Leverage robots for the future of retail

Western retailers may take some time to feel the pressure to deploy robots and automated distribution centers, while Chinese retailers are quick to set up fully automated stores within 10 years. Measures have already been taken.

Richard Liu, JD.com’s big boss, said the reason is that Chinese shoppers have ever-changing demands, while American and European shoppers offer satisfactory service retailers. He said it was because he tended to be more loyal to the vendor.

Chinese customers are always looking for new ones. It becomes more and more attractive to them when combined with quick delivery.

But loyalty aside, the reality is that the rise of robots cannot be stopped. In fact, they are already pervasive in a variety of industries, including retail (automobiles, healthcare, games).

Whether consumers and retailers accept it, they must witness a robot-driven industry before they know it.

This is also evident in the expansion methods used by online retailers. Also, many online shops have machine learning, voice recognition, especially chatbots.

“Sooner or later, our entire industry will be run by AI (artificial intelligence) and robots, not humans,” said Richard Liu at the annual World Retail Conference in Madrid, Spain. ..

But the future of retail depends on so much constant innovation that it will soon take another decade for the industry and consumers to prepare for machine-powered stores, he added. This ultimately leads to cost savings and a better customer experience, he said.

This statement, which came from the head of a company that owns a fully automated warehouse and uses drones and robots to deliver packages, does not seem to require more compelling documentation.

However, major retailers sharing Liu’s views, such as Shop Direct and Marks & Spencer, have actually announced the dismissal of staff as they are ready to automate their distribution centers, while other retailers have been fierce. I was against it.

Among them is Tom Athlon, Group Development Director of John Lewis. He believes that one cannot work without the other. He emphasized that the combined power of robots and humans cannot make the industry stronger than ever.

“Human and machine together are always stronger than their own machines and humans themselves. If consumers don’t want a human touch in retail, we’re really in trouble as an industry,” he said. Said.

Automation is considered in the day-to-day business of business because it can perform everyday tasks faster than humans, but it lacks the quality that exists only in the empathy of the human mind.

Fast delivery is not the lifeline of retail, but customers are the lifeline. Therefore, the lack of human interaction is likely to kill retailers with cold blood, and only robots witness the death.

Do you think the world is ready to witness it?