Shopic is a company that offers a clip-on device that allows supermarket shoppers to turn any shopping cart into a computer vision-enhanced “smart cart” with a touchscreen interface. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Shopic CTO and co-founder Eran Kravitz to learn more about the company.
Eran Kravitz’s Background
Kravitz was always drawn to computers and tech in general ever since he was a young child. Kravitz said:
“I started programming when I was nine years old, learning how to write code initially from books and later online as the internet became more accessible. I completed my undergraduate degree at the age of 19 from the University of Maryland and then joined the Israeli military’s 8200 cyber security unit.”
“I continued in the field of cyber as part of a startup called C4 Security, which was acquired by Elbit Systems. During that time, I also completed my graduate degree at Tel Aviv University. I’ve always known that someday I’d start a company of my own, so when I felt like it was time to take a break from cyber, I started looking for new opportunities, at which point we founded Shopic.”
Formation Of Shopic
How did the idea for Shopic come together? Kravitz shared:
“My co-founder Raz Golan and I had both come from cybersecurity backgrounds, and we were looking for a fresh new direction. We agreed that the brick-and-mortar retail industry had been relatively un-disrupted by tech in recent decades, so we saw a big opportunity there.”
“At first, we experimented with mobile apps for scanning barcodes, but when we started to apply machine learning models to the data, we realized that pivoting to a computer vision-based solution was where the real opportunity lay. We took all the insights we gathered from deploying our previous solution and came up with this idea for a system that could identify every product added to grocery carts using computer vision (CV).”
“We believed that we had created a winning solution, but when we started talking to retailers, seeing their eyes light up as we showed them early proofs of concept – that’s when we knew for sure that we were on to something.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for Shopic so far? Kravitz reflected:
“Two really great memories come to mind. The first was this moment, sometime after we closed our Series A round when the number of projects and clients was starting to increase, and we onboarded a lot of new employees. Feeling like we had turned a corner in terms of rapid growth, we threw a party for the entire company. Nothing fancy – just some music and drinks – but I remember the feeling of everyone coming together, celebrating our accomplishments together, was really amazing.”
“The second one was more stressful. At the beginning of 2020, we had a big demo scheduled for one of the world’s leading retailers. Raz, the CEO, and I were in the US preparing, and the team in Tel Aviv was on standby in case we needed anything. Prior to the demo, everything that could go wrong did. From problems with the CV recognition all the way to parts falling off of the demo device, it was all happening.”
“The guys in Tel Aviv pulled an all-nighter helping remotely while Raz and I ran around trying to fix everything there. Ultimately, we managed to pull it off, and we got the result we needed from the demo. It was stressful, but in retrospect, a great memory of amazing teamwork paying off when it mattered most.”
Challenges Faced
What are some of the challenges Kravitz faced in building the company? Has the current macroeconomic climate affected the company? Kravitz acknowledged:
“The pandemic accelerated interest in our solution since it increased demand for contactless shopping solutions. It amplified the need for more hybrid approaches to food retailing, combining the best of online commerce and physical stores.”
“We haven’t experienced much impact from the general slowdown in tech since we serve an industry that is typically less cyclical, and our solution is geared to optimization and savings. That said, we do monitor the macroeconomic situation and global trends all the time and make sure we conduct ourselves carefully and frugally.”
Core Products
What are Shopic’s core products and features? Kravitz explained:
“We offer a smart cart solution for grocery chains. The main device, which we call Shop-E, is a touchscreen with cameras that easily attaches to any shopping cart. The device can identify any product that people add to their carts, adding the product to a running tally, and it can display recommendations for deals on related products. Then, when the user is done shopping, they simply check out using the device, with no need to wait in line.”
“On the backend is a system that takes all of these data signals, anonymizes them, and delivers all kinds of useful insights to the grocery retailer’s leadership team, revealing trending products, store layout optimization opportunities and so forth. Offering a frictionless shopping experience can be a big differentiator for grocery retailers, especially as developments in smart retail tech are adopted more and more.”
Evolution Of Shopic’s Technology
How has Shopic’s technology evolved since launching?
“We’re constantly making improvements to our hardware and software, with the idea that the computer vision algorithms need to be able to process signals quickly and accurately on the device itself.”
“These developments help keep things smooth from the shopper’s perspective, but they also help make store onboarding easier because grocers need to invest less time training the system to recognize all of the products on offer at the store. Whereas other smart cart solutions can take several months to integrate and deploy, ours takes under a month in most cases.”
“We’ve also implemented a solution that we call ‘active learning,’ which eliminates much of the need for the grocer to train the system when new products are introduced into the mix.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Shopic’s most significant milestones?
“We closed a $35 million Series B funding round last summer, which helped to validate that we’re really on to something here.”
“We are currently piloting the system with some of the biggest names in global retail, which we, unfortunately, can’t say much about, but feedback has been promising. This past spring, we partnered with Shufersal, Israel’s biggest grocery chain, on the largest-scale commercial deployment of smart carts ever to be announced, with 2000 units across 30 branches.”
“And a few weeks ago, we teamed up with Microsoft on the occasion of the relaunched Microsoft Experience Center EMEA in Munich, becoming one of only two grocery tech solutions that people can demo at the facility.”
Customer Success Stories
Upon asking Kravitz about customer success stories, he commented:
“The Shufersal partnership is the one that I’m most free to speak about. Back when we were in the pilot phase, we were able to demonstrate that 89% of shoppers found using our system to be a satisfying experience, with 78% becoming repeat users.”
“Up to 15% of the chain’s revenue is now being processed by our point-of-sale checkout system in the stores we operate in.”
Funding/Revenue
How much funding does the company have, and how do they generate revenue? Kravitz replied:
“We’ve received $56 million in venture and private capital funding since we launched in 2015. Our revenue comes from subscription fees from grocers – our model is about service partnerships.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is Shopic pursuing? Kravitz assessed:
“According to analysts’ estimates, the projected value of the smart cart market in the upcoming years is anticipated to reach $4 billion.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Shopic from its competition? Kravitz affirmed:
“I’ve already talked a bit about the power of our retail media solution, our subscription model, and the performance of our computer vision algorithms, but the main differentiator is that our solution is based on a clip-on device.”
“Others in the space use dedicated ‘monolithic’ carts outfitted with more cameras and scales, but those are extremely expensive, and they require indoor storage and extra network infrastructure. With Shopic, the store only needs to install a charging wall, where people can pick up a device, clip it onto any old cart from the store’s existing fleet, and they’re up and running.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of Shopic’s future company goals? Kravitz concluded:
“First and foremost, commercial expansion – both in terms of signing new customers in the Americas and Europe and in terms of increasing the number of smart cart-enabled stores in the chains that already are Shopic customers.”
“We’re also investing in further development of all aspects of Shopic’s retail floor digitalization platform, including the smart cart itself but also the analytical engine that enables timely in-store promotions and data-driven store management insights.”
