Retail robot struggles to gain traction in Australia

shelfieA new robot designed by Australians working for international technology group Lakemba could transform the way retailers monitor and manage stock in store, but Australia’s big supermarkets are reportedly uninterested in the technology.

The Shelfie is an in-store robot that scans shelves and ticket prices, delivering real-time stock reporting to help retailers identify sales trends and optimise merchandise layouts.

The robot utilises image capturing and data analytics powered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud. It’s designed to be let loose in a wi-fi enabled store, where it will gather data on stock and report possible issues to staff.

It’s been designed to solve a $1.1 trillion global problem, as estimated by IHL, which sees retailers forego revenue each year due to product shortages or surpluses.

Lakemba says the Shelfie, which is available as a robot, drone or hand-held device, will stand to save Australian grocers up to $300,000 per store each year.

A full supermarket scale inventory takes approximately three hours to complete. Currently the technology is optimised to supermarkets, but there are plans to expand the technology for department stores and other specialty retail categories.

Shelfie CEO Darren Younger said that retailers can do more than just address overstocking or understocking issues, noting that the technology allows grocers to measure how quickly stock gaps are addressed, or new merchandise planograms and ticketing are rolled out.

However, despite being designed in Australia the Shelfie will launch first in the UK, organising a pilot program with British supermarket, Co-op.

Speaking to the Australian Financial Review yesterday, Younger said that the company has been forced to roll out the locally developed technology in Britain, as Coles and Woolworths do not believe the technology is worth the risk.

“In my experience, it’s mainly being held up at the board level. Boards are focused on risk and they have a lot less appetite for it,” he said. There is a big opportunity for Shelfie internationally, but it’s a shame there haven’t been more chances so far in Australia. We had to go overseas with it to start with in order to be successful.”

Australian Retailers Association chief Russell Zimmerman is seemingly more optimistic, saying that the robot stands to revolutionise a retailer’s ability to review stock level.

“The Shelfie robot is an innovation developed by Australians that will revolutionise supermarkets ability to forecast stock requirements both in Australia and overseas retailers,” he said.

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