Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Package Predicament - No More
By Ned Hill, Position Imaging
Mutations of
the COVID virus coupled with office workers who continue working from home will
test the limits of e-commerce fulfillment even further in 2022. Prior to the
pandemic and the universal acceptance of working remotely, managers and staff
at multi-family dwellings were already struggling to protect and process the
incoming packages for residents. Backrooms, even closet spaces were made into
ad hoc holding areas while management waited for residents to inquire about
deliveries. Over the last year and a half, e-commerce purchases have
dramatically increased to a breaking point at these multi-family dwellings. Already strained to process this kind of
package volume, buildings can no longer process and secure the sheer volume of
items hitting the lobby on a daily basis.
Managers
attempted to streamline package management by embracing lockers to hold the
incoming items. However, this soon proved to be ineffective because many
packages did not fit into the lockers, causing property managers to revert to
self-storage and manual resident notifications. The more effective solution
became the smart room, where couriers access secure rooms, scan
packages, and place them on open shelves where computer vision keeps an eye on
them. Automatic text or email notifications are sent to residents allowing them
to use a QR code to enter the room where audio prompts and lights guide them to
their exact package location or notify them if the wrong package is taken, all
without staff.
Due to the
improved security, significantly decreased staff intervention, and simple 24/7
resident retrieval process, these smart rooms realized a dramatic increase in
multi-family housing deployments. We predict that this trend will continue
throughout 2022 to the extent that this type of package management solution will
become an apartment amenity in the same manner as residents expect to have
internet, WiFi, and cable TV.
A Retail Renaissance
Retail stores
struggling with a lack of employees will turn to Artificial Intelligence (AI)
and transform the once bane of their existence-product returns-into a new
competitive differentiator. 2022 will find that store return experiences are more streamlined and, through the use of
AI, actually offer intuitive sales options not available at the initial time of
purchase.
The pandemic
forced a contactless shopping experience in 2020 and Buy Online Pickup In Store (BOPIS) solutions were
embraced by most retail locations. 2022 will expand upon BOPIS
experiences to also include returning merchandise-with a twist. Leveraging
smart shelving, merchants will allow customers to scan the tags or receipts of
items to be returned and simply place them on the shelf where the computer
vision will monitor the returned product status. Once scanned, the AI will go
to work reviewing the customer's past purchases and instantly suggest other
items based on the shopper's profile. The intuitive system will also administer
coupons for similar products, enticing the customer to enter the store for
possible new purchases.
The 2022
byproduct of all this automation is that retailers will be better equipped to
stay in tune with fluctuating consumer preferences. Even at the moment of return, retailers will
be able to use AI to automatically cross-sell products that are appropriate to
that individual shopper. With these future features, retail stores will be able
to efficiently transform returns into a new shopping experience and profit
center.
In addition to contactless requirements,
another challenge that has emerged from the pandemic is a labor shortage in the
retail market. The shortage is partly due to the labor force's changing
preferences about their work environments and partly because of the types of
work they are now interested in pursuing.
This shortage, in addition to the slowing brick and mortar sales, has
forced retailers to do more with less and find other methods to improve their
bottom line. Less staff doing more for
sales means they can raise salaries or increase benefits to attract skilled
labor focused on customers, not fulfillment. In 2022, retailers will stop
having employees do "dumb jobs" by leveraging more smart technologies such
as AI to manage the mundane tasks that don't add to the bottom line and that
employees don't want to do anyway. By
managing the dumb jobs with technology, they will optimize store operations
while simultaneously requiring less human interaction. Less human interaction can reduce the
employee headcount (giving employers the option of increasing the salaries) or
enable stores to focus staff on selling, not on something that doesn't add to
the store's profitability. Necessity is the mother of invention and retail
locations will discover more automated and AI processes that will enable them
to fill the employment gap with technology while strengthening the workforce
and improving their customers' shopping experience.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ned Hill is the founder and CEO
of
Position Imaging (PI), a
pioneer in the field of advanced tracking technologies. Under Ned's strategic
vision and guidance, PI has developed an industry leading tracking solution,
utilized computer vision and laser guidance to simplify item delivery, and
created unique AI-based technologies. These combine to improve logistics
efficiency and continuous visibility to items at any stage in the process. Ned has
raised close to 20 million in funding, driven product development, and created
a partner ecosystem of industry leaders in hardware (Hitachi-LG Data Storage,
Intel), software (Microsoft, Salesforce), solutions (Zebra, Lozier), and
service (Bell and Howell). Ned is the inventor or co-inventor of over 50
patents/patent applications and a speaker at industry conferences including
CES, Live Free and Start, and at MIT.