Exploratory analysis of Internet of Things (IoT): revolutionizing the grocery retail industry

This dissertation has investigated the consequences of implementing Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in grocery retailing by analyzing customers' perceptions of eight prominent technologies. The objective was to investigate and explore to what degree implementing these technologies would impact the customer experience. Based on secondary research, this thesis focuses on eight prominent technologies that presumably will encounter an increasing utilization in the visible future; Self-Scanning, Smart Robots, Smart Shelves, Smart Shopping Cart, Smart Fridge, Just Walk Out, Personalized Promotion/Pricing, and Mobile Apps. The technology distribution varies across different stages in the customer journey, and research indicates that IoT has the most significant impact in the pre-purchase stage. A comprehensive exploratory survey was conducted through Amazon mTurk with a wide range of respondents (n=204), giving valuable insight into demographic differences' influence on each technology perception. The investigation uncovered vast differences in several areas such as age, attitude, and privacy. Among other findings, the age segment 35-44 is more confident towards IoT technology than the age segment 55+, and shoppers with a positive attitude towards grocery shopping have higher confidence towards the technologies than shoppers with a negative attitude. On a widespread basis, the findings revealed that all eight technologies would positively affect customer experience to a certain level. Keywords: Internet of Things, Grocery Retailing, Customer Journey, Customer Experience, Autonomous Retail

Tecnología para Tiendas Inteligentes

Trabajo de Fin de Grado en Doble Grado en Ingeniería Informática y Matemáticas, Facultad de Informática UCM, Departamento de Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial, Curso 2020/2021Smart stores technologies exemplify how Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things can effectively join forces to shape the future of retailing. With an increasing number of companies proposing and implementing their own smart store concepts, such as Amazon Go or Tao Cafe, a new field is clearly emerging. Since the technologies used to build their infrastructure offer significant competitive advantages, companies are not publicly sharing their own designs. For this reason, this work presents a new smart store model named Mercury, which aims to take the edge off of the lack of public and accessible information and research documents in this field. We do not only introduce a comprehensive smart store model, but also work-through a feasible detailed implementation so that anyone can build their own system upon it.Las tecnologías utilizadas en las tiendas inteligentes ejemplifican cómo la Inteligencia Artificial y el Internet de las Cosas pueden unir, de manera efectiva, fuerzas para transformar el futuro de la venta al por menor. Con un creciente número de empresas proponiendo e implementando sus propios conceptos de tiendas inteligentes, como Amazon Go o Tao Cafe, un nuevo campo está claramente emergiendo. Debido a que las tecnologías utilizadas para construir sus infraestructuras ofrecen una importante ventaja competitiva, las empresas no están compartiendo públicamente sus diseños. Por esta razón, este trabajo presenta un nuevo modelo de tienda inteligente llamado Mercury, que tiene como objetivo mitigar la falta de información pública y accesible en este campo. No solo introduciremos un modelo general y completo de tienda inteligente, sino que también proponemos una implementación detallada y concreta para que cualquier persona pueda construir su propia tienda inteligente siguiendo nuestro modelo.Depto. de Ingeniería de Software e Inteligencia Artificial (ISIA)Fac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu

EXPERIÊNCIA DO CONSUMIDOR E INTELIGÊNCIA ARTIFICIAL: UMA REVISÃO DA LITERATURA

The Customer Experience, an expression translated from the English Customer Experience – CX, has been suffering several influences, whether by new relationship methods, purchasing behavior, customer loyalty, or by the changes that have been taking place in retail. In this context, CX has become the main challenge for marketing studies in recent years. For that, this article investigates the overview of the main Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies that interfere in CX and in the managerial challenges behind the new consumption practices. To reach the proposed objective, the content analysis methodology was used to enable a logical and theoretical direction aiming to contribute to the academic literature about AI and the consumer experience. The string “customer experience” and “artificial intelligence” or “technology” and “omnichanel” and “marketing” and “online retail” was used to locate articles in the Web of Science database. The initial corpus consisted of 102 articles, with a final sampling of 39 articles. The results show that marketers have been increasingly driven by technological advances and this helps to understand the process of the entire journey of the customer with the company.A Experiência do Cliente, expressão traduzida do inglês Customer Experience – CX, vem sofrendo diversas influências, seja por novos métodos de relacionamento, comportamento de compra, fidelização de clientes, seja pelas mudanças que vêm ocorrendo no varejo. Neste contexto, a CX tem se tornado o principal desafio para estudos do marketing nos últimos anos. Para isso, este artigo investiga a visão geral a respeito das principais tecnologias de Inteligência Artificial (IA) que interferem na CX e nos desafios gerenciais por trás das novas práticas de consumo. Para alcançar o objetivo proposto, foi utilizada a metodologia de análise de conteúdo para possibilitar um direcionamento lógico e teórico visando contribuir com a literatura acadêmica a respeito da IA e da experiência do consumidor. Foi utilizada a string “customer experience” and “artificial intelligence” or “tecnology” and “omnichanel” and “marketing” and “online retail” para localizar artigos na base de dados Web of Science. O corpus inicial foi composto por 102 artigos, com amostragem final de 39 artigos. Os resultados mostram que os profissionais de marketing vem sendo cada vez mais impulsionados pelos avanços tecnológicos e isso auxilia no entendimento do processo de toda a jornada do cliente com a empresa

AN INTERNET OF THINGS–BASED APPROACH TO INNOVATE CANTEEN STORES DEPARTMENT’S RETAIL OPERATIONS

In a competitive business environment, retail organizations in the Western world are capitalizing on technological tools and solutions to enhance customer experience and boost sales. Specifically, retailers that adopt Internet of Things (IoT) technologies improve customer experience and achieve cost savings. Yet such innovation is rare outside the Western world. Hence, early adopters of IoT technologies in retail operations in Pakistan could gain a competitive advantage. This study aims to create a deeper understanding of how Pakistan-based Canteen Stores Department (CSD), a retail chain mainly serving service members and their families, can use IoT technologies to significantly modernize and improve its operations and distinguish itself from competitors. To do so, this study conducts a qualitative analysis of scholarly articles on the relevant technologies and on IoT-based products offered by commercial companies. The authors also include findings from discussions with CSD customers and management. The results of the study indicate CSD can use IoT technologies to optimize store layout, offer interactive in-store mapping, automate checkout systems, implement smart shelving and digital price tagging, improve in-store promotions, enhance customer relationship management, and modernize distribution, transportation, and warehousing. The study also offers CSD management guidance on how to implement IoT technologies into retail operations at one location as a pilot.Outstanding ThesisLieutenant Commander, Pakistan NavyWing Commander, Pakistan Air ForceLieutenant Colonel, Pakistan ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

New Concepts for Efficient Consumer Response in Retail Influenced by Emerging Technologies and Innovations

The retail industry is continuously confronted with new challenges and experiences a transformation from a supplier’s market to a buyer's market. It is, thus, essential for the retail industry to consequently focus on, anticipate and fulfil consumer’s demands. Technologies and innovative business solutions can help to support to establish a required customer experience and, thereby, gain a competitive advantage. A multitude of new services and products, channels as well as players can already be identified which drive the transformation. Therefore, retailers need to understand current trends and technologies and identify as well as implement relevant solutions for their transformation since otherwise, new players will dominate the market. Hence, this dissertation aims to review and analyse new technologies which are coupled with innovative business activities in order to provide customer-centric retailing. For this purpose, this dissertation consists of five articles and derives four major contributions which introduce different approaches to establishing consumer satisfaction. Firstly, a core technology for retail is artificial intelligence (AI) which can be meaningful applied along the entire value chain and improve retailers’ positions. Two focus areas have been identified in this context which are (i) the optimisation of the entire retail value chain with the help of AI with the aim to derive transparency and (ii) the improvement of consumer satisfaction and relationship. Secondly, focussing on the consumer-retailer relationship in the digital era, a concept with a data architecture is proposed based on a real use case. The outcome was that a specific customer orientation based on data can increase the brand value and sales volume. Thirdly, the work presents that new shopping concepts, named unmanned store concepts, gain continuous growth. Unmanned store concepts employ a variety of new technologies, are characterised by attributes of speed, ease, as well as comfort, and are deemed to be the new ideal of the expectations of modern buyers. Two different directions have been deeper analysed: (i) walk-in stores and (ii) automated vending machines. The critical success factors for the usage of unmanned store solutions are distance as well as high consumer affinity for innovations. In times of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has a huge impact on retail, a continuous innovation capability still needs to be established. Finally, this work introduces a tool for systematic innovation management considering the current circumstances. Taken as a whole, this dissertation with its five articles deals with significant research questions which have not been approached so far. Thereby, the literature is extended by the introduction of novel insights and the provision of a deeper understanding of how retailers can transform their business into a more consumer-oriented way

Deep learning for retail product recognition: challenges and techniques

Taking time to identify expected products and waiting for the checkout in a retail store are common scenes we all encounter in our daily lives. The realization of automatic product recognition has great significance for both economic and social progress because it is more reliable than manual operation and time-saving. Product recognition via images is a challenging task in the field of computer vision. It receives increasing consideration due to the great application prospect, such as automatic checkout, stock tracking, planogram compliance, and visually impaired assistance. In recent years, deep learning enjoys a flourishing evolution with tremendous achievements in image classification and object detection. This article aims to present a comprehensive literature review of recent research on deep learning-based retail product recognition. More specifically, this paper reviews the key challenges of deep learning for retail product recognition and discusses potential techniques that can be helpful for the research of the topic. Next, we provide the details of public datasets which could be used for deep learning. Finally, we conclude the current progress and point new perspectives to the research of related fields

Sustainable Value Co-Creation in Welfare Service Ecosystems : Transforming temporary collaboration projects into permanent resource integration

The aim of this paper is to discuss the unexploited forces of user-orientation and shared responsibility to promote sustainable value co-creation during service innovation projects in welfare service ecosystems. The framework is based on the theoretical field of public service logic (PSL) and our thesis is that service innovation seriously requires a user-oriented approach, and that such an approach enables resource integration based on the service-user’s needs and lifeworld. In our findings, we identify prerequisites and opportunities of collaborative service innovation projects in order to transform these projects into sustainable resource integration once they have ended

Society 5.0

This open access book introduces readers to the vision on future cities and urban lives in connection with “Society 5.0”, which was proposed in the 5th Basic Science and Technology Plan by Japan’s national government for a technology-based, human-centered society, emerging from the fourth industrial revolution. The respective chapters summarize the findings and suggestions of joint research projects conducted by H-UTokyo Lab. Through the research collaboration and discussion, this book explores the future urban lives under the concept of “Society 5.0”, characterized by the key phrases of data-driven society, knowledge-intensive society, and non-monetary society, and suggests the directionality to which the concept should aim as Japan’s technology-led national vision. Written by Hitachi’s researchers as well as academics from a wide range of fields, including engineering, economics, psychology and philosophy at The University of Tokyo, the book is a must read for members of the general public interested in urban planning, students, professionals and researchers in engineering and economics