JOHN STANLEY

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“ Retailing is changing rapidly and there are many companies at the forefront, but Amazon could be the most progressive of the leaders changing the way retailers will look on retailing in the future,” says John Stanley.

WILL WE NEED CHECKOUT OPERATORS? The most publicised development is the removal of checkout operators from the store. This is already happening with Amazons new concept store. Walk into a Amazon Go store to buy your weekly groceries, collect the products you require from the shelf and walk out the store, you do not have to interact with anybody and the chances are you will not even see a member of the Amazon team. Before you get to your car the money for the purchase has gone from your bank account and the store has a record of what they need to restock in the store. All this is possible because before you walked into the store you switched your smart phone on and made sure your Amazon Shopping App is switched on. As you take products off pressure-sensitive shelves they will record the sale of the item and let the stock control system know the product needs replacing.

This sophisticated system will also allow the company to change the price of the item at a seconds notice meaning‘ everyday low pricing’ can be changed to‘ variable pricing’ and even‘ individual customer pricing’.

WHY NOT LET THE PRODUCT DO THE BUYING FROM YOUR HOME This year we have also seen Amazon introduce the Dash Button. This is a branded small button that can be placed, for example, next the washing machine. As you run out of washing machine liquid you simply press the button and it sends a message to Amazon to tell them you are ordering more washing powder which will then be delivered to your door.

The next development stage is to design the dash button into the packaging so that when the pack content is used up, the button alerts Amazon

automatically that you have run out and reorders for you without you doing a thing. This technology could eliminate the need to go shopping for the‘ purpose’ products on your shopping list.

GET IT DELIVERED BY DRONE Several people have told me that drone deliveries will never‘ take-off’, but imagine you were living in the countryside in Cambridgeshire in the UK. Amazon can deliver its products to you via drone. Amazon is currently the best test bed for this technology.

Amazon Prime Air delivers, via a drone, items that do not weigh more than 2kg within half an hour of the order being taken.

All this innovation is coming from just one company, there are other leading edge retailers looking at other ways of changing the retail scene. If you enjoy change, this is time to be in retailing, if you hate change now is the time to leave retailing to others.

The times are changing.

DIY & INDUSTRIAL TRADE NEWS APRIL 2017