Carrefour Israel to deploy 4,000 smart carts chainwide
The Israeli franchisee of a French global retail giant has entered a five-year deal that will see AI-based shopping carts gradually roll out to all stores.
Global Retail, a franchisee which operates Carrefour Israel forFrench retail conglomerate Carrefour S.A. Group, will gradually implement 4,000 A2Z Cust2Mate Solutions Corp. smart carts across all of its stores. The $50 million, five-year deal also includes a data, retail media and digital services collaboration and is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2026 with a pilot in six flagship Carrefour Israel stores.
The deployment will include charging infrastructure, advanced software systems, as well as full implementation, training, and long-term support. According to Carrefour Israel, it will be one of the first retailers in the world to implement smart cart technology at this scale.
The retailer expects to generate profits of approximately $35 million by leveraging smart carts in its stores. Features of the devices include personalized and targeted promotions and self-checkout.
“Deployment of the Cust2mate Smart Carts in our stores will grant our shoppers an improved shopper experience, increasing the same store year on year sales, and improving our operational efficiency, resulting in profits estimated at an additional tens of millions of dollars,” said Michael Luboschitz, CEO of Carrefour Israel. “The future of retail is fundamentally technological, and we are proud to be the leaders driving that evolution. This agreement is a strategic signal of our commitment to digital transformation. By deploying the A2Z Cust2Mate platform, we are establishing a new global standard for connected, data driven, and personalized shopping experiences that are engineered for scale."
In other connected store activity, Carrefour has been piloting the VusionGroup EdgeSense store technology platform in a hypermarket location in Villabé, France.
[READ MORE: Carrefour pilots connected store format]
The platform combines smart shelf-edge rails, Captana computer vision technology, artificial intelligence, electronic shelf labels and data analysis to equip store associates with AI-based smart decision tools that identify the most urgent tasks to be performed in aisles and guide them to execute these actions efficiently.
Carrefour also leverages EdgeSense functionality to offer personalized in-store services and recommendations to customers in real time. The retailer is utilizing approximately 70,000 electronic shelf labels, 500 cameras and 7,000 EdgeSense rails in its pilot location and has deployed VusionGroup shelf cameras that detect out-of-stock items in 35 stores.
"The nationwide deployment of our smart carts with Carrefour Israel marks a defining moment for the industry and reflects a strong level of trust in our platform, technology, and long-term vision," said Gadi Graus, CEO of A2Z Cust2Mate. "By transforming existing retail infrastructure into a high-performance digital ecosystem, we are not only enhancing the shopping experience, but also converting in-store traffic into scalable, recurring retail media and data monetization revenue, establishing a powerful new profit engine and positioning A2Z Cust2Mate at the forefront of the next era of global in-store retail."
Carrefour Israel is one of the largest food retailers in Israel, operating 150 stores nationwide under a range of retail formats. The company is a local franchise member of the global Carrefour Group, which operates more than 14,000 global hypermarkets, grocery stores, and convenience stores.
