Smart Shopping Trolley: A New Revolution

Abstract

Urban areas, shopping malls experience significant crowds during holidays and weekends, especially when there are substantial offers and discounts available. Currently, shoppers tend to select a variety of items and place them in their shopping carts. After completing their selections, they proceed to the checkout counter for billing. The cashier utilizes a barcode reader to prepare the bill, which can be a time-consuming process, often leading to long lines at the payment counters. This initiative proposes a solution to address this challenge. The plan involves equipping all merchandise within the mall with RFID tags, while each shopping cart will be fitted with an RFID reader and a digital display screen. As items are placed in the cart, their codes will be automatically recognized, and the name and price of each item will be displayed on the screen, consequently adding the cost to the total bill. Additionally, if a shopper wishes to remove an item from the cart, they will have the option to do so seamlessly.The measurement of the specific item is subtracted from the total amount, and equivalent data is transmitted to the central billing unit via the ZigBee module. Consequently, billing can be performed directly from the trolley, which significantly saves time for the customers.

Introduction

As shopping malls grow in size and popularity, long checkout lines and inventory losses due to abandoned purchases are becoming major issues. To address this, a Smart Shopping Cart (SSC) system is proposed, integrating RFID, barcode scanning, wireless communication, and microcontroller-based automation to:

• Reduce checkout time

• Minimize labor costs

• Enhance the shopping experience

• Streamline inventory and billing processes

II. System Overview

• Hardware Components:

  • RFID Reader: Detects items placed in or removed from the cart.

  • Microcontroller (Arduino Mega): Core processing unit managing data flow.

  • LCD Display: Shows item name, price, and total bill in real time.

  • RF433 Module: Facilitates wireless transmission of billing data.

  • Barcode Scanner: Reads product barcodes for additional data input.

  • Keypad: Includes a reset button for user control.

• Functionality:

  1. Items with RFID tags are scanned when added to or removed from the cart.

  2. The cart computes and displays the running total.

  3. Billing data is transmitted wirelessly to the store's central system.

  4. RF shielding prevents external items from being scanned accidentally.

  5. Queued Message Handler (QMH) is used for smooth user interface management.

III. RFID Technology Highlights

• Benefits:

  • No line of sight needed (unlike barcode).

  • Capable of scanning multiple items at once.

  • Enables automated, hands-free item detection.

• Challenges:

  • Requires RF shielding to avoid false reads.

  • Needs widespread tagging of products across the mall.

  • Still evolving in terms of cost and infrastructure scalability.

• Technical Specs:

  • Dual-antenna system:

    • External antenna (27 dBm): ~4 meters

    • Internal antenna (10 dBm): ~30 cm

  • Directional antennas are used to minimize interference.

IV. Implementation and Testing

• The system is divided into:

  1. Transmitting Section:

     • Barcode reader, Arduino, LCD, RF433 transmitter.

  2. Receiving Section:

     • RF433 receiver, Arduino Mega, and PC acting as the billing center.

• Real-time data processing:

  • Items scanned in the cart are processed instantly.

  • When the shopper finishes, the bill is automatically transmitted to the checkout system.

  • Items removed from the cart are immediately deducted from the total.

V. Results & Outcomes

• The project was successfully implemented and tested.

• Achieved:

  • Reduced customer wait times

  • Lower staffing requirements

  • Streamlined checkout experience

  • A system that can be scaled or customized further

References

[1] Suraj.S, Vishal Guruprasad, Udayagiri R Pranava, Preetham S Nag, “RFID Based Wireless Intelligent Cart Using ARM7,” International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Vol. 5, Issue 8, 2016. [2] Suryaprasad J, Praveen Kumar B O, Roopa D & Arjun A K, “ A Novel Low-Cost Intelligent Shopping Cart,” IEEE, 2014. [3] C Komal Ambekar, Vinayak Dhole, Supriya Sharma,“Smart Shopping Trolley Using RFID,” International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology (IJARCET), Volume 4 Issue 10, 2015. [4] K.Gogila Devi, T.A.Kaarthik, N.Kalai Selvi, K.Nandhini, S.Priya, “Smart Shopping Trolley Using RFID Based on IoT,” International Journal of Innovative Research in Computer and Communication Engineering. Vol. 5, Issue 3,2017 [5] Amine Karmouche, Yassine Salih-Alj, “Aisle level Scanning for Pervasive RFID based Shopping Applications ,” IEEE. [6] Chandrasekar.P , Ms. T. Sangeetha, “ Smart Shopping Cart with Automatic Central Billing System through RFID and ZigBee,” IEEE, 2014. [7] Galande Jayshree, Rutuja Gholap, Preeti Yadav, “ RFID Based Automatic Trolley,”InternationalJournal of Billing Emerging Technology & AdvancedEngineering 2014. [8] BarCode Scanning , October 25, 2017. [Online]. Available at http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Bar_code_ scanning . Scholarpedia, 7(9):12215. [10]. Paxal Shah, Ms. Jasmine Jha, Nirav Khetra, Manmitsinh Zala “A Literature Review [9] Improving Error Accuracy and Range based on RFID for Smart Shopping,” International Journal for Scientific Research & Development(IJSRD),2015 [10] Lynn A. DeNoia , Anne L. Olsen , “RFID and Application Security,”Journal of Research and Practice in Information Technology, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2009. [11] Mayur Subhash Chaudhari, “A Review on Electronic Shopping Cart Based RFID,” International Journal & Magazine of Engineering, Technology Management & Research, ISSN No: 2348-4845.

Copyright

Copyright © 2025 Harshal Prashant Chandekar, Rohan Shriram Katre, Santoshi Vilas Mendhe, Yash Kantilal Barbate, Prof. Nitin Thakre, Ritika Divakar Kale. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.