Robots (or real live human beings with smart phones) strolling the aisles taking photos — that’s the most common current usage of one kind of technology in retail grocery, said Gary Hawkins, founder and CEO of the Center for Advancing Retail and Technology.
They’re trying to collect shelf data — out of stocks, pricing errors, other inventory info, whether their sets are in compliance with planograms and other standards.
Some retailers — Walmart, for instance — are getting a little more adventurous, leveraging AR and VR for training purposes — “and they’ve had good success,” Hawkins said.
But for the most part, adoption of AR and VR has been relatively low in retail grocery.
That, Hawkins said, is about to change.
“Yes, it’s going to happen. The first thing is, retailers need to understand what’s really happening here. Retailers, for the most part, have been focused on collecting data. The bigger picture is: What they should be focused on is creating a digital twin of their store — where products are, are they out of stock, pricing, all of that.”
Collecting data — the work of those aisle-roaming robots and their human counterparts — is important, but much more of its needs be collected, and at much faster speeds.
Enhancing — not replacing — employees
Hawkins cited one company, Augmodo, that’s taking this next, necessary step. The company is currently partnering with Chemist Warehouse, Australia’s largest pharmacy retailer. Chemist Warehouses employees have cameras attached to the lanyards of their employee badges — Augmodo calls them SmartBadges.
As employees go about their normal duties around the store, their badges are constantly capturing the same data as the robot and human aisle strollers. But they’re doing it much more often, and while they’re doing other jobs.
“It’s a massive amount of data at a tiny fraction of the cost of robots,” Hawkins said.
With their SmartBadges, employees are able to instantly capture invaluable shelf information multiple times per day and cut down on tedious, time-consuming tasks, said Mark Finocchiaro, Chemist Warehouse’s managing partner.
“Our retail associates are our best assets, and they have critical job responsibilities on store floors, such as selecting ecommerce orders, stocking shelves, updating promotions and assisting customers. That’s why we’ve aligned with Augmodo.”
Associates don’t want extra tasks, said Ross Finman, Augmodo’s founder and CEO. Augmodo helps them remove tedious tasks while at the same time making associates more valuable to their companies.
“While we track inventory and shelf conditions today, we’re building out a spatial AI assistant. So they actually have less work to do but have more time to spend elsewhere, like helping customers.”
Most AI / robotics technology, Finman said, is designed to replace people. Augmodo is there to “enhance” them. The company believes it adds two years of experience to every retail associate, so as soon as they start, they “know” where products are, the pitfalls of the store, etc.
“Our data is going through and they’re getting real-time notifications to help them be even better at their job. We monitor the state of the store, tracking products across supply chains in large, physical retailers, building better, more accurate shelf inventory, which in turn helps retailers and brands save millions of dollars in auditing and stocking and other errors.”
SmartBadges are currently being tested at several stores and brands, Finman said. The company is pleased with the feedback it’s gotten.
“We haven’t had any consumer pushback so far. We’re just launching in stores so we’re hoping to have more customer feedback soon. And employees also have been very open and receptive because Augmodo is helping them do their job.”
No one, he said, likes counting shelves and doing inventory. Augmodo is making their lives easier by helping them save time, track inventory and collect shelf data, cutting down on tedious tasks without requiring any additional training.
“Everyone is blown away by the frequency of data. Our partners are loving being able to address problems with the supply chain, order more frequently, and help associates find products better.”
At one retailer, for instance, Augmodo has been able to identify empty shelf duration, thousands of unique product gaps and hundreds out of stock products, while informing the retailer that over 75% of those out of stocks can be filled (the product is available in the back room or supply chain).
That all happened in one week of trial.
Putting consumers first
The second phase of wider adoption of AR/VR, Hawkins said, is consumer-centric. It’s already begun in the non-food retail world at places like IKEA, where you can use AR on your phone to see how a couch on the showroom floor would look in your living room.
It’s set to explode, Hawkins said, when the next generation of smart glasses enters the consumer mainstream.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has already revealed its new smart glasses. In the next two years or less, expect similar next-gen eyewear from the Googles and Samsungs of the world — “all the big guys,” as Hawkins puts it.
These new smart glasses, tethered to users’ smart phones, will provide a “digital overlay” when they walk into a grocery store or other retail store.
As you walk the aisles, items on your shopping list will light up or jump off the shelf virtually on your glasses’ screen. Or maybe the store’s app has helped you create a health profile, and as you walk the store, gluten-free foods, for example, might light up in your field of vision.
“Or take it a step further,” Hawkins said. “Imagine you’re in the produce department, you pass a display of sweet corn and your glasses launch a short video of the farm where the corn comes from. Or you’re in the seafood department and a recipe pops up with a recipe for swordfish. Think how that will transform the physical shopping experience for consumers.”
Another example from the fresh perimeter: you’re approaching the cheese counter, and a deli clerk’s glasses light up. Knowing who you are from the app on your phone, and therefore knowing your shopping history, the clerk approaches with a wine pairing suggestion.
But will consumers be on board with this big change?
“I think that with any new consumer technology, it’s a simple value proposition — what do I get, what do I give up,” Hawkins said.
Giving up privacy is certainly a concern for many if not most consumers, he said. But companies have come up with ways of mitigating that and are always thinking of new ones. For instance, some cameras scanning shelves to create the “store twin” have the capability of blocking out shoppers’ faces.
Exponential growth
On the “what do I get” side, the “utility and value proposition of providing a digital overlay of the world around us,” as Hawkins phrases it, will be a strong incentive for consumers to accept augmented reality at retail.
Meanwhile, retailers who have been skeptical about the cost of adding aisle-roaming robots should be much more open to the less expensive, and potentially much more useful, technologies that are coming.
“Leveraging data, reducing out of stocks, finding ways to monetize — there are a lot of benefits that are going to come out of this.”
Retailers who are interested in riding this coming wave, Hawkins added, have to make sure they don’t miss it. The word he uses to define the current rate of innovation is “exponential.”
“Things are happening much faster than we expected them to. If retailers wait too long, their competitors will be further up and out on that curve. The old way of doing things is not going to work.”
Up to this point, Finman said, AR and VR in retail grocery has been more targeted to specific problems, and the impact on the fresh space has been minimal.
That said, much of the AI development occurring now has all kinds of potential applications.
Contextual AI, spatial computing and visual search are among the technologies “driving a tremendous amount of resources into computer vision tech and AI assistants,” which are directly applicable to retail, Finman said.
Spatial Computing, for instance, is about connecting digital bits to physical atoms. Retail is connecting those atoms to money, so a lot of the business models are naturally in the commerce/retail space.
“Retailers and consumers are coming around to ideas of AI assistants for people, creating an augmented workforce that does not replace people, but enhances their roles,” Finman said.
Like Hawkins, Finman cites Walmart as one of the retail pioneers.
Walmart has trialed VR for employee training, VR is used for consumer behavior studies for planograms (incontext, 365), AR is used for CPG sales for displays in stores (Hersheys and many others) and AR/Heads up Displays are being used in warehouses for hands-free efficiencies and more.
“These use cases will grow to enhance every person in every store,” Finman said.
Augmodo Smartbadges, he added, offer an easy / passive way for retailers to see ROI today through out of stock detection, planogram compliance, promotion compliance, and more.
Augmodo is currently deployed or is piloting in chains with hundreds of stores in partnership with top brands worldwide, and more are expected in 2025.
The future of AR and VR in grocery retail lies in improving in-store shopping experiences, said Finman said.
For instance, more and more retailers will have apps with up-to-date product location information.
Longer term, with technologies like smart glasses from Apple, Meta, Google and others will provide a seamless hands-free shopping experience. Imagine navigation of your shopping list, having a gluten free filter, or realtime promotions/couponing
Just as AI is changing knowledge work, spatial computing is going to change physical work, and retail has the largest physical workforce and physical data problems, Finman said.
“Spatial computing technology is going to disproportionally disrupt the retail world.”