How Are Robotics and Automation Fated for The Retail Industry?

The innovations of robotics and automation have disrupted many industries but especially in the retail market, its impact is more than one could imagine. The day is not far when this market will adopt the maximum number of robots for most of its operations. From logistics to merchandising its impact is multi-dimensional. To be at par with the rising relevance of robots in the market, a number of retail companies are approaching various methods to expand their business prospects. • Amazon has a great collection of robots at its warehouses to meet order demands. • Retailer Best Buy collaborated with PaR Systems in order to introduce an automated system known as Chloe. • Robots from Bossa Nova Robotics have been deployed in around 50 stores of Walmart. • Lowe’s along with Fellow Robots created an in-store bot called the LoweBot. This bot helps in assisting people with locating items in the store. The surge in robot-application in retail surely promises for a great transformation that the industry would embrace forever which implies that regardless of various challenging circumstances the technology is here to stay. Georges F Mirza, PMC, expressed his excitement for the robot-enabled transformation of the retail industry in his article “Proof robots in retail are here to stay.” He quoted that, “this is all encouraging to me; seeing the renewed excitement and spotlight on retail technologies. Regardless of where investment money currently is, brick or click, it is all connected and shows that brick is here to stay, and robots are part of its future.” According to him, robots have the ability to accurately, repeatedly and autonomously, function in retail stores by processing collected data and solving real business problems with different degrees of success and reliability. When it comes to automation, its promises are even more engaging as it saves labor and labor cost, enhances productivity and customer engagement. It also tends to reduce the cost to consumers of reaching out to a market which subsequently means that more and more people can afford to make a purchase. Even the IT departments of retail companies nowadays, use RPA bots that can facilitate people in call centers with better service prospects. It also allows the staff to connect to people’s queries at the backend to respond to them instantly. According to a report, the Retail Robotics market was valued at US$ 4.78 billion in 2018 globally and is expected to witness a growth of around 31.9 percent from 2019-2026 to reach the mark of US$ 41.67 billion by 2026. It has also been revealed by a report that the global retail automation market was valued at US$18.37 billion in 2018 and it is expected to grow at a profitable CAGR of 8.60 percent from 2019 to 2025. Automation and robots, undoubtedly, help retailers achieve consistency and error-free work eliminating the manual human input in most of the cases. This consistency further helps in brand building, gaining and retaining customers while reducing prevailing operational expenses. Best of both the technologies provide the small, medium and large businesses the opportunity to stay relevant and updated with their efficiency in the market where they will be able to compete with others with a technological edge. All these benefits and futuristic trends clearly imply that automation and robotics are here to stay and transform the retail industry for better.