As autonomous driving technology comes into view, robomart believes that mobile stores will become the primary retail channel of the future.
As co-founder and CEO of the company, which provides callable mobile shops for retailers, he is already focused on the rise of automation options, especially in food service. Ali Ahmed He said this in an interview with PYMNTS.
“One of the categories that can be called mobile retail are companies that: stella pizza or Muncho” said Ahmed. “They are essentially parking some form of unmanned or automated vehicle at the venue.”
Consumers will shop from these self-driving cars, he added. Meanwhile, on the fulfillment side, the company is thinking about: robot delivery Get some steam.
Mr. Ahmed said Robomart's model is a step forward in labor efficiency, that consumers value the store itself, and that it is faster than delivery because it “doesn't have to pick and pack or pick up orders.” Stated.
Additionally, it's cheaper and faster for consumers than other retail channels.
Through a press release via email, the company said: autonomous retail collective, looping technology providers involved in the field as suppliers or infrastructure providers. This ecosystem aims to accelerate innovation in this category and ultimately create and deploy self-driving stores. Currently, the company's stores are operated by human drivers.
The goal is to provide a fully autonomous experience.
“This is more than just a self-driving shop,” Ahmed said. “It’s a climate-controlled vehicle. It has a separate rack. It has an automatic checkout feature… [using] RFID. ”
While the economics of calling up an entire store seem questionable, Ahmed argues that it works in retailers' favor given that mobile outlets are much cheaper for retailers than brick-and-mortar stores. He argued that it was cheaper. More than delivery.
January issue of the Digital Payments Tracker® Series Report by PYMNTS Intelligence.Unmanned: Payment technology that will change the future of commerce” 84% of U.S. consumers have adopted self-service kiosks, and 66% even express a preference for self-service kiosks over manned checkouts. Additionally, 36% of consumers are specifically looking for smarter, unattended payment alternatives.
However, many consumers are concerned about the increasing role of technology in retail, particularly when it comes to food, which has so far been the core of Robomart's rollout. PYMNTS Intelligence’s “Connected Dining: A robot takes your order” was obtained from a survey of approximately 2,000 U.S. consumers. For example, it was found that the majority were not interested in virtual kitchens and two-thirds were not interested in robot food delivery.
Last year, one company's efforts at ride-hailing meals proved to be ill-fated, and Jet.com co-founder Marc Rohr's wonder company transition from mobile kitchen A standalone omnichannel food hall heading to the consumer's home.
Mr. Ahmed said this shift in policy does not indicate that the economics of callable stores are too difficult to implement, but rather that consumers can order in advance and have a full-fledged fine dining experience while the vehicle is in motion. The company argued that this is not the company's model for preparations to be made. They had to wait outside the consumer's home, which was extremely inefficient.
“If you're looking for something like high-end food, it's a fundamentally different proposition,” Ahmed said, adding that take-out opportunities without pre-ordering are more efficient. “…Why do I have to first decide what I want to eat, make a basket, order it, have it come to me, and have it cooked on the spot?”
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