Smart Store

The big trending topics currently driving retail are: the deployment of omnichannel processes, the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence. The path to a Smart Store is often difficult and complicated, despite the fact that the digitization of retail currently offers a lot. It is essential that many processes are carried out before such a project to ensure a suitable IT infrastructure.

The German EHI Retail Institute together with Microsoft looked at the current state of digitization in practice, what technologies are used and what possibilities and potential result from this. They developed a Whitepaper called “Smart Store” based on a survey of several dozen branches on the German market.

The study is built on three important thematic areas:

Personalized connection with customers across different sales channels and offer digital services
Optimization and automation of operational processes at store branches
Equipping sales staff with the right tools and information.

The main output of the study was that the ability to identify these individual customers on the sales floor in real time and communicate with their smartphones is crucial for offering personalized digital services to customers directly in the store.

Of the 44 major retail chains in Germany, 27 answered that they are technologically prepared for these new possibilities. For direct digital communication with their customers’ smartphones, they use in the store:

52% have their own company application for mobile phones,
26% use push notification via iBeacon technology,
7% communicate via WhatsApp or similar chat applications,
4% communicate using Chatbots (automated communication).

The study states that the large development of own company applications for smart mobile phones occurred precisely thanks to the extensive equipment of shops with WIFI technology. On the contrary, iBeacon technology has been deployed in many pilot projects of different focus, and their long-term success and benefit still needs to be proven. The entire study can be freely downloaded from the EHI Retail Institute website.

In recent years, artificial intelligence has been used and developed mainly in the online store, but it is also gradually coming directly to sales surfaces. Artificial intelligence that is gaining attention can be seen in practical applications. For example, in the implementation of an intelligent mirror or Chatbot.The smart mirror provides suggestions of suitable clothes for the given figure, and the Chatbot helps with the selection of the dream product.

Thanks to a smart phone, customers can find out the availability of goods, ratings or preferences of other shoppers. The chatbot will advise you whether the product is in the required size, recommend another popular product, or suggest product variants. In this way, the applied software collects data about the customer group and their preferred product combination.

In the experimental store “exp37” temporarily built in Düsseldorf, buyers have the opportunity to try applications with artificial intelligence in practice. The so-called “CurveTips” (something like “Tips for your curves”) offers customers suitable clothes based on their body parameters and with the help of a self-learning algorithm. In this way, it is intended to help the staff at the store or the customer himself with a targeted selection of products. On the basis of an animated questionnaire with questions “on the body”, the application will compile an individual “Shopping Guide”. The guide is saved in the application, and thanks to it, the customer then receives individualized product suggestions from the assortment directly on his smartphone. For example, if he chooses a piece of clothing physically in the store, he just needs to scan the label into his mobile phone, and the application will then issue a recommendation according to the customer’s profile – Shopping Guide.

Experts, both in the West and in our country, agree that technically, many things are feasible. Some applications are still under development. Promising ideas of the future and pilot projects such as the sales advisors described above are only the first steps. Relatively significant investment costs still remain an obstacle. It is expected that e.g. Thanks to the so-called Cloud solutions will enable wider and easier access to artificial intelligence in stores as well.