Physical experience, digital convenience: The future of retail

Unfortunately, physical retailers are quite some time away from recording and understanding shopping preferences in real time. More importantly, they haven’t even solved long-standing issues in demand forecasting, product stocking, and inventory management yet. A McKinsey study showed that physical stores’ inventory accuracy hovers around 70 to 90% compared to 99.5% for distribution centers of online stores.

How do physical retailers bridge the gap in data and analytics, and use it to improve customer experience? What technologies exist that help them understand buyer behavior and track inventory and sales in real time? Can AI help?

Turns out that the answers to these questions lie in the shopping process itself.

Bringing digital convenience to physical experience

The shopping cart and the payment method are the two fundamental building blocks of an ecommerce store. Its real-world equivalents are, you guessed it – the cart and the checkout. The faster and simpler stores can make these two processes, the better the experience they’ll be able to provide.

“Both consumers and retailers are pushing for tech-driven hybrid experiences that mimic an online experience,” says Raz Golan, CEO of Shopic, makers of a smart cart solution that aims to speed up and personalize physical shopping experiences.

Shopic’s product is a clip-on device that shoppers take off the charging shelf and place on top of the shopping cart when they enter a supermarket. The device uses cameras and AI to identify products that are placed in or removed from the cart, total up the prices, promote and adjust for in-store deals and accept payment via a variety of methods.