The booming enterprise of one-click e-commerce and customer demand has put a strain on the retail supply chain. The supply chain and logistics industry are in dire need of technology that would optimize the available resources and reduce the downtime extensively.

In this case, data analytics and machine learning are being used by retailers to process customer data and find the market patterns. With customized AI algorithms to analyze patterns in data sets, producers can create a demand forecast about emerging trends and actors. Using the forecast insights, the supply chain market can optimize the available inventory to decrease the fulfillment costs of products.

E-commerce giant such as Amazon and Alibaba are leveraging the power of robotic automation for storage and retrieval purposes. This not only cut down the cost of hiring manual labor but also creates efficiency across the department. With automation inventory tracking and order management would enable optimization of warehouse management. Perhaps in the future, self-driving cars can be leveraged by retail supply chain to improve the delivery time and redeploy manual power to far more important processes.

Retail Tech Companies: FreedomPay, Creatuity, Appriss Retail

Retailers are also integrating IoT devices within their warehouse to track the end-to-end supply chain process for preventive maintenance and demand management. These sensors can also be used to improve manufacture, monitor logistics remotely, and gather data across the floor for a better insight into the product development. These insights can be provided to customers as an assurance of the product’s quality.

Enhancing customer experience is the key for all the brands. On this notion, retailers are integrating virtual reality and augmented reality in their store-front and online portal to streamline the buying process. Customers can now leverage the technology to imagine the placement of the products in actual scenarios. For instance, a customer buying furniture can use VR glasses to imagine the furniture in their living room. This increases customer satisfaction considerably.

The blockchain is another trend that is gaining wide popularity among retailers as a secure data sharing platform. Blockchain has an access control feature which can be leveraged by retail executives to control viewership of confidential transaction as well as client data. The creators of a particular chain can generate clearance-levels for employees and customer alike to view the data through unique key codes.

Check out: Top Retail Tech Companies