Sphere No.43 (Oct 2017)

>> SPHERE #43 2017 21 INNOVATION MAN + MACHINE = ULTIMATE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE! brilliant misquote of Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens), “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” describes to a tee the state of in-store retailing. Retail oracles conjure up visions of a future where our slightest whims will be answered by an Alexa-type device which reads our minds and whisks to our homes the objects of our desire. The fact remains, however, that stores are still where the vast majority of people find delight and satisfaction when fulfilling their needs. This is true due to one simple fact. People love shopping. Not like. Love. They love getting out of their homes and going to stores to shop. A vast array of new technologies is changing retail. But A SWatson Group hasn’t lost sight of the fact that it’s all about people. More than staring at their phones, they like taking objects off a shelf, examining them, and making a decision. They like to taste, to try on, to see, to hear and to feel before they buy. Across Asia and Europe, A S Watson Group (ASW) is in touch with this reality, with staff meeting people every day in over 13,500 outlets. However, the retail group hasn’t gotten this far by standing in the past. Technology ranges from that which is front and centre to the ghost in the machine. Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don’t. Like a great magician, most of the work happens behind the scenes until the great reveal that delights and excites. For different people, in different outlets, online and offline, many different technologies and new management approaches have revolutionised the common human experience of shopping. HANDS-ON, BUT CASHIER-FREE One of the stranger experiences for those older shoppers (over say, 25) will be the possibility of cashierless shopping in the future. The pangs of unearned guilt they may feel from walking into a store, furtively filling a bag and then walking out ‘without paying’ may be the strangest of shopping experiences! For younger shoppers, this may become an unremarkable part of a normal life as far back as they can remember – like mobile phones for millennials. Bobby Ho, Head of Group IT Asia of ASW, is working on the wide range of technologies that need to be deployed to make this new way of shopping possible. A