PHILIPPINE RETAILING
WALMART’S NEW
INTELLIGENT RETAIL LAB
SHOWS THE FUTURE OF
RETAIL
Walmart has launched a Neighborhood
Market in Levittown, New York with
artificial intelligence-enabled cameras,
interactive displays and a massive
data center designed to explore the
possibilities artificial intelligence can
contribute to the store experience.
Dubbed as Intelligent Retail Lab – or “IRL”,
the store is set up to gather information about
what’s happening inside the store through
an impressive array of sensors, cameras and
processors.
Testing new, innovative ideas within a real
store containing over 30,000 items is an
opportunity that Mike Hanrahan, CEO of IRL,
finds exhilarating.
“We’ve got 50,000 square feet of real
retail space. The scope of what we can do
operationally is so exciting. Technology
enables us to understand so much more – in
real time – about our business,” he said.
According to Hanrahan, the first thing this
equipment will help the team focus on is
product inventory and availability. The team
will use real-time information to explore
efficiencies that will allow associates to know
more precisely when to restock products, so
items are available on shelves when they’re
needed.
Before jumping to more futuristic concepts,
the IRL team is starting with real, practical
solutions like the meat inventory example as
well as others like making sure shopping carts
are available and registers are open.
Aside from these, there are a number
of educational displays, such as kiosks
interspersed throughout the store and a
plexiglass that reacts to body positioning,
among others.
Matt Smith, Walmart, 4/25/2019
8
World News
2ND QUARTER 2019
ALIBABA INVESTS IN A
MAJOR FURNITURE SELLER
IN CHINA
FASHION GIANT H&M
LISTS SUPPLIERS
FOR ALL GARMENTS
TO TACKLE WORKER
ABUSES
Fashion brand H&M has become the
first major retailer to list individual
supplier details for each garment on
its website to increase transparency
in an industry with high risks of
slavery and labor abuses.
The Sweden-based multinational’s move
was hailed by workers rights groups who
said it was a step forward, but added that
the data may not be particularly meaningful
to shoppers without additional information
to put it into context.
“Maybe H&M need to think a bit more
about how to make that information
live and useful to consumers - adding
information for example about wages paid
at suppliers and comparing that to the
living wage benchmarks or their promises
on living wages,” said Anna Bryher
advocacy director at Britain’s Labour
Behind the Label, which campaigns for
garment workers’ rights.
A growing number of big brands, from
sportswear giant Adidas to fashion retailer
ASOS, are sharing information about their
RETAIL SPEND ON AI
SERVICES TO MORE THAN
TREBLE BY 2023
Global spending by retailers on AI
services will reach US$12 billion by
2023, according to Juniper Research.
That figure
is more than
three times
the amount
expected to be
spent this year,
of $3.6 billion
and represents
investment
by more than
325,000 retailers expected to adopt the
technology during the next four years.
According to Juniper Research’s report,
AI in Retail: Segment Analysis, Vendor
Positioning & Market Forecasts 2019-2023,
AI use by retailers will unlock efficiencies
across back office operations. Advanced
analytics employed in functions such as
World News
2ND QUARTER 2019
However, H&M is the first major fashion
chain to list supplier details for each
individual garment.
The brand’s app can be used to access the
same data for clothing in stores by scanning
an item’s label.
Customers can also see information about
the material used in clothing, although
H&M does not list specific sourcing details
for raw materials.
Sonia Elks, Thomson Reuters, 4/24/2019
demand forecasting and automated marketing
will make retailers more agile and improve
margins.
Juniper forecasts that retailers will face an AI
adoption race, where AI-equipped retailers,
which have adopted systems as early movers,
will displace slower moving retailers, offering
superior service at optimized price points.
The use of machine learning in demand
forecasting will prove to be a key market for
AI vendors, with associated service revenues
reaching $3 billion by 2023, up from $760
million in 2019. Juniper Research says
demand forecasting will be essential to enable
an effective omnichannel experience and drive
higher margins.
The research also found that smart checkouts,
largely powered by AI technologies such as
computer vision, will have a strong future
in the convenience area; leading to annual
transaction volumes of more than 1.4 billion
by 2023, compared with just 42 million this
year. While Amazon is currently highly visible
with its Go model, China will be the biggest
driver of future growth.
Inside Retail Asia, 4/15/2019
3.7% of Red Star Macalline’s publicly traded
shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange,
according to a disclosure.
Red Star Macalline operates about 300
shopping malls and 364 home improvement
centers throughout China, leasing space
to retailers in addition to selling its own
inventory and services, including interior
decoration consultations and construction.
The company will work together with
Alibaba to improve its physical stores and
take advantage of the latter’s e-commerce
channels.
This investment comes about six months
after Red Star Macalline announced a digital
marketing partnership with Alibaba rival
Tencent.
complex supply chains amid mounting
regulatory and consumer pressure on
companies to ensure their products are
slavery-free.
Online shoppers can see where clothing was
made, including the production country,
supplier and factory names and addresses
as well as the number of factory workers.
PHILIPPINE RETAILING
Alibaba Group has acquired about $635
million worth of convertible bonds
in Red Star Macalline, one of China’s
biggest furniture retailers.
If converted, this would give Alibaba about a
10% stake in the company. It also purchased
Alibaba’s Home Times, a retail chain it
opened in late 2017, gives a look into what it
might do with Red Star Macalline’s malls and
online operations. Home Times emphasizes
offline-to-online retail, enabling customers to
scan products for more information and pay
for them with Alipay, and has large screens
that let shoppers see how items will look in
their homes. Customers’ shopping behavior
is then used by Tmall, Alibaba’s business-to-
consumer e-commerce site, to pick products
to add to stores in different locations, making
inventory management more efficient.
Google continues to be the preferred
company to work for by residents in
Asia Pacific, according to the latest
Workforce Rankings result from
YouGov.
TechCrunch, 5/16/2019
July 27, 2019
47th RETAIL EXCELLENCE SEMINAR SERIES
TOPIC: The Neuroscience of Consumer
Behavior
September 5-7, 2019
Mr. Ben Ampil
(Neuroscience Coach and Neuro Linguistic
Programming Master Trainer) ASIA PACIFIC RETAILERS CONVENTION
AND EXHIBITION 2019
Chonqing, China
July 31, 2019 September 19-20, 2019 TBC
48th RETAIL EXCELLENCE SEMINAR SERIES
Design Thinking Innovation Seminar
Mr. Rock Cleo Serevilla
(Visual Communication Expert)
August 15-16, 2019
26th National Retailers Conference and
Stores Asia Expo 2018 (NRCE)
SMX Convention Center Manila
RETAIL MASTER CLASS VI TOPIC: Built
to be Different: Driven by Customer
Focused Culture, by Design
Dr. Buck Tang
(Principal Consultant, Signature
Experience Associates)
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
The Philippine Retailing is the official quarterly newsletter of the
Philippine Retailers Association with office at 2607/2610 Jollibee
Plaza F. Ortigas Jr. Road (formerly Emerald Ave.) Ortigas Center,
Pasig City, Philippines
Telephone Nos.: (632) 687-4985, 687-4180, 687-4181
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GOOGLE TOPS
THE WORKFORCE
RANKINGS IN APAC
Google topped in Australia, Hong Kong,
India and South Korea, while it landed on
second spot in Indonesia and Thailand and
third in India. In the Philippines, the top spot
is still secured by Samsung, while Google
lands among the top 10, as a new entrant,
together with Philippines Airlines, Facebook,
Oreo, and YouTube, which were added into
BrandIndex’s tracking list last year.
In China, Alipay maintains its No.1 position,
while in other countries, their local airlines
gained the top spot such as ANA in Japan,
Singapore Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, and
Vietnam Airlines who are No. 1 in their
respective home country. The Workforce
Rankings chart shows the brands with the
highest average Reputation Scores between
April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019.
YouGov BrandIndex
PHILIPPINE RETAILING EDITORIAL TEAM
BM Miranda
Circulation Manager
Evelyn Balmeo-Salire
Editor-in-Chief
Catherine Nanta
Managing Editor
Paul Payongayong
Graphic Designer
Darrell Wisbey | Yayu Javier
Jiong Jiong Yu | Atty. Paul Santos
Contributors
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