Recently, the adoption of robots in the retail and restaurant industry has found new hot areas. These are geared towards empowering existing staff and handling long-term staff shortages. Let’s have a look at the industry’s viewpoint on this and how retailers and restaurants lock into robotics.
A recent survey from RetailWire indicates that 77% of large retailers realize it’s critical to have a clear, executable and budgeted robotics automation strategy. This applies to their in-store operations and end customer deliveries projects in the next 18 months.
Both restaurants and retailers are in a position to leverage robots. This would automate tasks, increase employee productivity and collect data that can be used to improve business processes and enhance customer experiences.
Key Takeaways
- Retailers and restaurants increasingly adopt robotics to address staff shortages and boost employee productivity.
- A recent survey shows that 77% of large retailers prioritize a clear robotics automation strategy for future operations.
- Robots enhance efficiency by automating tasks such as deliveries, inventory management, and customer interactions.
- The demand for on-demand services has surged, prompting companies to turn to robots as a cost-effective solution.
- By locking into robotics, businesses can improve data collection, optimize inventory, and adapt to changing customer needs.
Table of Contents
Why It’s Smart to Lock into Robotics
While robots are working behind the scenes to help with inventory management and warehousing, companies are now increasingly bringing robots into roles. These roles involve direct interaction or coexistence with customers. While we’re on the topic of robotics, let’s remember that tech AI in retail still exists. You can use tools like receipt OCR to help you extract data and improve loyalty programs. By keeping track of what customers buy, you can keep up with what your business is offering!
Here are a few scenarios below:
- Robots for automated curbside and last-mile deliveries for retail and restaurants
- Stores use robots to target and clean up aisle spills in under a minute
- Scanner robots are used to pinpoint locations where items are out of stock. They send images to associates and transmit information to fast unloader robots. These prioritize which items get unloaded from trucks.
- Robots are interacting with customers to find products, clarify their queries, and check on product availability.
What do these companies know about robots that other retailers and restaurants don’t? First and foremost, they know the benefits that robots bring to the table. They understand the high return on investment from robot adoptions. A report from ABI Research found that 150,000 robots could be deployed in brick-and-mortar stores by 2025, which, to me, is still a very conservative number. Here are three key reasons why robots are becoming increasingly popular. Not just for retailers and restaurants but for a myriad of industries, too.
High Increase in On-Demand Quick Services
There has been a massive upsurge in digital ordering, with a considerable demand for on-demand deliveries, which has increased by almost 700 percent recently. The demand is super high, and on top of that, with a huge spike in wages from $10 per hour to almost $16 per hour, it is becoming challenging for restaurants and retailers to provide these services. For example, Starbucks trailed pay rises starting in January, which would mean its US hourly workers are making an average of nearly $17 an hour by next summer. Costco, which had already raised its minimum wage to $16 an hour in February, increased it again to $17.
Staff Shortage
It has no end in sight for the US. Here is an example – Domino’s Pizza (DPZ.N) cited a shortage of drivers as it reported recently a rare fall in U.S. sales. Additionally, FedEx Corp (FDX.N) also cited higher labor costs in September when it cut its full-year forecast.
All these major giants are turning to robots for a sustainable and predictable solution for delivery problems. These issues arise due to staff shortage and rising wages to cater to the high customer demand for on-demand services. They also aim to cut down massive margins taken away from app-based human delivery options. Robots don’t call in sick, don’t request raises and can easily perform repetitive and tiresome jobs, like delivery, cleaning, and making fries. In the medium/long term, the ROI is massive for both retailers and restaurants.
Here is an example – Consider Sally, the salad-making robot developed by Chowbotics. Sally’s robotic tools enable it to make a salad with more than six ingredients in less than a minute and a half. That not only saves restaurants significant cash in labor costs, but it also enables eateries to expand their menus. They can easily add new dishes and enhance customer brand loyalty. Restaurants are discovering that robots give overworked servers more time to interact with customers and serve more tables, which leads to higher tips. As you can see, the benefits are when retailers and restaurants lock into robotics.
Big Data
Among the biggest benefits of retail robots is the ability to capture granular data about the products and customer buying patterns. This helps increase efficiency and accuracy in inventory management. Robots act as data collectors within the Internet of Things (IoT). When combined with AI and machine learning, IoT can change how companies operate. It impacts how they conduct business and purchase the goods and services we want and need.
Identify Profitable Products
Knowing which products customers favor is the difference between low margins and high profitability. Robotics can optimize inventory management by generating real-time data on which products are selling faster than other similar products.
In some hotels, robots carry luggage and act as digital concierges, sanitizing corridors. Due to the pandemic, robots have rolled into every place, be it hospitals, transit locations, corporate offices and campuses. They are used in nonsurgical applications such as sanitizing corridors and rooms, and delivering supplies, including blood samples to be tested in the lab.
The Takeaway on Robotics in the Retail and Restaurant Industries
There’s no doubt that retail and restaurant companies have increasingly started to adopt robotics as a business investment over the past couple of years. That process has accelerated due to the COVID pandemic. One of the striking trends during the pandemic has been the acceptance of automation technologies by a previously tepid public.
Whether it’s deploying robots in warehouses or kitchens, or using them for deliveries and other human tasks that involve direct customer interaction, robotics is transforming how customer-focused companies operate. Just as digital tools like Starbucks Teamworks streamline staff coordination, the rise of retail and restaurant robotics is redefining efficiency on the ground. Expect the use of robots on the job to skyrocket. New ways retailers and restaurants integrate robotics into daily operations will emerge.
