Forbes: Smart Carts That Take You To The Best Deals At The Airport

Carts could hold the key to lifting retail sales at financially hard-pressed airports around the country. A trial at San Diego International has shown that they have the power to drive travelers into stores and respond to promotions they might otherwise miss.

‘Intelligent' or smart carts, were deployed as a pilot at the California gateway late last year as part of the airport’s Innovation Lab program, designed to hone novel concepts into real-world solutions to make life easier for passengers. One example is AtYourGate, the mobile ordering food and drink delivery service which, after its San Diego Airport rollout, secured seed funding of $2 million by Triton Funds and is now in nine North American airports.

Copenhagen-based IntelligentTrackSystems—together with its specialist travel retail business development partner Blueprint—is keen to emulate this kind of expansion with its smart carts after their first airport deployment.