Are you ready for pop-up ads on your shopping trolley?

By Alorie Gilbert and Will Sturgeon

Supermarket chain Safeway is testing new in-store shopping trolley technology that traces shoppers' steps through its stores and flashes personalised ads at them while they shop.

Customers' shopping histories and buying habits are recorded as participants in a trial scheme scan the products they are picking off the shelves and swipe their loyalty cards on the special trolleys fitted with touch screens.

The system then records what they are buying and the data is made available to a store-wide wireless network which prompts shoppers as they pass items they regularly buy.

For example, if a shopper regularly buys 24 cans of lager, but passes the alcohol aisle without stopping on their latest trip to the store, then their trolley's screen may flash up a coupon or reminder, encouraging them to buy beer.

Similarly if they have forgotten any of life's little necessities - such as toilet paper - then their trolley will remind them as they head on down the toiletries aisle.

Safeway says it is interested in the technology as a tool for boosting convenience for customers, according to Safeway spokesman David Bowlby.

He said: "As with Club Cards, it's an added convenience for customers. We're constantly enhancing the customer shopping experience and making it more convenient for them."

According to analysts, retailers have traditionally been slow to make the most of the detailed shopper data they gather from loyalty card schemes - this added layer of technology may be the boost they are looking for.

The trolleys are currently being trialled at two Safeway stores in the US, though the supermarket firm says it has no plans to roll out the trolleys on a larger scale just yet.

Alorie Gilbert writes for News.com