Retail and Internet of Things: A Digital Transformation

Introduction

The advent of internet give rise to technological advance world and Internet of things is the new buzz terminology which is used for machine to machine connectivity. The internet of things is shaping almost all business sectors and retailing is one of them making retailing smarter beyond our imagination. Internet of things is a combination of artificial intelligence and machine learning making the collected data useful for the marketers. One best example of IoT is at your home fridge reminding you about milk requirement and controlling your air conditioner while sitting at office. Internet of things will prove disruptive to the retail industry (Gregory, 2015). Internet of things has a strong impact on retailing and retailers are now focusing on providing better in store shopping experience for the customers making it much more unique, efficient and of course profitable as IoT offers the ability to interact with both devices and people which further provides information on brand performance, present and potential customers, customer engagement, introducing new product, store layout optimization. Companies like American Apparel, Kroger, Tesco, Wal-Mart has been using robotics, RFID tags for enhanced customer service and brand experience. Digital technologies have opened the doors of availability of diverse and rich information for the customers and the way it can be accessed on multiple devices. The prevailing competition has given customers a lot of choice to choose from. Digital transformation provides various tools to analyze these vast choices like business analytics and other predictive tools which helps retailers to understand customers and framing marketing strategies accordingly. Every customer is different and wants to access the information in their own way as consumers are more aware about all the possibilities, thus digital retailing provides different channels to choose from like physical store, online store, social media platform and mobile communications as well. IoT assists customers and salesperson to locate goods where stores are equipped with sensors which lowers down the requirement of sales staff as the details can be provided on digital display. IoT proved very helpful in delivering the right product at right time ensuring maintained condition from shipment to arrival. It also aids in saving energy and costs, helps businesses to save money as the technology enabled devices can automatically keeps check on wastage. IoT in retail has witnessed strong shift in consumption, shopping behavior. According to Capgemini, 2020 report, 69% percent of consumers overall – and more than 80% of consumers in China and India – prefer to shop with retailers who are using automation and believe that automation can be the solution for the problems experienced while shopping in store.