I. Retail

Reimagining how we shop

Retail:

Reimagining how we shop

Almost since the day the first web store went online, pundits have predicted the demise of
brick-and-mortar stores, but those retailers who have been willing to transform their businesses have continued to thrive. Today’s customers are increasingly mobile and expect contextual engagement. While retailers are working to provide seamless shopping experiences, they are simultaneously facing competitor challenges and increased security threats on a global scale.
With the advent of 5G, the retail industry is again poised for massive change. Two key areas
that will be affected are customer experience and the retail supply chain.

Experiences beyond the store walls

When you walk inside a store, the experience is often not much different than it was 50 years ago. You browse items, select what you want to purchase, and check out. But 5G has the potential to take the shopping experience beyond the four walls of the store. Retailers can now engage with customers before and after their visit to the store. 5G will enable greater location accuracy inside the store so you can quickly find items and be targeted for promotions. The salesperson will know what you need before you walk in the door. Timely analytics and better connectivity enabled by 5G help sales people understand why you’re visiting the store the moment your car arrives in the parking lot.

Today, people are used to being connected all the time, but 5G will take interactions to the next level. With better connectivity, a business will be able to understand what their customers are doing and what they want. For example, a store could use sensors in tags to identify what you’re trying on in real time. They could then offer similar options or provide post-transaction offers based on your preferences for a more personalized experience.

The low-latency features of 5G also make video chat viable. Customers could access a video assistant to direct them to the exact location of an item rather than wasting time searching the store for a salesperson who may not know where the item is located.

Augmented reality in retail

When you add enhanced 5G features like enhanced bandwidth and extremely low latency for almost real-time feedback,
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications can be taken to an entirely new level. In retail, you could try on new clothes or glasses virtually or select and coordinate furniture in a room before you buy it. The possibilities are endless when you combine a multimedia mobile device, 5G access, and AR/VR solutions. Augmented reality could even make back-to-school
shopping more fun. The child stands in front of what appears to be a mirror, but it’s really a long screen with a camera.
A menu appears on either this screen or your handset. You scroll to find the clothes you want and select the size and color, and
your options are displayed on the screen as if your child were wearing the clothing. Now you can virtually try on several styles and color combinations without multiple trips to the changing room. Not in stock? No worries, the store knows what you want and
will deliver to your door in the next day or two.

According to the VR/AR Association, the VR retail market is expected to rise to $1.6B by 2025, and AR could reach $30B in sales. The retail industry was expected to spend $1B in 2017 on VR/AR solutions. Driven by a five-year Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 240 percent, forecasts show that retail could become the top industry for VR/AR spending by 2020.¹

Improving the retail supply chain

There’s an old saying, “You can’t sell what you don’t have.” Whenever an item is out of stock, a customer can’t buy it,
so retailers not only lose the revenue from that item, but potentially the shopping trip’s entire basket. In addition,
quality control will become increasingly important especially for perishable items. In addition, product damage incurred
during shipping is a significant cost that the business absorbs as well as disgruntled customers. Identification and
notification of product damage early in the shipping process allows the retailer to reconcile the situation perhaps long
before consuming the rest of the distrtibution chain and disappointing the customer. With 5G, retailers can gain more
visibility into their supply chains and keep their shelves stocked with what customers desire. 5G-enabled sensors
can be used in many areas of the manufacturing and distribution process, such as:

All this sensor data can give retailers unprecedented real-time insights into their inventory,
so they always know where everything is.