK convenience sector. The initial phase of the roll-out has now been completed.
The machines are designed as "co-bots" to work alongside Tesco colleagues. By taking over routine floor cleaning, they free up time for the store teams to focus on serving customers. The technology promises a highly consistent, premium clean every single day, backed by data tracking and reporting.
In a LinkedIn post, Tabitha Gafencu, Project Manager - Stores Transformation and Operations Development at Tesco, said: "600 stores. One vision. Countless people behind the success. We've officially completed the initial phase of our 600-store cleaning automation roll-out - the largest deployment of its kind delivered in the UK to date."
She added: "A project of this scale and complexity is never about one team alone. It has taken the commitment, collaboration, and dedication of many stakeholders across the business, store colleagues, shift leaders, store managers, ICE engineers and suppliers to turn a shared vision into reality."
Coach
Coach is ramping up its open access tie up with The Sims 4 with the introduction of a new collection inspired by the brand's (Re)Loved initiative. Marking the second collaboration between the pair, Coach says that the launch continues its “exploration of gaming as a space for creativity, self-expression, and personal style”.
Available for free to all players through The Sims Marketplace, the collection introduces four new Coach items to Create-A-Sim: Repurposed Cotton Trench Coat; Coach Cardigan; Horse And Carriage Striped Rugby Polo; Repurposed Denim Mini Skirt. The new pieces invite players to express their personal style and tell creative stories through virtual fashion, while honouring the in-game universe with localised Simlish apparel.
The move builds on the Coach x The Sims 4 collection launched earlier this year, which introduced ready to wear styles, Tabby and Brooklyn bags, and the interactive Coach Trunk.
DoorDash
DoorDash has launched Air, a drone programme designed and built in-house at DoorDash Labs. The on demand delivery big hitter has earned Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 air carrier certification, clearing it to operate its own drone delivery service for local commerce.
It already has partnerships in this space with Alphabet's Wing and Israeli company Flytrex. Those will remain in play, but DoorDash will now develop its own custom made drone and manage many of its own air deliveries.
“I believe drones are the next frontier of delivery, and what we’ve learned after years of progress is that you have to solve the full end-to-end system to find out what works and what scales with your customer,” says Stanley Tang, Co-founder at DoorDash. “The aircraft is one unique challenge, but the bigger problem I’m most excited about is the ground infrastructure: enabling autonomy to work seamlessly inside one of the largest delivery networks in the world. A delivery drone or ground robot is worthless if it doesn't connect a customer who needs something with a local merchant selling it.”
He adds: “Across billions of orders and millions of customers, we’ve been purposeful about building our autonomous delivery network with the integration of drones and Dot (the company’s first autonomous delivery robot") in a way that helps businesses reach more customers faster. We attract builders. People come here to solve real problems and see their work show up in the physical world, not to sit in R&D hell or in a demo that never moves outside the lab.”
