Everyone shops differently. Some people prefer to make small sporadic trips to the store when they realize they need something. Others venture out once or twice a month to secure a big haul that will last a while. And plenty of people fall somewhere in between these extremes. But no matter how one shops (or how often), everyone wants to feel comfortable as they browse and pick up their items. As a store owner or manager, it’s in your interest to accommodate all your customers by providing them with multiple options for gathering products and transporting them to the checkout lane. 

Most stores will offer a number of shopping baskets and carts to give shoppers a choice between a smaller handheld vessel and a larger, manually operated vehicle. While most people will appreciate this choice and have no problem with one or the other, sometimes this binary between basket and cart is not enough. It turns out that many shoppers could benefit from an intermediate choice: roller baskets.

A roller basket is essentially what it sounds like: a shopping basket that rolls on a set of wheels. It’s not quite a standard basket, nor is it a cart, but instead a hybrid. And while some combination tools detract from the straightforward benefits of their singular counterparts, roller baskets actually yield unique benefits that baskets and carts alone cannot achieve. Let’s explore five ways roller baskets help shoppers along their journey.

How Rolling Carts Help Shoppers

1. Not As Obtrusive as Carts

At a glance, it might seem like shopping carts should have made baskets entirely obsolete a long time ago. After all, carts tend to hold more items and are less taxing on one’s muscles. However, carts come with one caveat that keeps baskets relevant: they get in the way. Sure, shopping baskets take up space, too, but they’re easier to maneuver in tight spaces than most carts. Turning a large cart on a dime, especially when it’s loaded with items, is no easy feat. One of the key benefits of roller baskets is that they retain the mobility of carts but take up about as much space as a basket. Plus, if necessary, roller baskets can be lifted out of the way whereas carts must remain grounded.

2. More Spacious than Baskets

As mentioned previously, one of the major drawbacks of shopping baskets is that they can only hold so much volume. Small baskets are easier to carry but contain less space, while larger baskets can carry several items but soon become heavy and clunky. Roller baskets, on the other hand, in part because they’re designed to lay low, are much deeper than standard baskets, allowing them to contain many more objects. This depth also allows roller baskets to hold taller objects that might stick out and knock things over in a merely handheld basket.

3. Versatile: Best of Both Worlds

The two points above speak to the most obvious advantages offered by shopping baskets with wheels. However, it is the versatility of these vessels that truly make roller baskets so helpful to shoppers. Roller baskets allow shoppers to get the best of both worlds in regards to carts and baskets and easily transition between the two modes. If a customer is unsure whether a basket or cart would make more sense for a given trip, choosing a roller basket easily solves this dilemma. 

If said customer only ends up needing a few things, they can carry the roller basket around like a typical shopping basket. Or, if they wind up needing more than they initially thought, they can drop the roller basket, extend the other handle, and operate it more like a cart. In a sense, using a roller shopping basket allows the customer to have their cake and eat it, too.

4. Less Lifting Required

Customers looking to purchase larger, heavier items will most likely use a roller basket like a cart. Of course, they could use a dedicated shopping cart instead. However, there may be difficulties when it comes to taking an item off the shelf and placing it in the cart. If the cart is too high up or tiered, customers may need to uncomfortably bend over or lift up their bodies to place the product in the cart. Roller baskets, on the other hand, are lower to the ground, meaning heavy objects can be more easily lowered (or gently dropped) into the container. The shopper can also ask someone for assistance, having them lift the basket closer to the object, then lowering the unit back onto its wheels with the product safely inside. This cannot (or should not, at least) be done with standard shopping carts.

5. Durable

Roller baskets are designed to be lifted and rolled around. This means they must be built to last. At Good L Corp., all of our carts and baskets, including our unique shopping baskets, are manufactured for quality and durability. This includes our roller baskets. Made with high-impact polypropylene, these units can undergo a lot of stress without losing their functionality. Your shoppers will appreciate knowing that products will remain secure in their roller baskets from the beginning of their shopping journey to the end.

Roller baskets offer a unique hybrid solution for shoppers who need a vessel that’s simultaneously mobile, spacious, versatile, accommodating, and durable. You simply cannot go wrong with roller baskets, as they meet the needs of nearly every kind of shopper and shopping trip.Good L Corporation delivers innovative shopping cart and basket solutions for retailers on a global scale. From a fleet of custom shopping carts to launch your store opening to replacement baskets that supplement your existing shop supply, Good L Corp can configure the right carryall strategy to boost your retail business. Let’s get started! Contact us today for a no-pressure sales quote.