1、Table of ContentsTrend#1:Bridging the Gap Between Online and Offline Shopping ExperiencesTrend#2:Simplifying Store Navigation With Indoor PositioningIMPLEMENTING IPS SYSTEMS IN STORESTARGETED DEALSCUSTOMER TRAFFIC DATAITEM TRACKINGTrend#3:Transforming Customer and Employee Experience With AugmentedR

2、ealityTRY BEFORE YOU BUYAR NAVIGATIONAIDING RETAIL WORKERS WITH OTHER TASKSTrend#4:Smart Store Automation With Artificial IntelligenceTHE FUTURE OF SELF-CHECKOUTINVENTORY MANAGEMENT POWERED BY AICONSUMER BEHAVIOR ANALYSISTrend#5:AI-Driven Demand ForecastingTrend#6:Robots and Automation in RetailAUTO

3、NOMOUS DELIVERYCUSTOMER SERVICE ROBOTICSROBOTIC INVENTORY MANAGEMENTTrend#7:Voice CommerceChallenges and Future of Technologies in RetailCAPTURING AND MAINTAINING CUSTOMERSMANAGING INVENTORYTHE PROBLEM WITH UPGRADESPARTNERING WITH VENDORSWHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS1Reviewed byAndrew Makarov,Head of Mobile

4、 Development at MobiDevYevhen Krasnokutsky,AI/ML Team Leader,PhDAdvanced technologies help retail businesses refine every aspect of their serviceto their customers.This applies to both large and small companies.Thesetechnologies may directly impact consumers,or they may improve the efficiencyof reta

5、il teams.Most importantly,businesses that produce new and innovativesolutions to problems can stand out among the rest and get more profit.Letstalk about seven retail technology trends that will shape business outcomes in2023.Trend#1:Bridging the Gap Between Onlineand Offline Shopping ExperiencesIn

6、addition to selling products in brick-and-mortar stores,many storefronts arenow offering buy online pick up in store(BOPIS)services,same-day delivery,andonline shipping.With so many new ways to order goods,businesses need toimplement point-of-sale systems in a more intelligent manner.When a guest or

7、ders a product online,how does that affect the storessales floor quantity in the database?If a product is on hold for a pickup order,does that reduce the count onthe sales floor?These are questions that a modern POS system must be able to answer.The keyto this is more than just having systems in pla

8、ce to handle both online andin-store purchases.This will require a unified and connected system thatintegrates with other technologies.Integrating online and offline transactions,inventory,and promotions across all in-person locations and online stores aresome of the greatest hurdles that software e

9、ngineers seek to overcome whencreating the next generation of PoS systems for retail businesses.2One critical component of bridging the gap between online and offline shoppingexperiences is payment.Being able to accept various digital payment methodsadds convenience and consistency to the customer e

10、xperience.Accepting buynow pay later,QR code payments,virtual payments like Google Pay and ApplePay,and even cryptocurrency can provide better accessibility for online andoffline shoppers.That is why retail business is closely related to innovation infintech.The more affordable and effective the sol

11、utions offered by fintechcompanies are,the easier it is for a retail business to organize the smoothoperation of online and offline stores regarding the financial part.3Trend#2:Simplifying Store Navigation WithIndoor PositioningIndoor positioning systems(IPS)have been a trend of interest for a few y

12、earsnow for helping users navigate indoor areas where GPS is not applicable.However,there are many more applications for this technology than first meetsthe eye.On the surface,indoor navigation has a great deal of potential for usernavigation.Stores,office buildings,airports,and hospitals have begun

13、 to realizethis.Hong Kong International Airport uses this technology in their“HKG MyFlight”mobile application.In the retail industry,Lowes and Target are utilizingthis technology as well.IMPLEMENTING IPS SYSTEMS IN STORESImplementing in-store navigation solutions for your business can be achallengin

14、g task.The first step is hardware.Having the right infrastructure inplace is essential,whether it be Visual Markers,Bluetooth beacons,Wi-Fi RTT,orUltra-wideband(UWB).For example,Target chose to implement Bluetooth IoTlighting systems at many of its locations.When guests shop with the Target appon th

15、eir phones in stores,they can get access to a map that helps them findtheir position in the store and find the items that they need.This particular solution placed Bluetooth beacons in the lighting systems abovethe sales floor.However,other solutions may be possible based on the layoutand size of th

16、e store since the use of beacons can be prohibitively expensive andprovide insufficiently accurate navigation.After the infrastructure is set up,allthats left is to develop the software that can take advantage of it.IPS systems have much more potential than just helping guests shop.Havingdata about

17、where guests shop in the store has three beneficial implications:targeted suggestions,tracking customer traffic,and item tracking.4TARGETED DEALSWhen guests are in a particular part of the store using the stores official app,theIPS system can track where they are and offer them targeted suggestions

18、onproducts and deals on their smartphones.This can improve conversions asguests shop.CUSTOMER TRAFFIC DATAMore profoundly,data about where shoppers are in the store is useful forimproving the placement of products on shelves.It also helps answer a fewquestions:Where do guests go when they enter the

19、store?Do they tend to prefer one location in the store over another?Are there any locations in the store that guests tend to avoid?All of these questions can be answered by IPS tracking.Of course,anonymizeddata is important to protect user privacy,but these analytics could be crucial forhelping busi

20、ness owners make decisions on where to place certain products.Infact,this data could be a valuable bargaining chip when negotiating with vendorswith regard to how much they should pay to have their product included in aparticularly high-traffic area of the store.ITEM TRACKINGRFID technology used for

21、 tracking down products in retail locations is useful butshort-range.As these technologies improve,IPS can offer more detailed data onthe locations of products on the sales floor.This can not only help to improvethe efforts of asset protection but it can also make it easier to return moveditems to t

22、heir correct locations.IoT devices are becoming smaller and cheaper as time goes on,but right nowthe IoT technology may need to be limited to a few high-value items if its to beimplemented.Property managers can also use this technology to track workequipment like laptops and mobile computers.5For ta

23、sks like order fulfillment,retail workers can use their work devices with IPSmaps to find the items location in the store.If the item has IPS tracking set up,they could navigate to the item instead.This would be useful in instances wherethe item has been moved from its original location by mistake.T

24、rend#3:Transforming Customer andEmployee Experience With AugmentedRealityAugmented reality has been a big part of retail for years now.However,Facebooks rebranding to Meta has exacerbated augmented realitysimportance.Regardless of ones opinion about what the future of AR in themetaverse might look l

25、ike,theres no mistaking that businesses are providingmore immersive and digitally consistent experiences for customers.This,at thevery least,provides many opportunities for businesses to engage with audiencesin new and valuable ways.A few paths toward providing these immersive experiences involve vi

26、rtual try-onsolutions,indoor navigation powered by augmented reality,and otherapplications.This is one of the key technologies bridging the gap between digitalecommerce storefronts and brick and mortar shopping.TRY BEFORE YOU BUYSome of the most useful applications of AR that help digital customers

27、in theretail industry are the“try before you buy”applications.One of the bestexamples of this is virtual try-on technology.By using AR technologies,shopperscan see how they look when trying various kinds of products on themselves.Similarly,they can also see what other kinds of products look like,suc

28、h as6furniture.Virtual try-on technology is already being implemented by stores likeSephora,Target,Ikea,and more.In fact,Ikeas version of this lets you do much more than just see the size andshape of furniture.Ikea Studio can use the unique LiDAR technology on iPhonesto display rooms,measurements,wi

29、ndows,doorways,and more to visualizeinterior design like never before.AR NAVIGATIONAlthough indoor positioning was already a trend we discussed,when combinedwith AR,it can enrich the experiences of customers and workers even further.Indoor navigation powered by augmented reality technology can help

30、shoppersfind the items that they need in store just by following directions on theirphones screen.This can be very engaging for shoppers if implemented correctly7and can provide more opportunities to show guests targeted suggestionson-screen.AR navigation can help retail workers too.Some of the most

31、 popular devices forworkers in the industry,Zebras TC52,TC57,and TC77 portable computers areARCore-capable.With the potential of these devices to use their cameras for ARnavigation,order fulfillment workers can simply look for directions on theirscreen to find the aisle that theyre looking for.AIDIN

32、G RETAIL WORKERS WITH OTHER TASKSAugmented reality can be useful in helping retail workers visualize shelvesbefore they are set up.By using a planogram as a base,AR-enabled enterprisedevices can display a 3D planogram on the sales floor to serve as a guide for thesetup process.This can make it easie

33、r for workers to set pegs,shelves,andfixtures in their appropriate locations.Augmented reality could also help workers identify problems with a shelf.Combined with AI-based object detection technologies used by manufacturingindustries,a worker could hold their devices camera up to a shelf to find ar

34、easfor improvement.By comparing the shelf with its corresponding planogram,ARrendering can show the worker which parts of the shelf do not align with theplanogram.This could be an out-of-place product,improperly zoned items,andeven the identification of damaged products.Trend#4:Smart Store Automatio

35、n WithArtificial IntelligenceIn every one of the previous trends,artificial intelligence has played a role insome fashion.For example,modern AI powers AR scene analysis.However,AIcan offer many more benefits in the retail industry than this.Demand8forecasting,inventory management,and other kinds of

36、analysis on consumerbehavior use artificial intelligence.THE FUTURE OF SELF-CHECKOUTThanks to innovations in artificial intelligence and Internet of Thingstechnologies,self-checkout has become more advanced than ever.With evolvedsensor arrays,businesses can choose to highly automate checkout process

37、es forcustomers.This allows customers to shop more conveniently.Amazon takes it a step further with its Amazon Go Grocery model storespowered by Just Walk Out.The project uses computer vision,sensor fusion,anddeep learning.The stores rich network of cameras and IoT sensors can detectwhen a consumer

38、has taken an item off the shelf and placed it into their cart.When the guest leaves the store,the system charges their credit card for theitems that they took.This requires not only a deep understanding of what the guest has placed intotheir cart but also where items are in the store.If an item move

39、s away from itsshelf,the system must still be able to keep track of how much of it that it has onhand.However,not every business is as big as Amazon.It could be difficult toimplement an advanced self-checkout solution for your store.Luckily,AI-basedself-checkout technology is scalable.Vending machin

40、es can incorporate thistechnology.For example,customers can open a designated refrigerator andremove an item from it.After closing the door,the machine can charge theircard automatically.This allows for a seamless experience that is more accessiblefor smaller businesses.9INVENTORY MANAGEMENT POWERED

41、 BY AIComputers and rich databases drive the retail industry in 2023.However,thecomplexity of these systems has resulted in a number of inefficiencies fromerrors.Retail workers may find that the system has incorrect sales floorquantities of certain SKUs.This also leads to problems like backroom loca

42、tionaccuracy.Tackling these issues is critical to saving time and money forbusinesses.Artificial intelligence can help us manage these inventories more effectively withseveral different methods.For example,AI can analyze consumers spending topredict when certain types of items may be more likely to

43、move around on thesales floor.This can drive the system to require manual auditing of certain areasover others.While auditing the entire store is a challenging task,auditing onlythe areas that need attention is much more effective.If a more advanced network of cameras isnt the solution,perhaps the w

44、ork canbe done manually while still using machine learning algorithms.Instead ofauditing empty spots on a shelf one by one,a retail worker could take a photo ofeach shelf section with their device.Comparing the image to a planogram withobject recognition,deep learning software could speed up the pro

45、cess.Thiswould allow the system to see which items were missing.However,this systemrequires careful zoning.This method also may not be able to detect quantities,as items may obstruct each other.CONSUMER BEHAVIOR ANALYSISEarlier we touched on this with an analysis of in-store foot traffic with indoor

46、positioning systems.However,the potential of analyzing consumer behaviordoesnt stop there.In addition to their spending habits,we can measure theirinterest in what theyre spending money on alongside their demographics with10artificial intelligence.This can give businesses a better idea of how they s

47、houldbe marketing to their audiences.The focus so far has been analyzing consumers that are already in the store,butwhat about drawing in new ones?A store using Kimolas platform decided toremodel a location for soccer fans using data analyzed by AI.By using socialmedia accounts as a basis for the da

48、ta,the algorithm was able to determine themost optimal location for the store.As a result,they saw a 210%sales increasewhen redesigning this store for soccer fans.This idea extends to e-commerce as well.Online storefronts can track userbehavior.This includes what items their cursor hovers over,how m

49、uch time theyspend on a particular page,as well as where they come from.This type ofinformation is familiar to any web marketer using Google Analytics.However,behind that technology is a powerful AI engine that can search forconnections and trends faster than we can on our own.Trend#5:AI-Driven Dema

50、nd ForecastingThis is a powerful tool used by some of the largest brands in the world.Demandforecasting helps businesses build trust with their customers.It allows them tosupply efficiently in preparation for market changes.This is especially importantin disaster and emergency situations.During time

51、s of crisis,supplies can beshort.As products fly off the shelves,stores that are able to adapt and get theirhands on high-demand items are able to thrive.Amazon is again an example of a company that leverages the power of machinelearning for this purpose.This technology can also improve inventory pl

52、anning,and relationship management for both customers and suppliers,as well aslogistics,manufacturing,and marketing.Demand forecasting leads to more sustainable consumption and production.When demand is predicted much more accurately,items can be produced andordered according to how much is needed b

53、y the consumer.AI-based demand forecasting approaches are much more versatile and adaptivethan their traditional counterparts.Since businesses can implement machine11learning much more quickly,they can better follow customer demand trends.With ever-shifting customer behaviors,its more important than

54、 ever that yourbusiness is deeply interested in data on customer spending trends.Technologiesthat analyze this data to get meaningful insights are key to maintaining acompetitive foothold in the market.Trend#6:Robots and Automation in RetailClosely related to artificial intelligence is the hardware

55、of robotics.This has amultitude of applications,such as delivery,inventory management,andcustomer service.AUTONOMOUS DELIVERYAs artificial intelligence improves,so too have autonomous vehicles.Delivery isevolving in 2023 and autonomous delivery is becoming the new norm.TheSafeway cart,developed by T

56、ortoise,was introduced last year as an autonomousdelivery vehicle.Serve Robotics,formerly called Postmates X,is also making adelivery robot for Uber.Grubhub successfully rolled out autonomous fooddelivery robots to college campuses like the Ohio State University.The companyis working to expand its r

57、obotic delivery to other campuses.Businesses are also exploring retail delivery with drones.Verizon and UPS FlightForward are working to leverage 5G technologies to improve drone delivery inFlorida.CUSTOMER SERVICE ROBOTICSRetail businesses are also exploring robots for customer service.In January o

58、flast year,Hyundai introduced a robot called DAL-e that would aid in automotiveshowrooms.The robot can greet customers and help them find the vehicle thatmeets their needs.The robot also uses facial recognition and AI to detect if thecustomer is wearing a mask and to advise them appropriately.12ROBO

59、TIC INVENTORY MANAGEMENTSpecial hardware can sometimes aid with inventory management where ceilingand shelf-mounted cameras cannot.Machines like SmartSight can automate theprocess of identifying misplaced items on shelves and sales floor quantities andalert workers when certain items are running low

60、.Trend#7:Voice CommerceAs artificial intelligence improves in 2023,so does natural language processing(NLP).Smart assistants like Google Assistant,Alexa,and Siri are becomingincreasingly advanced in their speech recognition and responsiveness.Theirability to serve customers in the retail industry ha

61、s improved tremendously.Ordering products from home with your voice,with or without a screen,leaves alot of nuances to be explored.Smart home devices are expected to be used in more than 77 million homes inthe United States by 2025,meaning that this is a huge opportunity thatbusinesses can take adva

62、ntage of.Other kinds of IoT devices in customershomes can prove valuable too,such as AR-capable smart mirrors.The mostimportant part of the process is making sure that these devices are not intrusiveand are genuinely helpful for the consumer.13Walmarts Voice Ordering is a notable example of this tec

63、hnology in action.Byasking smart speakers to add products to a cart,they can place orders entirelyby voice.Walmart workers then make these items available for pickup.Challenges and Future of Technologies inRetailAs disruption impacts retail businesses,those who are quick to innovate willthrive.CAPTU

64、RING AND MAINTAINING CUSTOMERSIn an increasingly digitized world,its important for businesses to remember thevalue of rich communication and engagement with their customers.Providingimmersive experiences both online and in person can achieve this goal.MANAGING INVENTORYThanks to demand forecasting t

65、ools available to businesses in 2023,managinginventories has become easier than ever.However,there will always bechallenges that will persist into the future.Setting clear and focused goals willhelp solve these problems.THE PROBLEM WITH UPGRADESAs technology improves in the retail industry,legacy te

66、chnologies like older PoSsystems,and inventory management solutions are being replaced.However,during these transitions,many hiccups tend to bog down the process.There aresometimes oversights and unforeseen issues that require special attention.14PARTNERING WITH VENDORSThe most important part of int

67、roducing innovative technologies into the retailspace is the relationship between the business and the vendor developing thetechnology.How they work together to develop and maintain the solutiondetermines the success of the product,no matter if the technology is intendedfor the consumer directly or

68、if its intended to aid the businesss own tasks first.WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDSAs technology evolves,there are many new niches waiting to be monetized andopportunities to take advantage of.Digital transformation and a data-drivenculture will continue to disrupt businesses that cannot adapt to meet rapidl

69、ychanging customer preferences,new technologies,and supply chains.Thatswhy retail companies must provide consumers with an experience that they findengaging,accessible,and valuable.Businesses that make that first move to have thoughtful discussions about theirneeds and ideas with retail software developers will be the forerunners in afuture where consumers have more information available to them than ever.If youre ready to take that first step into the future of retail,all you have to do isreach out.Read more about the Retail Software Development services we provide.15