Move fast and stay flexible

The past decade has seen massive change in the world of retail. With new technologies like AI-powered insights, omnichannel journeys joined across online, mobile and instore, and digitised payments proving potentially transformative, the speed of innovation has brought both opportunities and risk.

Where some technologies quickly become essential, others may struggle to deliver and prove a costly burden. To thrive in this fast-paced environment, retailers need to be agile and able to pivot and refine their technologies depending on their developing needs. From incorporating data insights to testing and monitoring new tech, it is flexibility and thoughtful implementations that are key to long-term success.

We investigated some of the emerging technologies that are proving promising for keeping up with the speed of retail:

Transformative transactions
Small, hidden RFID tags are already being used by retailers like Decathlon and Uniqlo to simplify self-checkouts, allowing customers to scan multiple items at once at enabled kiosks. This reduces frustrations from misidentified items and helps combat theft as tags are disabled upon payment. AI-powered smart carts with built-in screens and navigation tools are also transforming grocery shopping, providing personalised experiences and streamlining the in-store journey with interactive, onscreen information. While promising and currently trialled by Walmart and Kroger in the US, smart carts don’t offer the same type of interaction as a human associate, highlighting the importance of retaining a choice of interaction for customers with different needs and preferences. The same goes for RFID kiosks, where it is vital to offer alternative payment options to cater to customer preferences, rather than going all-in on unmanned solutions.

The cloud: accelerating retail agility
Cloud computing has become a game-changer in enabling fast, cost-effective technology adoption. Unlike traditional infrastructures that required significant time and capital investment, cloud-based systems allow retailers to test, deploy and scale innovations quickly. By adopting a cloud-first strategy, retailers can enable iterative rollouts, avoiding massive disruptions and costly mistakes to embrace innovation without compromising operational stability or resilience.

Data: empowering speedy associates
Data is at the heart of understanding customer behaviour and adapting new implementations to ensure technology returns on its promises. By analysing customer responses, preferences and trends, retailers can fine-tune their offerings and ensure a superior shopping experience. Technologies like AI and facial recognition can provide insights into consumer behaviour, helping retailers adjust inventory, as well as allowing associates to perform increasingly flexible roles that deliver a responsive service, whether customers desire a quick, automated checkout or a more hands-on, engaging experience.

Partnering for practical, flexible change
Retailers face huge pressure to evolve quickly while maintaining profitability and customer loyalty. Change is essential but navigating the complexities of implementation, scalability and customer experience can be a tough challenge.

This is where Flooid comes in. With more than 40 years of experience helping global brands adopt and optimise retail technology, Flooid provides the tools and expertise retailers need to make the decisions that work best for them. Our composable unified commerce platform allows businesses to experiment, adapt and implement solutions at their own pace, while our open API system combined with A/B testing capability enables greater flexibility ensures that changes are rolled out to a controlled sample, minimising potential disruptions. From curated data analytics offerings to empowering associates with real-time data, our cloud-based solutions make innovation faster and more effective.

To find out how to ready your business for future changes and the ways that Flooid can offer a tailored approach to help you achieve your objectives, download our Speed of Retail white paper.