With less than 3% of consumers having already shopped at an autonomous store, 75 percent of consumers said they are interested in shopping at a newly-introduced autonomous store. This is according to the Retail Shopping survey targeting primary household decision makers sponsored by Shekel Brainweigh Ltd Retail Innovation Division (ASX: SBW).
The goal of the survey was to gain an understanding of how consumers perceive autonomous stores and autonomous store technologies. Nearly 80 percent of survey respondents were between the ages of 18-60 years old and more than 50 percent were female.
Key findings of the survey include:
- Convenience and a frictionless experience was cited as the most important feature of an autonomous store by 33 percent of respondents with 25 percent saying variety and selection of goods was most important.
- Nearly 13 percent of respondents prefer a fully autonomous store while 70 percent prefer a hybrid store with autonomous and human assistance options.
- Lack of assistance (37%) and leaving the store without knowing the amount charged (19%) were cited as the top two concerns of autonomous stores by survey respondents.
- For nearly 65 percent of respondents, privacy was a heightened concern, and they prefer an anonymous/privacy-protected shopping experience.
- In terms of ideal providers for autonomous store solutions, 50 percent said the solution should be best-of-breed regardless of the provider and that credible retail solutions providers with innovative technology from the coolest startups are best.
Udi Wiesner, general manager of Shekel Brainweigh Retail Innovation Division said, “The results of our Retail Shopping survey demonstrate the need for retailers to quickly adopt autonomous store technologies and solutions to meet the major desires of consumers. And knowing that for nearly 50 percent of respondents COVID-19 has not impacted their shopping habits, there is a massive opportunity for retailers to improve their autonomous shopping strategies to provide superior shopping experiences with more store availability and a greater variety of products, while keeping their customers’ privacy.”
The Shekel Brainweigh Retail Innovation Division is capitalizing on the global demand for retail store automation to provide enhanced consumer shopping experiences and improve retailers’ efficiencies. Shekel has developed its game changing Product Aware Technology, which digitally transforms a retail shelf into a source of actionable insights. With its ability to identify a product by its weight, using IoT load sensors, embedded Smart Shelf software and cloud-based artificial intelligence algorithms, it provides ideal product recognition capabilities that enable store automation.
