Stop the Steal: Smart Stores Help Brands Meet Consumers in New Settings

Inventory keeps retailers in business. Inventory keeps consumers loyal to their preferred to merchants. Inventory makes impulse buying possible and keeps sales flowing.

Inventory has also, for a long time, been a bit of a hit-or-miss proposition — merchants might have too much stock on hand, languishing on shelves, ripe for markdowns. Or there might be too little on hand, which would send disappointed customers to the nearest competitor. In at least some cases, and notably so during recent years and with the rise of self-checkout, theft depletes inventory.

In fact, studies have shown that a significant percentage of consumers have admitted to using self-checkout kiosks to aid them in their stealing; locked-up inventory, on the other hand, tends to discourage shopping — and, certainly, browsing, which depends on a tactile experience. You can’t examine a new shaving cream’s ingredients, for example, if it’s sequestered behind an alarmed sheet of plastic.

In the report recently done in collaboration between PYMNTS Intelligence and Cantaloupe, “Overcoming Retail Challenges: Smart Stores to the Rescue,” we found that with the rise of “smart stores,” which connect security and analytics, the state of inventory management improves, and keeping the right goods in stock, and on hand, becomes more science than art.

“Next-gen self-service commerce is redrawing the boundaries of conventional retail, enabling businesses to embed commerce directly within consumer environments and capture previously inaccessible market opportunities,” PYMNTS wrote.

Underpinning it all — and especially where inventory has been concerned — artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and even weighted shelf sensors, have improved record keeping in terms of the items that are in demand (or are not).

These advanced technologies such as those found in Cantaloupe’s Smart Stores, which include weighted-shelf technology and built-in tracking cameras, help keep an eye on which items are being sold with 99% accuracy. IoT-enabled systems, which enable data to cross a broad range of devices and anticipate which inventory needs to be replaced — and when — weave real-time visibility into inventory levels.

There’s the ability, too, to adjust pricing in order to help boost consumer interest in buying an item (and thus render inventory management more efficient). As a result, there’s the dual satisfaction, on the part of the merchant, of avoiding stockouts and increasing sales.

The data show that self-service retailers can recalibrate stock allocations and product assortments with precision and in a fluid manner as consumers’ tastes change — and the proof is in the top line. Surveys of the Smart Store metrics show that early adopters of these solutions have already reported an average 30% increase in sales relative to pre-implementation levels.

There’s also the reduced operational cost tied to staff — better inventory management means that less time and money, in terms of back-room and shelf-stocking efforts, must be expended just to keep products available.

The convergence of smarter technologies in the service of retail has improved commerce even in settings that might not be conventionally thought of as retail. Consider the example where, as PYMNTS Intelligence and Cantaloupe found, a college campus, after replacing vending machines with Smart Stores drove a more than 250% weekly increase in sales. Revenues surged, from $450–$600 to $1,600 per week. Restocking efficiency was just as compelling, with a restocking time of only 1.5 minutes per Smart Store unit.

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