USA TODAY International Edition
Technology transforms shopping patterns
While the devices we rely on today may seem commonplace, it would have been considered science fiction just a few years ago – be it taking calls on a smartwatch, asking a speaker in your home to play one of millions of songs or having robotic lawnmowers that quietly cut our grass. If you thought it was high-tech to tap your phone or smartwatch to buy something, wait until you get a load of the following half-dozen scenarios to roll out over the next few years. ❚ Stores with no checkout: Talk about “convenience” stores. As we saw earlier this year with the launch of the first Amazon Go store in Seattle, waiting in line to pay for items may be a thing of the past. Thanks to hundreds of cameras and sensors and smart artificial intelligence (AI) behind the scenes, you can grab items off the shelf and simply walk out when you’re done – and your account will be automatically billed, followed by an emailed receipt. Bloomberg reported that Amazon is planning to open 3,000 Amazon Go stores by 2021. ❚ Autonomous cars: Instead of the Detroit Auto Show, which took place a week later, Toyota chose January’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to unveil e-Palette, a concept for the future of autonomous (“self-driving”) vehicles. Toyota envisions autonomous cars used for ridesharing services, delivering food ondemand and even serving as a mobile storefront that brings products to you instead of the other way around. Toyota is teaming with Uber, Pizza Hut and Amazon to start, but the first live demonstration of Toyota e-Palette won’t be until the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
❚ Virtual shopping: Say you don’t want to fight the crowds to visit a supermarket or shopping mall, or you’re physically unable to do so. Well, you may be donning a lightweight virtual reality (VR) headset at home and simulating a shopping experience. As demonstrated in a recent Tesco concept video out of the UK, you’ll walk virtual aisles from a first-person perspective and can virtually touch and manipulate items with your hands, such as taking an item off the shelf to inspect it before placing it in a virtual cart. The items you’ve selected will then be delivered to your door. ❚ Augmented reality glasses: Soon, we may be wearing AR glasses (and after that contact lenses or implants) that can superimpose info on top of items in a supermarket. Some AR apps can show shopping info today but expect this space to evolve significantly over the next few years. ❚ Voice-controlled assistants: High-tech personal assistants in the home increasingly will be used to purchase online items. With smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, you can verbally add items to your grocery list and then officially place an order when your list is full – just by asking for it. You’ll be given an option to have items shipped or ready for pick-up at a nearby store.
❚ Delivery drones: Speaking of Google and Amazon, both tech juggernauts are testing delivery drones that can deliver you a parcel in 30 minutes or less – or at least that’s the goal. Amazon is testing its Prime Air quadcopter delivery service in multiple countries and was able to deliver items in as little as 13 minutes in a recent UK test.