The Importance of IoT in the Retail Industry

Through installing sensors on assets such as shopping carts, retailers can track them to their exact position and receive notifications and warnings if they are harmed. Monitoring systems, mounted on carts and baskets, work indoors and outdoors and can function for months or even years without replacing batteries.

Fremont, CA: Like many sectors, retail is welcoming the automation of the Internet of Things (IoT). The extension of IoT technology to retail is projected to hit more than $35 billion by 2020. Retailers use IoT technology to enhance customer service, minimize costs, fuel growth, and increase overall efficiency.

There are several applications the retail industry can use IoT technology. Sensors are currently being used to monitor customer satisfaction, provide insights into the supply chain, monitor food safety, and track properties.

Supply Chain and Logistics

Retailers now use IoT sensors to track products across the entire supply chain. Tracking systems record useful data such as location, temperature, humidity, shock, and tilt, offering insight into quality control and traceability. Tracking systems help assess if goods are safe, delivered on time, and transported under ideal conditions. All data can help retailers make their transport logistics more effective, minimize product damage, and prevent losses. IoT is now delivering value to logistics firms.

Asset Tracking

Retailers use IoT technology to monitor misplaced shopping carts and baskets. Tracking these assets will help stores reduce the cost of replacing them. Shopping carts are expensive for stores to repair, costing shops anywhere from $75 to $250 each. Through installing sensors on assets such as shopping carts, retailers can track them to their exact position and receive notifications and warnings if they are harmed. Monitoring systems, mounted on carts and baskets, work indoors and outdoors and can function for months or even years without replacing batteries. These sensors will help retailers boost their customer service by ensuring that they always have enough shopping baskets and carts available to shoppers.

Food Safety Monitoring

Food and beverage retailers are using IoT technology to monitor storage temperatures, ensuring that food does not spoil. Perishable food spoilage and degradation in the retail supermarket sector has resulted in a substantial loss of profitability, with grocers losing an average of $70 million per year on their own.

IoT solutions help reduce losses due to spoilage and ensure that food safety standards are met by precise monitoring of food storage facilities' temperature. This is accomplished by a simple device installed in the storage unit and linked to an online dashboard, which is configured to send alerts in the event of unusual temperature levels. Real-time IoT sensor data helps retailers protect perishable goods, ensure optimum freshness, and reduce waste.

Customer Satisfaction Monitoring

Retailers are using IoT technology to boost customer loyalty. IoT sensors connected to a dashboard or a series of color-coded buttons allow stores to collect customer feedback immediately after a shopping experience. This data provides real-time customer satisfaction information that can improve customer experience in-store.

Check out: