Walmart is the largest and most profitable supermarket chain in the world. But in recent years, it has been in the shadow of its very active competitor, Amazon, which is leading in the creation of new purchase and delivery technologies. Recently, for example, he launched the world's first supermarket without cash registers and cashiers .
As a result, among young people, the reputation of an “old man”, to put it mildly, not very advanced company, was established among America’s Walmart. It is rich, it is the largest retailer on the planet, but at the same time the company almost does not spend money on the development of its technologies. The same box office, shelves and carts, as twenty years ago. Now it must change. The other day, Walmart filed dozens of patents on technologies that will allow it to transform the supermarket. Among them - smart shopping baskets and assistant drones, helping people with shopping.
Experts say the company wants to change its image and how its customers buy goods. Amazon has already “staked out” the supermarkets without cashiers, but Walmart still has ways to show that she also has gunpowder. If it starts installing new systems in its giant supermarket chain (4,700 units in the US alone!), Other companies will also have to pull themselves up.
Walmart's first application concerns the development of a sensor system capable of endowing shopping carts and shopping baskets with “intelligence” and making them able to communicate with mobile devices. It sounds crazy, but in fact such a system could be very useful for the buyer. A cart / basket is the only thing a customer takes with him at the supermarket. It is unlikely that someone will want to take a device with them every time before shopping, and then donate it separately. So, if this device is imperceptibly built into the baskets themselves - no one will have to retrain!
Further "smart cart" will help the buyer to find items with discounts, or will begin to pick in front of a particular department. Or send information on goods to your smartphone. And that means even more sales.
Walmart patentWalmart also patented a similar system to the one used in Amazon Go - distinguishing customers by their clothes in order to monitor shoplifting. She also wants to develop a system for recognizing stock levels of products in stock. Walmart annually loses billions of dollars on the fact that managers order goods at the wrong time and not in the quantities that are needed. The system (cameras, reading goods, and the program) will help to do so that there are always goods on the shelves and that they do not have time to spoil. Human error can be avoided.
Walmart also has a patent for specific drones that will help customers in the store. It describes the method by which the drone at any time can be invoked through a mobile device (smartphone, tablet, clock). If suddenly a buyer needs help, a drone will immediately fly up with all the information. You can find out from him, for example, the shelf life of a particular product, or ask for directions to the item you want to buy (and the drone will take you there). And store employees will be able to call a drone to check prices and other information if there is a misunderstanding.
Another technology will allow you to define things put in a container. Obviously, this is the answer to Amazon's Amazon car-free supermarkets, and to some extent even more user-friendly. With Amazon Go, customers on the street can't just go in and buy something: they must first register so that bills can be paid by them through an online account. Walmart does not have this step. Plus, if Amazon Go has problems now, when a whole family or several friends are bought, then Walmart will not have questions for such purchases: everything that is put into a cart or cart is paid from one account. And then things will not have to "peep" at the checkout, they are all counted, just hold the card to confirm the transaction.
An application for a compact system consisting of sensors, a processor and a communication interface was also registered. Walmart will use it to automatically collect information about trucks carrying goods. She will check the temperature in the body, as well as the weight of the car before and after delivery - to prevent overloading or not to let half-empty cars on the line.
Patents are very detailed, but it is likely that not all technologies will reach the implementation stage. But experts say Walmart has long wanted to show Amazon that it will not surrender without a fight. To invest several billions in potentially effective technologies for it is a drop in the ocean if it helps to contain the ardor of its main competitor. From 2017, the company moved to the stage of aggressive offensive, which began with the processing of its own website and a greater focus on the online audience. In December, she began selling her own “ meal kits ” with Moroccan, Spanish, Mexican and other dishes - in response to similar kits that have become popular on Amazon a few months before. And in order to compete with the reader, Kindle Walmart has concluded an exclusive contract with the Japanese firm Rakuten for the delivery of similar readers to the USA.
Walmart will not surrender without a fight. In 2017, its online sales grew by 23%, and the income from online business increased by 44%. This is still a bit lower, less than 10% of all Walmart sales. One of the former employees of the company said in an interview with The Verge that even these numbers are lies. They say, in fact, the company has to overestimate them in order to "win an online war at any cost." Anyway, it is nice to know that even such a “old fart” like Walmart is going to spend serious money on new developments.
By the way, one of these technologies, which has already reached their offline supermarkets, is moving robot scanners. They were launched in 50 stores in California in 2017, and now they work at several hundred points. They scan the shelves, see if they need to replenish stocks, and check that all prices are correct and all products are properly marked.
Meanwhile, Amazon teaches drones to obey gestures — to create their own future, in which autonomous robots deliver goods to the doorsteps of Americans' homes, and people don’t even have to go shopping for food. The other day, she was approved of the application , and the company received a patent for the drones management system with gestures and voice. The idea is that a person can interact with the drone, showing where to put the goods.
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