Retail Meets Tech
From smart carts and self-checkout systems for grocery stores to touchless (”frictionless”) stores and omnichannel flows, it is clear that there have been massive investments to advance retail tech in recent years.
Not only did COVID accelerate the growth of ecommerce and the adoption of technology for businesses of all shapes and sizes but there was a theft prevention angle to many of the solutions found on the show floor. After all, having touchless stores would certainly cut down on shrink, and shoplifting has gotten a lot of coverage in the US mediain recent months.
Even corporations like Amazon have continued to develop new retail solutions beyond their pioneering Amazon Go frictionless stores — showcasing their tech, Amazon One. By utilizing biometric scanners, they pair your phone number and a credit card to a scan of your palm, enabling you to quickly check out with a wave of your hand over a sensor.
Other solutions we found showcased inventive applications of cameras and AI, such as systems that utilize eye tracking to determine how long a customer’s gaze focused on any particular items on shelves — data collection that has numerous applications for marketing, product design, and even store layout design.
AutoStore at NRF
Our parent company, AutoStore, introduced a new fighter to the ring at their NRF booth this year in the form of the new PickUpPort — the first customer-facing module for the AutoStore system designed for omnichannel experiences. In fact, many of the attendees from retailers that we spoke to at the show were looking into fresh “customer experiences” and omnichannel shopping technology and expressed interest in AutoStore’s latest offering.
Pio at NRF
Hundreds of attendees from all across the globe stopped by our booth to learn more about Pio and our mission to bring automated warehouses to independent brands. While many recognized our technology from the AutoStore booth nearby, others were being introduced to the pioneering cube storage solution for the first time.
From inquisitive minds to potential business partners, our visitors had great questions during our conversations and the feedback we received from them was overwhelmingly positive, with FashionUnited listing us among the top five industry disruptors at the whole event.
