Hello and thanks as always for reading. One of the
industries that has seen the most amazing technological changes is
the retail industry. To many people, stores haven’t changed
all that much....they are still a place to buy things you
need. However, this industry has done a great job in using
technology to improve the way that we shop, while finding ways to
reduce costs.
One common thing I find (being that
I work in the M2M field) is that the general public is quite
befuddled by the term M2M.....it doesn’t register with most
people. By showing how many of the things that they see each
day in retail stores are powered by M2M solutions, it makes it
easier to explain what I do for a living!
So, how has the introduction of M2M changed the face of
retail?
Many of us remember the commercial (I think from
IBM, drop me a
note if I am wrong!) where it looks like a young man is
shoplifting and about to be caught by a Loss Prevention officer,
only to have the officer stop the man and hand him his
receipt. This was definitely a forward-thinking
commercial, as self-checkouts and quick payment
solutions have become commonplace in retail.
This cool feature is enabled by a few key components:
First, there is some sort of scanning technology, whether it is
traditional bar-code, RFID, NFC or Bluetooth technology involved to
process the item.
Next, the transaction needs to be verified, so the information
is sent across the Internet to have the financial portion of the
transaction completed.
Finally, some sort of a receipt (whether printed or emailed)
has to be generated.
This is all done without the aid of a person, as the machines
handled all of the work!
To continue on the process listed in the scenario
above, many systems do not stop there when it comes to
technology. Real-time inventory management
applications have become commonplace, to ensure that the shelf does
not stay empty for long. The key facts of the
transaction (which location, which item/SKU and how many) are
instantly uploaded to an Inventory Management solution, which uses
this information to make important, real-time decisions about the
level of required inventory.
There once was a time when the only thing that you
were able to buy in vending machines / kiosks was junk food and
questionably fresh coffee! Now, vending machines
are becoming mini-stores, thanks to many benefits of
M2M! By increasing the value of the items that
are sold in machines, companies had to take a few extra things into
consideration, such as:
Since these items are not “reactionary” purchases, the
placement of the kiosk took on an entirely new level of
importance. Vendors needed to be able to place the machine in
EXACTLY the correct spot, without necessarily thinking about the
location of the nearest landline.
Inventory management became much more important, as the
financial impact of a loss item is much more on a $200 set of
headphones vs. a can of pop. It also became more important to
refresh popular items, due to the possible amount of lost
revenue.
Since many of these items are not as reactionary and the demand
is not as real-time as in the past (i.e. when you are thirsty, you
don’t think twice about buying a drink, but you may think twice
about buying headphones on the road when you have some at home), it
was imperative that the proper advertising was done. This
included the addition of Advertising terminal (see below for more
details) and personalized service.
Finally, a higher level of security is involved in these
transactions, since many of them involved the use of credit or
debit cards.
Wireless M2M solutions have provided these vendors with
increased flexibility in placement of the units, a reliable and
secure method of processing transactions and enough bandwidth to
quickly send new video to increase traffic.
One of the fastest growing trends in the financial
space is explosion in the use of credit and debit cards to complete
transactions. It has now gotten to the point where fewer and
fewer people carry a significant amount of cash on them. This
had led to a dilemma.....how do retailers who are not able to use
traditional landline services offer these payment options to their
customers, and if they do not, will their sales
suffer? Mobile Point of Sale systems have
allowed many mobile vendors the ability to offer commonly used
services to maintain / grow their business. It is
now commonplace to be able to pay by credit or debit card for
transactions such as home delivery services, taxis and
flea/farmer’s markets. This has helped to continue the need
for consumers to use their preferred method in more places, further
strengthening the growth in credit and debit card use. This
technology breakthrough only became possible when these solutions
were able to use cellular networks that offered them the wide
coverage areas, available bandwidth and high levels of security to
process these transactions.
With the increasing growth of credit and debit cards,
it also increases the importance of having a reliable
connection. As customers begin to carry less and less cash on
their person, the likelihood of being able to complete transactions
with cash during times when the network connection goes down become
rare. Many companies are using high-speed
wireless connections to provide a reliable and real-time backup for
key Internet connections. Not only does it
provide a great redundant connection for financial transaction
processing, it is equally valuable to provide a backup for in-bound
orders that may be received on the Internet. These include
e-commerce transactions, as well as orders being received from the
Internet, such as food orders and orders for electronics, that will
be picked up at the retail store.
So, are M2M solutions only good once the consumer is
in the store? Based on the incredible growth in
Mobile Marketing, such as Digital signage, QR Codes and
Bluetooth-based marketing, that’s hardly the
case. These solutions allow for much
more focused advertising, as well as the ability for consumers to
become “engaged” with the medium, through the desire to receive
special coupons. These forms of advertising have proven to be
much more cost-effective in certain demographics when compared to
media that is all about one-way messaging – i.e. static billboards,
TV and print.
Finally, as a way to get to know their customers
better (and to gain advantages over their competitors), progressive
retailers are using Intelligent video systems to study
the pattern of customer traffic to better optimize displays and
store layouts. Based on similar technology that
airports have used to be notified about bags left unattended,
retailers are noting the path that certain consumers take, the
amount of time that they spend in front of certain displays and
what parts they seemed to have the most interest in. This
allows them to receive real-time information as to the
effectiveness of a layout or display, and to make quick changes in
minutes, instead of weeks.
As always, thanks for reading, and let Novotech know how they
can help you with your M2M solution! You can speak to one of our
M2M Experts by calling 1-800-268-8628.