New technology is changing retail: artificial intelligence should avoid empty shelves and help with price fixing. And technology could also play a crucial role in alleviating staff shortages.
Retail is in a state of upheaval: large retail chains are increasingly relying on artificial intelligence (AI) to avoid out-of-stock shelves and improve customer service. In view of the increasing shortage of staff, self-service checkouts and shops without staff will also gain in importance in the future. This is the result of an industry survey published on Monday by the retail research institute EHI on “Technology Trends in Retail 2023”.
AI: technology trend of the future
More than half of the companies surveyed named artificial intelligence as the most important technology trend of the future. More than two thirds of the companies stated that they already use AI. Within a year, the proportion of users rose from 56 to 69 percent. Another nine percent plan to introduce it.
Artificial intelligence is currently being used primarily to avoid empty shelves in stores, said EHI expert Ulrich Spaan. With their help, the companies used previous experience, but also numerous external factors, including the weather, to forecast which goods had to be ordered and by when and where they had to be delivered. Thanks to growing experience, the predictions are becoming more and more precise, as Spaan emphasized. According to the survey, more than one in five companies also uses AI to set prices. It also plays an increasing role in the dialogue with customers.
In view of the increasing staff shortages, almost half of the companies – 42 percent – are also relying on the increased use of self-service checkouts or are even testing shops without staff. However, it is still predominantly about the self-checkout, in which the customers scan the goods themselves and then pay at the machine – in cash or by card.
Shops without staff, in which the customers scan themselves and then pay at the machine, and especially shops without cash registers, in which the purchases are recorded with the help of video cameras and sensors and automatically debited from the customer’s account, have already because of the high cost nor rarity.
But Spaan sees potential. “There are trials with autonomous stores everywhere. Everyone wants to gain experience,” reported the expert. Such concepts are promising in the medium term. Spaan sees several possible fields of application: for example small shops in highly frequented locations such as train stations or airports, where things have to be done quickly. Such automatic stores without expensive staff are also suitable in rural areas where a classic shop is no longer worthwhile.
Electronic price tags have already become widely accepted, especially in the food trade. So far, the main focus has been on avoiding the time-consuming manual changing of price tags, said Spaan. On the other hand, the possibility of changing the prices of products more frequently during the day with the help of electronic signs – similar to what is sometimes done on the Internet – has so far hardly been used. “Companies are careful because they know that customers are sensitive to it,” said Spaan.