While the economy was turned upside down during pandemic lockdowns, retailers found that digital technology was their saving grace. Those who survived likely pivoted in response to consumer behaviour, by adopting more e-commerce, innovation, and omnichannel approaches.
And those who continue to keep up with this transformation will continue to profit. That’s backed up by a Digital Quotient Survey that found that between 2016 and 2020 digital leaders generated more than three times the total shareholder return, versus those who did not adapt.
“This finding upholds the idea that technology will be a core driver of next-generation retail growth,” the report said.
“Overall, consumers are becoming more connected, less loyal, more informed,” the report said of buyer habits. “Technology that supports the seamless integration of online and offline channels generate additional revenues, diversify customer touchpoints, and increase customer data.”
And so, given the rapid transformation of tech in the retail industry, this may be the scene in the not-too-distant future: a small stock-taking drone flying above your head at the supermarket, while your shopping cart tells you your groceries will cost $150.53, and asks if you’d like to apply a coupon.
Purchasing anything in person — from fruit, to shoes, to an upholstery cleaning service — will soon involve some kind of technological device, whether we like it or not. Statistics say, though, we’ll probably like it: Shopify reported that 66 percent of consumers believe that automation can improve their shopping experience. And retailers are responding.
For one example, in 2021 Aisle 24 opened – a completely cashier-less, unattended store, open all day, seven days a week.
Smart shopping cart technology developer Shopic most recently created a mountable device that turns standard carts into AI-powered smart carts. Their device displays the price of any item placed into the cart, an in-store map of aisles, and promotions. With computer-vision AI, it’s able to see the product at any angle as it’s put in. Supersol, Israel’s leading supermarket, is already deploying them.
Raz Golan, co-founder and CEO of Shopic said in an interview that the device “automatically identifies items as they are added or removed to the shopping cart, and displays the accumulating total. At the end of your shopping trip, you can use the device for self-service checkout.”
No more manual barcode scanning, using up valuable time in line, or using your phone’s calculator.
“You also won’t have any unpleasant surprises at the cash register, since the real-time order total display helps you stay on budget by showing you exactly how much everything is going to cost,” he said in the interview. Meanwhile, the grocer can track inventory in real time.
On the retailer’s end, Ikea has taken on a new tech method to checking inventory, too. A hundred autonomous drones are counting items on shelves, while flying around stores in Switzerland, Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. The Swedish furniture chain’s partnership with drone company Verity, now saves the franchise valuable money on employees’ manual inventory counting.
Our mobile devices will invariably play a larger role in shopping, too.
Shopify reported that QR codes, which might seem outdated, are back. As they report, nearly 60 percent of US shoppers want to use them in their retail experience. Right now, it’s mostly about downloading coupons, but with nearly three-quarters of buyers looking up information on their smartphones as they shop, there are bound to be endless uses coming through the pipe.
FaceTime is saving one company, its clients time, and money. Doug Hartt’s carpet, upholstery, and air duct cleaning business, Citrus A Peel, now operates quite differently than it did when he launched it in 2017, using virtual tours of client homes, to see what they’d like cleaned, and to request a price. It’s a move that many realtors also adopted once the pandemic became widespread.
“This is part of the contact-less world we live in, and now makes things more efficient for everyone. Just a few years ago this video method would have been far less likely,” said the CEO of the New Jersey-based company.
Advanced touch screen technology is also on the rise in the retail sector. Certain high-end stores and a large retail chain will install ARHT CAPSULE — a hologram of a life-size presenter where customers can use the touch screen to select and zoom in on merchandise, to learn more about the product.
Finally, Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., launched Shopping Suite, which enables AR and 3D representations of products on a company’s site, so that consumers can virtually try on clothing, footwear, and accessories. Goodr, Princess Polly ,and Gobi Cashmere have already used this service, and are reporting concurrent increased sales.
In no time, something as banal as a banana may very well have several digital data points attached to it, from the time it is plucked, to the time it arrives in your home. Not technology for its own sake; rather, for increased customer satisfaction, retail efficiency, and overall time saving.