LAS VEGAS—Good news for those who have been waiting for a refrigerator that can order groceries on its own: it’s here.
Samsung has unveiled the Family Hub refrigerator at the Consumer Electronics Show here. It is the first connected fridge with the new Groceries by MasterCard shopping app.
MasterCard is launching the service in the tri-state New York City market with grocery partners FreshDirect and ShopRite, USA Today explained. The app is also integrated with MyWebGrocer, an e-commerce software provider to the grocery industry, enabling additional grocers to transact through the fridge.
The Samsung fridge has an embedded 21.5-inch touchscreen that comes preloaded with the MasterCard grocery app.
“It really brings to life this notion of contextual shopping,” Betty DeVita, MasterCard’s chief commercial officer, told USA Today. “We’re really trying to go beyond the payment and extend out to other devices where consumers are in a commerce context.”
MasterCard recently teamed up with General Motors to enable payments via car key fobs. It is enabling payments on many other connected Internet of Things items, from rings to other wearable devices, USA Today reported.
On Samsung’s fridge, users tap the MasterCard app and are taken to a multi-merchant shopping cart where they can do virtual aisle hopping. While a primary user has ultimate control, members of a family may be able to add items to the shopping cart, working through companion smartphone apps. The Groceries by MasterCard app itself is not now available on phones.
The grocery partners will deliver the goods. It is up to the grocer to determine whether pickup is an option as well.