design:retail - June 2019 - 6

FROM THE EDITOR

DESIGN:RETAIL

JUNE 2019

Retail's Robotic
Revolution

H E N I T H I N K O F R O B O T S , the first
image I conjure up in my
mind is Johnny 5, the goofy
robotic main character of
the comedic sci-fi "Short
Circuit" movies from the
'80s. My favorite part was
when Johnny 5 exclaimed, "I am really pissed
off!" in the sequel (I thought it was HILARIOUS).
Flash forward a few decades, and robots are no
longer the stuff of sci-fi flicks about military experiments gone bad. Artificial intelligence (AI)
is now part of our everyday lives-from asking
Alexa the weather forecast each morning to using Google Maps to plan the fastest route for your
commute. Using Siri, searching Google, sending
emails, browsing social media-there's AI at work
in all of it. We have smart phones, smart homes,
smart cars and now, of course, smart stores.
The "connected" retail store has been evolving
over the years, through the use of innovations like
RFID, beacons, mobile checkout, Internet of Things
(IoT) technologies and robotics. It used to be that
the robots were saved for back-of-house jobs, but
today's retail stores are putting them out in the
aisles, front and center.
In nearly 5,000 of its stores, Walmart has begun
deploying thousands of robots to take over lowerlevel, mundane job tasks (think cleaning floors
and checking inventory), dubbing them "smart
assistants" designed to improve the associate and
customer experience (read more on page 24).
Also centered around improving the customer
experience, fast-fashion retailer Zara has been
opening stores that integrate the online and offline
worlds (see page 68) with the help of RFID and
AI. Its Milan flagship features an Automated
Collection Point (ACP)-a smart distributor that
allows customers to collect orders whenever they
want by entering a QR code or PIN-it can manage
900 packages simultaneously. The store also boasts
interactive mirrors equipped with RFID, capable

JESSIE DOWD
EDITOR IN CHIEF
DESIGN:RETAIL
JESSIE.DOWD@EMERALDEXPO.COM

"Artificial
intelligence is
helping meld
bricks and clicks
into seamless
experiences that
the customer of
today expects."

of recommending additional items that might
interest shoppers.
And in China, e-commerce giant Alibaba's
"New Retail" model is reimagining the shopping
experience with "the digitization of the entire retail value chain, including merchandising, in-store
operation, marketing, logistics, customer service and payments." On page 52, we take a closer
look into Alibaba's supermarket chain Freshippo,
which seamlessly blends digital and physical. The
in-store experience uses intelligent supply-chain
data to predict the demand of perishable food and
AI-powered self-checkout allows shoppers to pay
with the Freshippo app or even facial recognition.
The stores are also designed as fulfillment centers
for the local neighborhood, offering 30-minute
free online delivery within a 1.8-mile radius. Some
locations even have a robot concept restaurant inside. Book a seat using the app, scan the QR code at
the table to place your order, and then small robot
"waiters" serve up your meal. There's also a robot
that comes to your table, upon request, to collect
dishes when you're done. (Now if I could just get
one of these at home!)
For retail around the globe, artificial intelligence
is helping meld bricks and clicks into seamless experiences that the customer of today expects. As
we descend on Chicago for GlobalShop at RetailX,
June 25-27, I encourage you to take advantage of
the many options available that will help demystify AI, from conference programming to the new
Innovation Valley area on the show floor (you can
read more about it on page 34 in our GlobalShop @
RetailX 2019 Show Guide). At the show, I look
forward to seeing the innovations and solutions
available to help retailers succeed in this robotic
revolution. And I'm kind of hoping we run into
Johnny 5, too.

design:retail - June 2019

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