Dive Brief:
- Amazon is expanding the deployment of its Dash Carts to over 25 Whole Foods Market locations by the end of 2026, Jason Buechel, vice president for worldwide grocery stores at Amazon, wrote in a LinkedIn post.
- The expansion follows the company's recent update to its proprietary smart cart that includes additional carrying capacity and payment options.
- The rollout of the updated smart carts to dozens of Whole Foods locations continues Amazon’s efforts to integrate its digital innovations with the specialty grocery banner, Buechel wrote.
Dive Insight:
Amazon is ready for its revamped smart cart — which looks closer to a traditional cart than to its previous iterations — to roll out to more of its grocery stores.
The latest version of the Dash Cart includes a real-time, on-screen tracker showing how much a shopper is spending and saving, a design that is 25% lighter and can carry 40% more items, and a scale for weighing produce. The update also allows users to select from more payment methods, which they can do at the start or end of their shop.
The cart’s screen includes a store map to help shoppers locate items. Shoppers can also transfer their Alexa shopping lists to the cart.
Amazon has introduced the carts to three Whole Foods stores so far, and the customer response so far has been “encouraging,” Buechel noted.
“The latest generation isn't just an upgrade — it's a complete reimagination based on direct customer feedback,” Buechel wrote in the LinkedIn post.
Amazon debuted the Dash Cart when it opened its first brick-and-mortar Amazon Fresh store in Woodland Hills, California, in 2020. It introduced an updated version of the cart to several Whole Foods stores in 2022, and in 2024, Amazon began offering the carts to other grocers.
Since tapping Buechel to head up its global grocery operations at the start of 2025, Amazon has made rapid strides to integrate Whole Foods with its overall grocery business and technology innovations. Amazon has brought more Whole Foods executives into leadership positions under the Worldwide Grocery business, which was restructured in June to unify executives from both companies.
Along with the Dash Cart expansion into more Whole Foods stores, Amazon is also testing an automated micro-fulfillment center in the backroom of the Whole Foods in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, that allows in-store shoppers to buy groceries and household items sold on Amazon via QR codes throughout the aisles.
