Technology Innovations Fueling Intelligent Store Operations

The physical store as a retail occasion remains, at least pre-metaverse adoption, experientially distinct from the transactional nature of e-commerce. In order to meet a consumer base spending more of their time, and more of their dollars, online, retailers are leveraging an increasingly potent suite of in-store technology paired with next-generation operational enhancements to drive loyalty while capturing spend, and remind shoppers of the magic of the in-store occasion. By taking strategic cues and best practices from digital to optimize the omnichannel brick-and-mortar experience, including focusing on convenience, personalization, and the in-store occasion’s unique potential to inform and educate, retailers are able to meet and even exceed the expectations of their shoppers, while at the same time drive customer acquisition and growth. 

An innovative array of omnichannel tools and solutions are helping retailers reinvent the in-store shopping experience. By integrating next-generation technologies like smart displays, augmented reality activations, and more, retailers can provide consumers with greater access to information as well as better understand the way their shoppers are interacting with products and displays. Operational enhancements like mobile dashboards, streamlined order picking, and intelligent inventory management systems allow for greater frontline staff agility and flexibility, while providing retailers with strategies to remove friction from the shopping experience and maximize customer satisfaction.

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Deep Dive with PSFK’s latest report… Technology Innovations Fueling Intelligent Store Operations

In a report on the smart store, the PSFK Labs  team explored the tools, technologies, and solutions brands and retailers are launching in order to integrate omnichannel convenience and drive sales across brick-and-mortar locations. Learn about the pre-, during, and post-purchase solutions being deployed to provide an innovative and optimized experience across the entire shopping journey. Through five featured trends and highlighted marketplace examples, this report will help your organization develop a retailing approach that utilizes technology, computer vision, and automation in order to provide maximum personalization and convenience. 

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Consumer Insights Fueling Innovation Around The Intelligent Store

The store continues to play an important role in the consumer decision making process. 

Nearly 3 in 4 (72%) consumers rely on stores as part of their primary buying method.
Consumers Want It All. IBM Institute for Business Value, 2022

Tech-layered IRL shopping is now the norm for consumers, promising convenience, control and more immersive experiences. 

While shopping in-store, 97% of shoppers use self-checkout, 95% are using a retailer’s app, 76% are using QR codes, and 79% use interactive displays.
Shopper Insights: Tech At Retail. ChaseDesign, 2021 

For retailers, hybrid, connected footprints and workforces allow for greater service and enhanced operations.  

To match consumer demand for product knowledge and service, 60% of companies are investing more in digital workplace technology for their associates.
The Future of the Digital Workplace: Retail Survey Findings. Coresight Research, 2021 

Looking at in-store tech, RFID has the potential to improve stockout management and shrinkage reduction by 5% while achieving a 10%-15% reduction in inventory labor hours.
“RFID’s renaissance in retail.” McKinsey, 2021

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Intelligent Store Operation Trends

Personalized Displays
Retailers are optimizing their physical stores and displays to support digital discovery and seamless transaction, and to act as feedback centers. 

Dynamic Shopping Centers
Retailers and property owners are tailoring in-store product selections and experiences to specific customer needs based on their digital profiles as well as ground level data. 

Mobile Dashboards
To streamline work streams and allow for greater agility throughout departments, retailers and brands are adopting platforms that seamlessly bring teams and tools together in real-time. 

Streamlined Order Picking
To better support their associates, retailers are investing in new tools and features to streamline the process of locating, selecting and ultimately fulfilling orders. 

Intelligent Inventory
Retailers are partnering with cloud platforms or even developing in-house solutions to gain a better understanding of consumer product needs through smart inventory tracking and product data collection.

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Personalized Displays
Retailers are optimizing their physical locations and displays to support digital discovery and seamless transaction, and to act as feedback centers. Creating an interactive browsing experience, unique QR codes, and the AR lens or instant checkout solutions they support, are now an expected interaction for consumers as they explore the physical store. Along with providing consumers with greater access to product information, entertainment and content, these digital moments present an opportunity for retailers to better understand how installations, displays and new products are driving in-store engagement and ultimately sales. 

Google and American Express collaborated on shoppable holiday murals in five different cities across the US. Pedestrians simply point their camera at the mural and Google Lens, available on iPhones or Android mobile devices, would pull up tagged items with links to where they could purchase the items. Designed by local artists, the murals were dedicated to bringing business to small businesses in the local area, as a part of American Express’s Shop Small movement. 

Dynamic Shopping Centers
To optimize the physical shopping experience, retailers and property owners are translating the curation and personalization typical of online marketplaces to IRL locations, tailoring product selections and experiences to specific customer needs based on their digital profiles as well as ground level data. By providing consumers with a curated and responsive environment based on their interests, and tenants with traffic-driving strategies, these intelligent shopping centers are then leveraging these collected insights, informed by both digital and physical data points, to inform product selection, interactive displays, in-store tech integration, contactless checkout strategies and more. 

Amazon’s first physical clothing store, Amazon Style, will feature high-tech dressing rooms that will work in tandem with the Amazon shopping app. Shoppers can use the app to scan QR codes throughout the store to access product information, such as colors, sizes, customer ratings, and then send the item to their dressing room. Inside the dressing room, LED touch screens display the customer’s name and allow customers to send items to the pickup counter. The personalized shopping experience will offer in-store recommendations based on the customer’s past purchases. The items that are scanned in-store will also be saved to the app so the customer can revisit the item and make purchases at a later time. 

Mobile Dashboard
To streamline conversations between frontline staff members, integrate workstreams and allow for greater agility throughout departments, retailers and brands are adopting platforms that seamlessly bring teams and tools together in real-time. By combining multiple systems into single-view mobile dashboards, frontline employees are able to quickly and efficiently access necessary information, collaborate with teammates, and resolve tasks and subsequently maximize customer satisfaction. 

Skateboard and footwear retailer Vans digitized their merchandising project using IWD’s collaborative SaaS platform. Prior to using the retail software company’s platform, Vans’ visual merchandisers were using Photoshop to layer images and new product images. IWD’s Display software allowed Vans to upload all new product images, brand guidelines, and create planograms with standard 2D linear shelving to merchandise their stores. The platform allows brands to digitally retrieve products, fixtures and other brand assets included in the guideline directly from their catalog and add them to the display. As a result, Van’s was able to increase visual consistency across North America and reduced their process timeline from two weeks to three days. 

Streamlined Order Picking
In response to today’s mass adoption of both eCommerce and BOPIS channels, today’s retail employees are taking on new responsibilities when it comes to fulfillment, both within warehouses and the physical store. To better support their associates, retailers are investing in new tools and features to streamline the process of locating, selecting and ultimately fulfilling orders. From AR enabled, hands-free wearables to introducing features for customers to proactively select backup options, retailers are taking steps to improve not only their employees’ experiences but their consumers’ as well. 

Google and TeamViewer’s new AR Assisted Order Picking solution is a hands-free order-picking application that leverages Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 smart glasses equipped with TeamViewer's vision-picking software from its Frontline suite to quickly fulfill online orders and help retailers increase productivity. Associates receive the information they need to fulfill orders within the display of Google Glass through a connection to the retailer's order fulfillment system to update inventory in real time. The heads-up display capability enables associates to use both hands to locate and pick the correct items, with the capability of improving pick rates anywhere from 15% to 40%. At the same time, it provides new data insights to retailers grappling with  increasing demand from customers for buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) and same-day delivery options.

Intelligent Inventory
To provide both consumers and their own teams and partners with greater inventory visibility, retailers are partnering with cloud platforms or even developing in-house solutions to gain a better understanding of consumer product needs from a local to mass scale through smart inventory tracking and product data collection. Across physical stores and online marketplaces, there is a growing expectation for retailers to provide a real-time view of inventory, not only to verify an item is in stock but to also provide its closest physical location in proximity to a shopper. At the same time, retailers are looking to ensure each store and channel is carrying an optimized selection of product based on factors such as consumer demand and geographic or demographic preferences. 

Athletic performance brand Under Armour is expanding its partnership with solution provider Nedap, with plans to roll out its iD Cloud inventory visibility platform across 400 of Under Armour’s global locations. As Under Armour looks to achieve a real-time view of inventory across each of its stores, the iD Cloud will allow the retailer to ensure merchandise availability, while also allowing for flexible inventory changes based on in-the-moment consumer demand.

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Deep Dive with PSFK’s latest report… Technology Innovations Fueling Intelligent Store Operations

In this report, the PSFK Labs  team explores the tools, technologies, and solutions brands and retailers are launching in order to integrate omnichannel convenience and drive sales across brick-and-mortar locations. Learn about the pre-, during, and post-purchase solutions being deployed to provide an innovative and optimized experience across the entire shopping journey. Through five featured trends and highlighted marketplace examples, this report will help your organization develop a retailing approach that utilizes technology, computer vision, and automation in order to provide maximum personalization and convenience.