Five retail technologies to watch in 2020

Augmented reality, smart carts, smart stores, delivering the goods and unattended in-home delivery are the five technologies that will impact the path-to-purchase in 2020.

That’s according to Toby Pickard, Head of Insight - Innovation & Futures at IGD. In a LinkedIn post, he says: “The digital revolution has no boundaries or borders. It is changing behaviour and expectations. Being prepared for future eventualities is of critical importance for any business.”

“However, with so much disruption and uncertainty taking place around the world it is understandable that businesses are often only focused on the next quarter or at most the next few years,” he adds. “Nevertheless, we believe that success will be achieved through thought leadership which comes from being visionary, and to be truly visionary you need to think longer-term and look to the future.”

In terms of smart stores, over recent years we have seen more retailers trialling digital technologies to enhance the in-store shopping experience. “We expect this to continue as stores aim to improve the shopping experience and compete and/or complement the online shopping experience,” Pickard says.

“I expect to see more stores offering a cashless and checkout-less experience in 2020, and I expect we will see large stores starting to offer a checkout-free experience. Stores will start to identify shoppers as they enter the store, which will enable retailers and brands to be able to communicate with shoppers during the shopping trip.”

Shoppers will be offered promotions and personalised recommendations, along with helpful information like recipe ideas. Stores will utilise technologies, like vision technology, to identify shoppers, improve stock levels, demand planning and reduce shrinkage.

We will also see more retailers trialling and rolling out in-home unattended delivery. “This model offers financial benefits, as they can be more efficient within the last mile delivery,” Pickard observes.

“Retailers that offer it will need to have a significant amount of inherent trust with shoppers. If retailers are able to deliver the goods, shoppers are likely to build more loyalty with a retailer as trust and the convenience of the service builds.”

It is, however, unlikely that this solution will become mainstream in the short-term. This is not just down to potential trust concerns. Rather, it is primarily due to the fact that home owners will need to buy and install a smart lock to allow the courier into their home, which is likely to be a barrier to participation.