Walmart is rolling out a fleet of shelf-scanning robots in more than 50 U.S. stores. The approximately two-foot tall robots come with a tower that is fitted with cameras that scan aisles for out-of-stock, mispriced, mislabeled and misplaced items.
Fear not…these robots aren’t designed to replace store employees, or affect the employee headcount in stores. Instead, these robots will pass the data they gather to store employees, who then can restock the shelves and fix errors.
Store employees only have time to scan shelves approximately twice a week, according to Jeremy King, Chief Technology Officer for Walmart U.S. and e-Commerce. The robots are 50% more productive than the human workers and can scan shelves significantly more accurately, and three times faster.
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The robots are the latest of Walmart’s recent store enhancements, which have gone hand-in-hand with the retailer’s e-Commerce splurge. Walmart has invested in various in-store services in 2017 such as grocery curbside pickup, in-store order retrieval and in-store order pickup discounts.
“Having accurate inventory in stores is critical to drive a unified commerce experience for customers, as well as improve operational excellence for retailers,” said Adam Silverman, SVP of Marketing at Theatro in commentary provided to Retail TouchPoints. “Retailers will increasingly employ technologies such as robotics, RFID and connected shelves to perform these tasks, allowing associates to pivot from operational tasks to engaging with customers and creating exceptional experiences. The future of work is changing, and the workforce technology industry will shift from providing traditional task solutions to offering collaboration and knowledge-based applications that empower associates to drive top line business results.”
