The Top 3 Retail Technology Trends of 2018

Retail continues to grow and change every day. Advances are made with new retail technologies and they are making their into our homes, our stores, and online.

These advances will reshape the way we think about shopping and how we perform the act of shopping as well. We have already seen significant changes in the way people buy items from stores.

What are these changes?

Take curbside pickup, for instance. Retail grocery stores now give you the ability to do all of your shopping online. You can simply drive to the store, park, and have your grocery bags delivered right to your car without having to step foot into the actual store.

Other stores allow you can scan your items with a special scanner as you shop so you can checkout as you go along and don’t have to wait in a checkout line.

With these changes on retail shopping so far, we can only expect they are going to continue to grow and improve, even if we don’t exactly know what the future holds.

In the post, we will explore the top 3 retail technology trends of 2018 and how they are likely to affect your shopping experience now and in the future.

#1 – Personalization is Everywhere

In today’ world, shoppers area all about personalization and having everyday life experiences and products specifically tailored to them. The cool thing is stores can make your shopping experience personal as well.

How is this possible?

With the use of beacons, mPOS, near-field communication, and Bluetooth, it is all possible.

These forms of technology allow stores to know exactly who you are when you walk into a store. Since the store knows your name, the store can then send relevant information right to your phone to help guide you through your shopping experience.

On your phone, messages about sales, products you might like, and special coupons are right at your fingertips, so you can find the products you love, get the best deals, and find new items to try based on your personalized suggestions.

#2 – The Internet of Things

Since IoT has been on the rise, and with so many products and devices connected to the internet, this retail tech trend is running wild and is most certainly here to stay.

Take something as basic as a shopping cart.

Imagine it were to get a tech makeover and be loaded with all of the bells and whistles you could ever want to make your shopping experience fun and hassle-free.

What would you get?

A GPS enabled shopping cart.

This shopping cart of the future would allow shoppers to upload their shopping list right to the cart. From there, the cart would recognize the items and direct customers to where the items are in the store and what items or brands are on sale.

Customers could also pay for their items from their shopping cart so there is no more standing in checkout lines or wasting any time in the store.

Electronic shelf tags will also pop up in your local retail stores at a more frequent rate as well. The printed tag that tell you how much an item costs will be a thing of the past. New electronic tags will allow the store to change prices, show customers which items are on sale, and more all through the internet, so there is no longer a need to manually change them.

This will save time, paper, and trees. Greener and more environmentally friendly instore practices may not be a direct retail technology trend, but it is surely something everyone can support!

We can expect to see many more ways that IoT can transform the retail space. IoT is one of the fastest growing forms of technology today and with more connected devices than ever before, we are excited to see what the future holds.

#3 – Facial Recognition

Although this retail trend is not likely to show its face in your local supermarket tomorrow, we have seen movement towards the incorporation of facial recognition in stores recently.

Essentially, facial recognition would help retailers better understand their customers and their preferences by their facial expressions. Facial recognition in stores would be able to track where people tend to flock in stores. From there information is collected such as demographics, why people gravitate to certain areas, and it can even help to prevent theft.

If a store is able to find where people first walk to in their store, they can design a more effective store layout to attract customers to their most popular products and to sell more and make more profit as well.

Final Thoughts

These top 3 retail technology trends are making their way into our local stores quickly. As the months progress, we will only see these three concepts become more advanced and more popular.

From smart shopping carts with GPS to a store that can recognize your face, our world is changing rapidly – and for the better.

Keep your eyes peeled for fun new tech in your local stores!