It may take a while for Western retailers to feel the pressure to implement robots and automated distribution centers, but their Chinese counterparts are already taking swift action to ensure fully automated stores are operational within 10 years.
JD.com CEO Richard Liu said the reason is that shoppers in China have ever-changing demands, while those in the United States and Europe tend to be more loyal to retailers who provide satisfactory service.
Chinese customers are always looking for something new, which when combined with fast delivery becomes even more attractive to them.
However, loyalty aside, the reality is that there is no way to stop the rise of the robots. In fact, they have already infiltrated various industries (auto, healthcare, gaming), including retail.
Whether consumers and retailers accept it or not, they are bound to witness a robot-powered industry before they know it.
That is clearly evident in the method of expansion used by online retailers. And we’re not just talking about Amazon and JD.com, whose fulfillment centers abound with machine workers, as numerous online stores are also in the process of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) platforms into their businesses, such as machine learning, voice, and chatbots, among others.
“Sooner or later, our entire industry will be run by AI (artificial intelligence) and robots, not humans,” were the words of Richard Liu at the annual World Retail Congress in Madrid, Spain.
However, he was quick to add that it will take another decade to prepare the industry and consumers for machine-powered stores, as the future of retail rests on many relentless innovations. This, he told her, will eventually lead to lower costs and a better customer experience.
Coming from the head of a company that owns a fully automated warehouse and uses drones and robots to deliver packages, that statement doesn’t seem to require any more convincing documents.
However, while there are big retailers who share Liu’s views, such as Shop Direct and Marks & Spencer, which have in fact announced staff layoffs as they prepare to automate their distribution centers, others vehemently opposed. .
Among them is Tom Athron, Director of Group Development at John Lewis, as he believes that one cannot function without the other. He stressed that nothing can make the industry stronger than it already is than the combined powers of robots and humans.
“Humans and machines together will always be more powerful than machines alone or humans alone. If consumers don’t want the human touch in retail, then we’re in real trouble as an industry,” he said.
While automation can get mundane tasks done faster than humans—hence its consideration in the daily operations of a business—a quality that resides only in the human heart is missing: empathy.
Fast delivery isn’t the lifeblood of retail, but customers are. So the absence of human interaction is likely to kill retail in cold blood and there will be no one to witness its death except robots.
Do you think the world is ready to witness that?
