After engulfing our daily lives with smart assistants, tech giants are now gunning for retail stores to enhance the shopping experience. Intel is today introducing a new Retail platform to help make Amazon Go-like stores ubiquitous. Thus, it also plans to pump nearly $100 million into the betterment of the retail industry in the next five years.
To reinvent and deliver a hi-tech shopping experience, Intel is taking the wraps off its Responsive Retail Platform (or RRP). The platform is described by the chipmaker as a service that fosters the creation and spread of flexible and scalable solutions across the stores. The primary aim of this service is to collate different in-store technologies and bring them together onto a single platform. This will make it easy for the chipmaker to develop and deploy Internet of Things (IoT) services.
The RRP platform will enable shopping complexes to install a variety of IoT hardware devices, sensors, and other data-centric tools in the stores. These devices will collect data and push them to the cloud for analyzing customer behavior and providing the retailer with detailed information. The company believes that their new hardware+software suite will enable the store to improve inventory management and checkout experience. It will also work on personalizing the experience for each of its users.
Speaking at the launch of the same, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich says,
With technology like robots and artificial intelligence to free up employees, every aspect of the store and supply chain will allow retail employees to better focus on the customer and improve the store’s performance.
We’re developing technologies that will help transform the shopping experience in the near future. By bringing together virtual reality and the power of data, we’ll help create the store of the future – one that is smart, responsive, connected and secure.
Further, Intel is planning to spread its in-store technologies to as many avenues as possible. And to make this a reality, it is investing a hefty $100 million into the retail industry over the next five years. And the retail platform is just one piece of the larger IoT-powered puzzle being put together by the chipmaker. This investment supports Intel’s wider efforts to integrate IoT and other technologies like virtual reality and robotics into retail operations.
At NRF’s “Retail Big Show,” the company has also shown off their first autonomous shelf auditing and analytics robot called Simbe Robotics’ Tally. This solution is aimed at taking over the management roles of store representatives and keeping shelves stocked — with right products and correct price tags. These robots are expected to work alongside humans and operate during store hours without causing a hindrance.
