AI
Other more positive applications of AI technology in the retail sector identified by Rushton, included demand planning, price optimisation and wastage control.
The ability of AI to crunch vast pools of data in order to find useful patterns and make recommendations in these areas could be very beneficial.
Such analytics end uses, and indeed in other fields, are proliferating in retail as the power of AI data interrogation becomes more and more evident. Inventory management and labelling are other prominent end uses.
“The shrinkage issue is problematic for us,” said Paul Sims, Chief Architect, Primark, and indeed for everyone, as he went on to point out that the Co-op chain of small grocery stores across the UK lost £70 million last year due to crime.
He was most interested in AI applications in:
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Product lifecycle management: where AI machine learning could be useful in the design process and in forecasting demand, so that stock can be suitably inventoried.
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Better personalisation: should be possible thanks to more powerful analytical capabilities, the overcoming of silos and so on.
RFID
Simon Pakenham-Walsh, Chief Information Officer at River Island, which has 240 stores across the UK, is looking forward to refocusing on physical locations, after a period building out its digital platform and experience. Technology is still relevant in this arena too, of course.
“Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and readers can better integrate the in-store and digital experience for example, in the future,” he said.
“We have already deployed RFID very successfully on our stock,” added Pakenham-Walsh, pointing to significant successes at River Island, such as:
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Stock availability rising from 78% to 90% after the introduction of RFID.
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The size gap fell from 8% to 1% inaccuracy, due to better stock oversight.
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A 3% uplift in sales was also achieved because stock was always in.
Integrating technology
Whatever project the panellists, or indeed peers at RTS 2024, want to pursue will always require integration into the operations and processes of the host firm.
Aligning people, process and technology is what delivers transformational change – not just plugging in a new widget.
Better stock impacts sales, as does enhanced data-led customer experiences, and so on and so on. “It’s all connected,” said Primark’s Sims.
The why question was recommended by Nina Mimica, Chief Innovation Officer at Studenac Market, as a good starting point for any proposed technology project. Ask yourself before any installation: “Why do you want it, to what end?,” she asked.
Sage advice for the hundreds of attendees packing out the Headline Theatre at RTS 2024. Technology is not an end goal in itself. It’s a tool to get a desired outcome.
Keeping that outcome in view is always good practice if you want a successful project.
