EElectronic shelf labels, return machines, robotic bagging machines and even self-service tills are just some of the many technologies UK retailers are adopting to solve the problem of rising labor costs.
Big retailers have been releasing a flurry of festive deals in recent weeks as they face rising labor costs from April following increases in the national minimum wage and employers' National Insurance Contributions (NICs). , investment in automation has always been active.
The investment could boost productivity in an industry that has long relied on cheap labor – a key goal of the government. But they will also replace entry-level jobs and reduce the number of roles in the sector, which is Britain's biggest employer.
When the British Retail Consortium asked finance chiefs at major retailers how they would respond to the impending increase in employer NICs, almost a third said they would make greater use of automation, but this Hours of what's behind the hike, head office job cuts, and reductions in working hours.
So what innovations are they considering and whose jobs might they impact?
electronic shelf price labels
Electronic shelf labels are already common in some other countries, and could be on UK high streets in the blink of an eye by 2025. One retailer's manager told the Guardian that NIC's rising labor costs suddenly made the switch economically viable.
Change prices with the push of a button, saving staff time removing and replacing hundreds of small paper labels. Electronics chain Currys plans to introduce electronic pricing to 100 of its 300 UK stores by the end of this year after trials in stores in Northern Europe, with supermarket groups Sainsbury's and Co-op also experimenting.
self service
Shopper-operated checkouts are widespread in supermarkets, and we expect to see more of them in fashion and home goods retailers this year.
Primark is rolling out the service in 41 stores in the UK and plans to expand to at least five more this spring, while Next is piloting it in one branch.
Inditex, owner of Japanese fashion chains Uniqlo and Zara, has led the way with technology that allows customers to recall entire baskets of goods without having to scan them with wireless tags. Marks & Spencer is experimenting with this approach for customers purchasing non-food items.
Grocery stores are also continuing to innovate. Co-ops are testing hybrid checkouts that can be operated by self-service or staff, and some supermarkets have added larger self-checkouts suitable for handling full carts.
Self-scanning systems, such as Sainsbury's SmartShop and Tesco's Scan as you Shop, where shoppers use a handheld device or smartphone app to recall prices, are also on the rise. Sainsbury's said 30% of the groceries it sold during the peak holiday season were processed through SmartShop, leading to “lower costs and faster checkouts”.
Automated return machines have also been introduced, allowing shoppers to drop off unwanted items by simply swiping a QR code. John Lewis is testing the product at three Waitrose stores.
But the idea of ​​leaving stores completely unmanned has been questioned. Amazon's “Just Walk Out” store, where shoppers sign in through an app and technology automatically monitors and charges their purchases, hasn't been a huge success. The company has 21 stores in the UK, with one store opening in north London in November after several closures in 2023 and 2024. Tesco only has four GetGo self-service stores, the first of which opened in 2021, while Aldi only has one such store in the UK.
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Warehouse automation and robots
Retailers have been gradually increasing automation in their warehouses for years, but rising labor costs are accelerating that trend.
Sales of assembly line robots to food and drink, logistics and consumer goods companies rose 31% in the first nine months of last year, according to industry body Automate UK. This number does not include autonomous mobile robots, which move and complete tasks without a human operator and are becoming increasingly popular.
For example, Amazon and John Lewis use autonomous robots to move goods around their warehouses and bring them to the humans who pack them. Ocado's entire business model is based on the use of warehouses run by robots, but the company has expanded its use to go beyond just picking products out of crates and putting them into shoppers' bags and into vans. It's starting to expand.
One Irish retailer recently introduced a robot that patrols its stores to monitor out-of-stock items and mispricing, according to the Institute of Grocery Distributors (IGD), and a U.S. retailer is also rolling out the same technology. It is said that they have been able to increase their inventory level to 98.5%.
artificial intelligence
IGD also cited AI-powered cameras, which check shelf gaps in real time and monitor how shoppers interact with products, as one of the key technologies to improve store operations this year. There is. Last year, Morrisons added cameras to supermarket shelves that allow customers to reorder stock if needed.
Retailers also want to reduce waste and improve marketing efforts by using AI to analyze vast amounts of data and handle simple, repetitive tasks.
Sainsbury's has introduced an AI-enabled predictive tool to ensure it has the right amount of products on its shelves as part of a £1bn cost-cutting plan. Waitrose uses this technology to schedule the right workers for deliveries from stores and analyze food trends for product development. Meanwhile, M&S uses the technology to create product descriptions online and advise shoppers on clothing choices based on their body type and style preferences.
Tesco uses AI to make purchasing decisions and optimize routes for delivery drivers. The supermarket's CEO Ken Murphy said customer interactions will be “truly enhanced and driven by AI in almost every aspect of our business.”
He uses this to analyze shoppers' loyalty card data and learn how to save money and take care of their health by not buying too much (or perhaps too much) of certain products. suggested it could provide “relevant inspiration and ideas for shoppers and their families.” .
Source: www.theguardian.com
