With the onset of COVID-19, the impact on industries such as retail has been massive. Retailers are now looking towards solutions such as Internet of Things (IoT) to innovate and become more competitive in a rapidly changing market. IoT allows for improved efficiency through automation, letting retailers know when stock needs to be refilled or when malfunctioning equipment requires maintenance. In addition, it can help improve customer experience by providing access to personalized product recommendations and faster checkout processes.
COVID-19 has brought upon a change of pace in the retail industry, forcing businesses to connect to customers and provide services remotely. This push and focus towards online technology sets up a base for more advanced IoT technology and services.
At the core is collecting data from customers and understanding customer trends, which, as written in Analytics Insight, result in “personalized discounts, supply chain optimization, in-store layout optimization”.
Specific to the payments portion of retail, touchless NFC payments, touchless biometric payment authorization such as using customer voice prints at the POS to authorize payments, and automated document authorization for front line worker discounts are all solutions that benefit the retail industry greatly.
Overview by David Nelyubin, Research Analyst at Mercator Advisory Group