NRF 2018 Retail’s Big Show
Last week, I attended the retail industry’s leading conference and expo in New York. Looks like software has already eaten the retail world, it’s just having coffee afterwards. The event’s name should have been “Retail Technology Conference and Expo”. Almost all exhibitors were technology companies. Even WalMart promoted its recent -ecommerce- acquisitions. I came across a booth/company who exhibited hard-copy price tags (yes, the ones you see everywhere today) and it made me feel sad and sorry for them. Not only because their booth was empty, it looks like they were selling a typwriter in a computer exhibition.
There is a simple fact for one to understand the change and decode this particular event (and the others). All native ecommerce players are 90% data & technology- 10% retail companies. While every single action or even intent is measured and analyzed online, brick and mortar retailers cannot survive doing what they have been doing 50 years ago (in other words doing nothing). Every solution is to help retailers to collect data and/or to empower sales associates and/or to make seemless processes and/or to close more transactions.
I’d like to share my observations as someone who has been in PropTech for more than 10 years. Here is my two cents:
- AI took the main stage as expected. There are so many different applications at the back-end including inventory management, pricing, category optimization as well as on areas touching clients directly. Retailers seemed to appreciate the benefits of AI above other popular technologies.
- Analytics Almost all hardware and software solution has their own solutions tab. Descriptive analytics is a thing of the past. Algorithms using retailers own massive historical data sets combined with a number of related 3rd party data offer vital predictive and prescriptive analytics.
- Internet of Things is an enabler for connected stores and items. The buzz has been around for the past couple of years. Yet, lots of real world use cases such as IoT for inventory, fullfillment, distribution.
- POS Machines Chip & Pin (US finally rolls out), cloud POS, mobile POS, portable mini printers and zillions of accessories were everywhere.
- Fast food chains with self-ordering screens It’s quite obvious that there won’t be any human cashiers working in fast food restaurants in the next 5 years.
- AR/VR/MR I personally believe AR is going to be the dominant play at least in short/mid run. There are simple and highly effective use cases where your phone highlights only the products -on the shelf- based on your preferences such as fat free, organic, discounted…
- People Counting/Indoor Mapping Lots of providers here too. Thanks to image recognition, analytics based on demographics become a default option on every solution. One can now see what percentages of the visitors at any time are teens, female, with children etc. However, I was told that Apple’s move to make this feature -in selected locations- free of charge with IOS 11 will turn the service a commodity much sooner than expected.
- Price Tags Imagine the screen of an Amazon Kindle that you can even read a book under the direct sunlight. Or LED scrolling displays with different size and shapes in any sports arena. They’re now both standard components of any retailer where shelves themselves promote the product with its own digital content and price tags can be monitored automatically.
- Clienteling This is an area growing rapidly especially in US. There are a number of software companies trying to empower sales associates to increase productivity and to close more sales.
- Decode your body Whether its the full body or only your feet or skin. Retailers locate 3D scanners and offer you the best products from their catalog based on your processed data.
- Image (Face) Recognition offers visitors personalized shopping experience and engagement while helping retailers collect detailed data to generate actionable insights.
- In-store touchscreens are getting popular for product search and discovery (catalog) and quick check-outs. Buzzwords, including omni-channel, cloud and mobile remained in place but there is a new one on the block; Phygital.
- Robotics Several companies demonstrated aisle-roaming, shelf-scanning robots that inform retailers about inventory levels.
- Alternative Commerce Voice and conversational commerce solutions were offered by different vendors. As the penetration of voice-activated smart speakers outpace tablet and smartphone adoption rates, expect to see more integrated applications in the coming months -years-.
All these technologies offer lots of great applications. However, retailers need to take the change and risks seriously and act accordingly. Recent so-called “retail apocalypse” in the US should be the wake up call for all organized retailers in the world. My friend, a founder of a retail technology start-up told me last week: “Retailers adoption cycle is too long. By the time they make their decision, we most likely don’t carry that product any longer. Our innovation span doesn’t match with their agenda at all.”
