How Wal Mart used "black technology" to transform into retail*

How is Wal MartuseBlack technology "Come and transform intoRetail*

The development of e-commerce and retail industry is entering a new stage. In order to "fight" with powerful competitors, Wal Mart does not dare to "slack off" in science and technology development. In recent years, Wal Mart has made great achievements in cutting-edge technologies such as unmanned aerial vehicles, blockchain, robots, unmanned driving, facial recognition, etc.

How is the world's retail * Wal Mart refined? In this era of science and technology, technology will be * productivity, and Wal Mart is tireless in developing "black technology".

Drone "Three Musketeers"
Use drones to search for products. The application of UAVs in commodity distribution or inventory counting operations has been unable to meet the needs of Wal Mart, a retail giant. In order to further improve customers' shopping experience and create a distinctive service against competitors, Wal Mart proposed "the way to deliver goods in physical retail stores", and intended to use drones to help customers pick up goods quickly in stores.

Utilizing blockchain technology to track drone deliveries. Previously, the United States Trademark Office issued an application called "Unmanned Aerial Delivery to Secure Location", which shows that Wal Mart will use blockchain technology as a way to track drone shipments. In some implementation cases, the courier box may include a blockchain delivery encryption system for tracking and authentication. Blockchain may track various elements of the package, including but not limited to location, supply chain changes, authentication of the courier and customer, environmental temperature and acceptable thresholds, product temperature (if necessary), package content, etc

Develop the "drone carrier" program. According to US media reports, Wal Mart has applied for a "floating warehouse" in the United States, which can deliver packages to customers' doorsteps through drones. This may be Wal Mart's move to push its e-commerce business to the next level. This' floating warehouse 'looks very much like an airship. It can float in the air at an altitude of over 300 meters, operate autonomously, or be remotely controlled by a pilot. Compared with the current fixed facilities, the floating warehouse will allow Wal Mart to significantly expand its sales area.

Autonomous shopping cart
Autonomous driving technology is not only applied to high-speed vehicles such as cars and airplanes, but also has a wide range of applications in low-speed fields, and autonomous shopping carts are one of them.

As early as September 2016, Wal Mart applied for an driverless shopping cart. According to the description, Wal Mart will install a mechanized device at the bottom of the shopping cart. Customers will call the online shopping cart with smart phones or other devices, and then the shopping cart will be controlled by the central computer to guide users through sensors. During the shopping process, the shopping cart can deliver users to the items they need.

However, it must be noted that this driverless shopping cart of Wal Mart is just an idea for the time being. When it is commercially available depends on Wal Mart's development plan.

Cashier Robot
Nowadays, the application of robots in various fields is becoming increasingly widespread. According to foreign media reports, on July 20, nearly every 4700 Wal Mart stores in the United States were equipped with a Cash360 machine to replace the traditional cashier, and the inventory of goods and cash will be completed by robots.

The Cash360 machine is used to count cash and track store accounts. This machine counts 8 sheets per second and 3000 coins per minute, which is more efficient than human work. As a result, thousands of jobs with an hourly wage of $13 have been cut. This can reduce some labor costs and improve store operational efficiency.

Facial recognition of customer emotions
Distress caused by shopping, queuing, or other situations in supermarkets can occur. For the improvement of offline experience, Wal Mart has developed some "black technologies" using facial recognition technology.

According to foreign media reports, Wal Mart is developing a facial recognition system to identify users' emotions at the checkout. This technology mainly targets the process from queuing to checkout, where cameras record customers' facial expressions and body movements, and then analyze whether they are dissatisfied and to what extent. Once a high level of low mood is detected, the system will warn the employee and record it on file. At the same time, the management will notify the corresponding employee to improve their service level and ease the user's emotions.

In addition, Wal Mart will also use this analysis technology to analyze the trend of buyers' purchase behavior. By using biometric recognition and sentiment data, it is associated with actual user transaction data to detect changes in purchasing habits caused by dissatisfaction. According to Wal Mart's idea, this can help "identify a significant decline in customer consumption, or customers turn to other shopping stores because of accumulated dissatisfaction."

Self service grocery kiosk
In the past June, Wal Mart tested a self-service grocery kiosk, mainly to open up online and offline, and explore new retail models. When users shop online, they choose nearby stores and "self-service". After placing an order and making payment, they will receive a confirmation code. With the confirmation code, they can go to the grocery store to pick up the goods. This service is available 24 hours a day.