■ The pandemic changed shopping, And that transformation is “just the beginning.”
Pandemic forced marriage of tech advances, consumption
Many Americans discovered new ways to shop in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered stores and kept people at home.
Those changes will stick around long after the virus subsides, industry experts say.
“The operative word for 2021 will be ‘contactless shopping,’ and it will be a continuation of what we saw last year,” said Robin Raskin, founder of Solving for Tech and moderator of CES 2021’s “Retail’s New Look: Shoppers’ Little Helpers” panel Wednesday.
Consumers accustomed to minimal contact will likely want those options post-pandemic, including contactless mobile payment offerings like Venmo or Paypal.
Val Vacante, director of strategy at customer experience company Livearea, said the pandemic has made mobile payment mainstream.
“People are like, ‘Oh, I like this,’ ” said Vacante, who is speaking on Wednesday’s panel. “People had to use this as a necessity, but it will stick because it made everything so much easier.”
Discovery
Bryan Wachter, senior vice president for government and public affairs for the Retailers Association of Nevada, said local retailers had
been offering curbside pickup and other contactless options before the pandemic, but the majority of shoppers are now aware of those services and using them.
“The pandemic really has forced the marriage between these innovations and the mainstream public, and it is certainly something that we are going to be continuing into the future,” Wachter said.
Another example of pre-pandemic tech that is catching on because of the pandemic is mobile self-checkout.
Wachter said retailers have existing software in their apps that allows shoppers to scan and check out items using their phones.
“It’s an old innovation to solve a new problem because that technology was in use at grocery stores before the pandemic, allowing you to bag your own groceries and walk out,” Wachter said.
He cited the Sam’s Club app, which has a feature called Scan and Go.
Raskin said 2020 was “just the beginning” of the transformation of physical retail spaces.
For example, “autonomous checkout” and drone delivery could be in the future, Wachter said.
With its Amazon Go stores, Amazon spearheaded the concept of autonomous checkout, in which shoppers enter a store, take the products they want and, thanks to a connected
app, leave. There are dozens of these cashierless convenience stores across the country.
Cameras, sensors and other hardware throughout the store automatically record selected items, which are charged to the buyer’s pre-existing Amazon account, said Raskin.
But the technologies, Vacante said, including programming and hardware, can cost upward of $1 million per store.
Citing the recent drone pilot program by Walmart to deliver COVID-19 testing kits, Wachter said the new technology will be something to keep an eye on in Nevada.
“Drones are going to be able to play a role in the logistic chain, especially for the last-mile delivery,” said Wachter.
The “last mile” is the final step of the delivery process from a warehouse to the customer’s doorstep.
“Nevada is really well-placed, given our preferred status with the (Federal
Aviation Administration) and being a great trial location for drone delivery,” he said.
Augmented realities, AI
Augmented reality and artificial intelligence are becoming more integrated into the retail industry as well.
“Instead of just seeing a flat image on a product, you might see a 3D image of the thing you want to buy,” Raskin said. “You might be able to take the furniture and put it in your room and see how it’s going to look in your room. Technology is letting you play what-if from the comfort of your home and on your phone.
“Augmented reality and virtual reality experiences seek to eliminate some of the hands-on contact with things, minimize returns and customer unhappiness, and also saves you a lot of aggravation of making bad decisions.”
Augmented reality will also help consumers looking to find the right clothing.
“As AR technology gets better, we’re going to be able to have more accurate, virtual try-ons and sizing,” said Vacante. “That’s what AR enables.”
AR technology will likely be used at physical stores, where shoppers can learn more about a product.
“If you’re going to a store to buy toys and not sure how it works, if you could wave your phone over the product, it could have an augmented experience so there could be a demo,” said Vacante. “That technology exists right now and brings life to a product.”