The grocery retail industry is under immense pressure. Higher costs of managing supply chains, market volatility, inflation, higher investments to match new competition, and rising labor costs collectively have shaken the sustainability of grocery businesses. In addition, customer expectations continue to surge, raising the bar for personalized service. As a result, retailers are struggling to adapt and, to some extent, even survive in this new realm of digital transformation, where fully automated supermarkets are the next big thing.
Automation Is No Longer a Choice; It’s a Necessity
Unlike giants such as Amazon, where “innovate, invent and think big” are core leadership principles, most grocery retailers simply focus on making incremental changes, which offer minimal value. In the competitive landscape of digital disruption, the “less is the better” approach could mean getting crushed in the stampede of supermarkets, grocerants, and other eCommerce retail giants.
The pressures of costs are not new, and passing the costs onto customers in the hypercompetitive environment is no longer viable. As a solution, retailers have started using automation to maximize efficiency, ensure a seamless customer journey, and bolster margins. It’s safe to say that automation is no longer a choice; it’s a requirement.
Building a Fully Automated Supermarket: Exploring the Customer Experience Side
In grocery retail, automation can streamline labor-intensive practices. It can also reduce task repetition, create opportunities for fostering creativity and boost the business bottom line.
Automation can penetrate different parts of the grocery value chain from within stores, supply chains, and corporate centers. However, with so many processes that can be automated, it is overwhelming to start.
In this blog’s first series, we will explore the customer experience side of building a fully automated supermarket. Let’s begin your store’s journey of automation:
1. Join the eCommerce Bandwagon
At the most basic level, automation begins with investing in a grocery eCommerce platform for brick-and-mortar stores that don’t have an eCommerce presence. And if you already have an online presence, it’s time to take the next step: build a mobile app.
Research by McKinsey says that grocery eCommerce is one of the leading COVID-era trends that’s likely to become permanent. This means now is the right time to start thinking about moving your grocery retail operations online. When exploring your options in a grocery eCommerce platform, look for the one that has the potential to facilitate a cohesive omnichannel experience and add value to your overall business model.
2. Invest in a Point of Sale (POS) System
Your fully automated supermarket will be incomplete without a Point of Sale system. This means replacing your old-fashioned cash register with a POS system. A POS calculates the sum of items the consumer is interested in buying, processes the payments, and then reflects the sales in the inventory. This system lets you know which and how many products you have sold on a daily/monthly basis. The quantity of stock left in the warehouse and how much money you’ve made. Some of the futuristic grocery solutions, such as D365 Super and Hypermarkets Solution offer best-in-class POS systems with added features like bulk-price update mechanism, item and category management, discounts, and promotions management alongside controls over staff privileges.
You will need a computer(s) and POS software to install a POS system in your store. Besides these, you will also need a POS system hardware, including a barcode scanner, cash drawer, monitor, receipt printer, programmable keyboard, touch screen, and handheld terminals.
3. Set Up Cashier-Less Counters
Another way to introduce automation in your supermarket is to invest in cashier-less checkout. A typical solution consists of overhead cameras and sensors deployed on shelves to enable store-level checkout. The moment a shopper walks into the store; this advanced system notifies them of where exactly the product is placed. Then, the shopper simply grabs the product from the shelf and leaves the store without interacting with the cashier. All payments happen wirelessly via digital wallets connected to the store’s app.
Supermarkets worldwide have taken different approaches to cashier-less checkouts, such as:
