We all know that sometimes the robots will take over and replace us all. There is the fear – and it comes from mid 90s, when movies about the nearest future scared us all. And what’s interesting – the whole situation of people vs machine is created by humanity itself. So, there is a change coming into many industries, and retail is not an exception.
Retail industry has recently provided world with a human-less retail shops. The pioneer of this was Amazon, who introduced a fully self-checkout store a few months ago – in December 2016. Equipped with motion sensor cameras – tens of these cameras are placed inside the shop building – Amazon Go is trying to do its best to recognize when someone has purchased something. And how good is this technology? It’s almost brilliant, however, there is a mess when machine guess something wrong. And there is no one to clean up the mess…
And there’s more to come. Wall Street Journal has recently reported that Panasonic is trying to investigate the possibility of human-less shops in Osaka, Japan. Well, it’s not fully free of humans, but there is a significant change in number of staff. Retail automation is presented in a way of human-less bagging technology. Specific machines scan and bag the products and goods for people.
Panasonic approach is quite different and much more affordable for business. When a person has placed all the products to the bag, the button drops. After pushing the button, products are gently bagged and ready to be taken away. There is no need in a person who help the customer to bag the goods.
This take on a retail automatization is really interesting and legit. But it’s not flawless, and moreover, it can be used by other retailers, because how the merchant robot will understand that some products are fragile? Lightbulbs and chicken eggs – are the one that comes to mind quite quickly. In today’s world, the store must pay customer in case if something’s broke in the store area: if eggs are broken, then store replaces them without payment.
Okay, this issue can somehow be managed with extra-cameras, but that’s not the 100% right solution. Some not really honest shoppers can block the views to get what they need, or can put fragile items to the bottom in order to get some extra benefit. So is to possible to run a shop without having real people?
Well, it’s nearly possible, but sales can also change after such decision. Do you really want a robot to decide whether a child who obviously looks 13 but is using his 21-year-old brother’s driver’s license to buy whiskey should get served? Do you want to be served by unemotional machine or by smiling assistant? People needs people after all.
But there’s a fear, and there’s an experiments to be taken by retail shops. Those who can afford creation of human-less store and compare sales with old-school stores will find out how humans can affect business.