Even though I work in IT, I’m not a fan of all technologies. When shopping, I will begrudgingly make use of self-checkouts (as long as I don’t have to deal with produce lookups) and I do sometimes find price check stations handy. But some forthcoming retail tech, such as allowing myself to be tracked in exchange for a discount, make me nervous–and I’m not the only one. More than 75% of the respondents in RichRelevance’s 2018 study agree. And the other technologies listed also tend to have some “creepy” factor. With the evolution and continued embedding of AI in so many industries, that’s probably to be expected. But some consumers are excited about forthcoming retail advances.
- Investments, New Platforms Mark First Half of 2019 [WWD] ” This past spring, offer management platform provider RevTrax rolled out a version of its solution that is powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning to ‘effectively target and deliver the right offers to consumers quicker and more efficiently.’ The upgrade will allow the company to ‘observe behavior at scale and categorize the behaviors and patterns faster than ever before.’ “
- Target Outages Illustrate Retail’s Growing Tech Complexity [Wall Street Journal] ” Target said it knew many customers had a ‘frustrating shopping experience’ at its stores over the weekend. ‘We’re working tirelessly to ensure these issues don’t happen again,’ the company said. “
- US consumers embracing new retail technologies [Just-Style] “US consumers are embracing the use of retail technology to improve their shopping experience, including smart dressing rooms, augmented reality, and virtual fit, the findings of a new report show.”
- Retailers not meeting shopper in-store tech expectations, A.T. Kearney [Retail Tech Innovation Hub] ” When faced with the existing show-and-tell of emerging retail technologies, US consumers have heard the “tell” but have yet to see the “show”, according to research by A.T. Kearney involving 1,000 people “
From the Ohio Web Library:
- Challenges and solutions of implementing retail technology ( Engel, D. (2019). Challenges and solutions of implementing retail technology. Furniture/Today, 43(21), 10–12. )
- What Retail Workers Say About Technology Potentially Eliminating Their Jobs ( Vanian, J. (2019). What Retail Workers Say About Technology Potentially Eliminating Their Jobs. Fortune.Com, N.PAG. )
- Microsoft moves into retail to put an end to queues ( Angela Jameson. (2018, June 14). Microsoft moves into retail to put an end to queues. Evening Standard, p. 65. )
