Autonomous stores surge - Answering the key questions around this technology
By Diana Morato, Chief Revenue Growth Officer at Sensei
Autonomous technology is revolutionising physical retail.
The adoption of autonomous stores accelerated in 2021, with many supermarkets opening stores with a checkoutless option for customers. This trend is set to continue in 2022 as retailers start to see the positive benefits to both revenue and staff.
Having said that, as with any new technology, there are many questions people have around its implementation, benefits, and security. This piece will provide answers to these questions and provide a more holistic view of the value of autonomous stores.
How easy are autonomous stores to implement?
Depending on the size of the store, autonomous technology can be implemented relatively quickly with a turnaround time of roughly two weeks for a 2,100 square foot store.
There is usually a three-stage approach – planning, deployment, and operations. The planning stage involves a tactical analysis of the floor plan and the retailer needs, where the technology is mapped out to fit seamlessly, allowing for a frictionless shopping experience.
The deployment phase involves integrating the autonomous technology into the shop and automating the store. And finally, the operational phase is everything that comes once the store is open to the public, such as, software monitoring and hardware maintenance.
The autonomous shopping experience can be offered to customers in fully autonomous or hybrid stores, depending on the retailer and their willingness to be inclusive.
Hybrid stores enable retailers to offer a seamless queue free shopping experience to customers with their app, while also allowing other shoppers to shop and pay at the cashier as usual.
What are the benefits of autonomous stores?
They provide retailers with rich consumer insights.
The computer vision technology provides insights on which products consumers are interacting with, how much time they spend on them and how they react to changes in pricing, product range and product layout within the store.
This allows retailers to make more informed decisions about offers, store layouts and shelving, to help maximise sales.
During the pandemic, whilst supermarkets did well, many retailers were in survival mode. Now that the economy is opening back up, retailers want to thrive. But the retail landscape is not the same as it was 18 months ago, so they have to adapt to meet the needs of customers today.
Autonomous stores have the potential to increase profit margins by nearly twice as much as traditional retail stores, thanks to the reduced labour costs, efficient product stocking, and improved store operations management.
Not only does this maximise revenue, it provides opportunities for new players to stand a fighting chance on the high street. Setting up a store on the high street has traditionally required substantial operating costs but checkoutless stores are decreasing some of the barriers to entry.
For one, autonomous stores can run 24/7 and don’t require staff to be present. Secondly, by removing the checkouts, retailers are affording themselves more floor space for products - and in retail, space is key.
Finally, automated stock and store management applications that checkoutless stores provide, allow for real time insights into stock counts.
This technology is able to inform shop workers of the shelves that need replenishing and which products need to be reordered, making the store management process far more efficient and less time spent on inventory.
Is it as secure as traditional retail stores?
Autonomous stores provide many layers of store security. Theft is virtually eliminated. Anyone that walks into a store is monitored via a sophisticated network of cameras and sensors.
There are many redundant software modules running in parallel, so even if you manage to sneak something past one module, one of the other ones would have picked it up
Retailers now see the value in this technology. They no longer need to worry about the security of their bricks and mortar stores. Stores can remain open 24 hours a day, allowing retailers to maximise revenue and reduce costs while significantly improving convenience for the customers.
Will it impact retail jobs?
Instead of threatening jobs, autonomous stores are upskilling workers by taking away the tasks that aren’t the best use of their time. Staff will now be able to move from behind the till and onto the shop floor, assisting customers as ‘store advisors’.
Autonomous stores won’t just benefit customers and businesses, they also benefit the retail employees. Retail workers, especially those that work in supermarkets, have high attrition rates.
Instead of performing value added tasks where they can truly interact with customers, they are often stuck behind a till or stock checking, doing work that could be automated to free them up to be on the shop floor.
By changing the role of retail workers to ‘store advisors’, staff are able to provide better customer support.
This will add greater value to both the customer shopping experience and the work life of retail staff. Therefore, propelling us into a future where retail is much more efficient and convenient for consumers and businesses alike.
The future is checkoutless
Consumers are increasingly searching for frictionless shopping experiences and autonomous stores are satisfying those demands. In 2022, we saw many supermarkets launch new checkoutless stores across the UK and beyond.
The adoption of autonomous stores will continue to proliferate in 2022 and the years to come.
Retailers must now look to offer the speed and convenience of online shopping for customers in physical stores, something that autonomous retail lends itself to, or fall behind rapidly changing customer and staff expectations.
