A US inventor has unveiled a futuristic supermarket retailing concept which eliminates checkouts and cashiers and revolutionises behind the scenes stock control.
At first glance the prototype store using Ran Margalit’s ShelfX Smart Shelves looks like any store except tidier – and without visible checkouts.
But his forward-thinking system promises to do much more.
Using radio frequency identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC) technology, ShelfX ends checkout counter queuing at grocery stores, big box retailers and high traffic locations like sports stadiums.
It also provides retailers with added-value benefits such as improved inventory management, real-time pricing updates throughout a retail chain, enhanced customer loyalty, and increased shopper conversion rates.
Margalit was inspired to create the system when visiting a store to pick up a few items with his wife.
“I saw the opportunity to do away with the checkout process all together.”
He questioned why people had to wait in lines and wondered why grocers, specialty retail stores, stadiums and others couldn’t adopt the latest RFID and NFC technology to offer shoppers seamless checkout in the aisles.
“I pushed my concept even further and asked how retailers could benefit from this technology to improve stock levels, entice buyers with personalised incentives, and use real-time information to increase sales. And so ShelfX was born.”
Equipped with highly-sensitive scales, a ShelfX Smart Shelf knows the exact item and quantity of the item being stocked. When a shopper approaches the shelf with an RFID-enabled ShelfX Card to take an item, the ShelfX system greets the customer by name, tells them what they have purchased, offers discounts and additional suggestions based on their customer profile, and processes their payment. On the back-end, the inventory is automatically updated.
“The obvious benefit here is for the shopper. They come in, take their items and leave; no hassles, no waiting in lines,” explains Margalit.
“However, for the retailers, ShelfX offers so much more. Since pricing is updated by store managers in real-time using the ShelfX Software, the manual process of labelling shelves during store promotions or regular updates is no longer necessary. Similarly, since the checkout process is done automatically, retailers can optimise staffing levels and avoid the time-consuming practice of scanning barcodes and manually entering SKUs.”
With ShelfX, retailers no longer have to send store personnel to walk though aisles to check stock levels. Instead, ShelfX provides up-to-the-minute reports on inventory and will even alert store managers when certain items are running low and require re-stocking.
ShelfX analyses each personal shopping session in real-time to offer shoppers relevant discounts via the LCD screen on the ShelfX Smart Shelf. An additional ShelfX App is also offered to shoppers so they can keep track of their buying history, receive personalised incentives and even check nutritional information on products.
“ShelfX will revolutionize the way we shop, and it’s about time,” said Margalit. “But in the same respect, we are taking the shopper back to a time when shopping was simple. The customer walked into a store, was greeted by name, told about the specials, paid without hassle and left. The 21st Century store clerk’s name is ShelfX. It’s making shopping simple but doing so much more.”
More information about the ShelfX system can be found at www.shelfx.com.