5 technologies that are changing the shopping experience in stores

Ajith Nayar

In the past few years numerous retail and shopping technologies have managed to emerge in the market, bringing us extraordinary, fun and exciting ways to acquire the items we want.

The best thing about new technologies is that they always tend to promote better, easier and more relaxed shopper habits and that’s why we are going to take a look at how the shopping industry has changed this year already, and what’s in store for us in the months ahead.

The drones have arrived

Drones have been around for a while, but usually in association with military or entertainment. But recently drones have flown their way into the retail sector. Simply put, drones are becoming a great way to deliver goods faster and in remote locations without a problem. Companies like Amazon have already started to use them, and more retail giants are integrating this technology as well.

Mobile payments everywhere

With the integration of NFC mobile payments in the latest mobile phones, people have a much simpler time when it comes to buying anything using their phones instead of remembering to carry their credit cards. It’s more convenient and at the same time it’s also easier to manage on the retailer's side, so everyone wins.

Appy assistants at your fingertips

Simply put, more and more retailers have created applications that track the shopping behavior of consumers and then showcase similar items to the ones he/she just bought within the app. Three out of five (61%) of consumers have downloaded a retailer's app, according to Latitude’s Next Gen Retail: Mobile & Beyond report. Apps makes it easier to track the user preferences and understand what they want to purchase. No surprise then to see big retailers going the app way.

Smart shelves to cater shoppers

Intelligent or smart shelves are changing the retail industry, because these use technology to capture and integrate a large amount of data that is happening live between the retailer, consumer and manufacturer. Intelligent retail shelving provides various clever shopping hacks such as digital price labeling and an integrated scale that automatically notifies merchandisers of low-stock when the shelf gets lighter.

Order-ready self-kiosks

Today’s self-kiosks are operating from food retailers on a very simple premise, all you need to do is order and the food item will be delivered when ready. While to consumers this is a great way to avoid the lines, food retailers are finding out that up-selling is more likely to be accepted when using the self-kiosk equivalent of “would you like fries with that?” such as “Would you like to round your amount to Rs 500 and we’ll add a chocolate chip cookie?” Now isn’t that sweet?

Many of these retail technologies are starting minor but effective revolutions in retail today and may continue to do so for years ahead. But whether they evolve will depend entirely on how retailers use these technologies to improve the way consumers shop, and provide better shopping experiences to end users.

The author is Director, Marketing at Manthan