MAPIC Up to 50% of human roles to be stripped out of retail industry

‘In the next 15 years alone, around half of current retail roles won’t be fulfilled by people, but technology,’ Andrew Phipps, EMEA head of retail research for CBRE, told the Palais audience. ‘There won’t be checkouts in supermarkets in 10 years. The technology is already there, it will just get better.’

But this brave new world will be designed to improve the human experience, underlined Omaid Hiwaizi, global head of experience strategy at Blippar, which provides artificial intelligence and augmented reality services to shopping centres and beyond.

‘The digital and physical worlds are merging, and artificial intelligence and augmented reality will drive that,’ Hiwaizi said. ‘People like it when technology serves their needs, rather than being too intrusive. That’s why people don’t like push notifications. They want technology to provide answers when they’re asking questions.’

He added: ‘Augmented reality enables you to have a frictionless experience – helping you to not only experience the product before you buy, but also speeds the shopping process, so you can get in and out more rapidly.’

Ben Chesser, CEO Coniq, a provider of CRM systems for shopping centres, said his company was using technology to create next generation loyalty experiences. ‘For me, real innovation is someone picking up existing tech, and being able to use it to interact with innovative technologies,’ he said.

‘How can you get as much information about the customer as possible, without detracting from the customer experience? That has to be as seamless as possible. You also have to remember that most customers only shop 4% of a mall when they go there, so how can we change that or introduce customers to new stores or new experiences?’

Big data
Willem Jan Buijs, founder of Dutch start-up Chainels said that collecting data was just a starting point for some much bigger questions. ‘The data we should be noticing isn’t just about consumers, it’s also about shopping centres, property performance and many other issues. Collecting the numbers is just a start – not everyone’s a data analyst, so you need to know what to do with that data, its consequences and potential.’

For CBRE’s Phipps, data issues are not only the bedrock of proptech but should also be driving some blue-sky thinking. If a big tech company decided to attack real estate, would they do it in the same way we’ve been doing it for years? No way - they would start with the data,’ Phipps said. ‘Data tells us everything. But we have to be aware of when it’s appropriate to ‘plug in’ the consumer.’

‘If we look at what’s happening with the shopping centre experience, they are increasingly investing in leisure and entertainment which is data friendly and often data ready,’ said Aaron Markowitz-Shulman, director of strategy & business development, UK’s Dropit. ‘For us, technology is about grabbing the low-hanging fruit. We can eliminate a lot of pay points with the transaction process, and bring people together, creating a sense of community.’
 
Online or offline?
‘A lot of people do still want to go to a store, find something, pay for it and walk out, so having an incredible experience around a lot of basic shopping processes really isn’t necessary. But where basic grocery or household purchases are essentially ‘boring’ to buy, we should be focusing on making those purchases very easy and reducing the time spent acquiring them,’ suggested Phipps. 'The real estate industry is not ready for the changes which are going to come. Many companies are encumbered by their heritage.’

But he underlined that offline retail still had a vital role in the industry’s future. ‘Pure play online retail is dead, unless you are incredibly niche. We’re already seeing brands that are moving into the physical world, such as Samsung, and many of those will be creating showrooms rather than stores, which allow you to order and have the product delivered the same day. Everyone will have a physical store in the future.’