Amazon and Best Buy go in on smart Fire TV deal

Best Buy will begin selling more than ten 4K and HD Fire TV Edition televisions models from Insignia, Best Buy’s in-house brand, and Toshiba.

Source: www.usatoday.com

A physical store is more important for new or complex technology that requires an explanation for consumers to really “get” enough to buy. The Fire TV edition TVs lend themselves to exactly what Best Buy offers – a trained staff that can run devices through their paces, giving would-be buyers the kinds of hands-on demonstrations that sell the items. 

 

“Amazon gets all this credit and buzz about how innovative and disruptive it is, but the fact is that until its acquisition of Whole Foods, it was a single channel operator. True scale is no longer achieved in a single channel,” said Carol Spieckerman, a retail analyst with Spieckerman Retail.

 

That’s especially important for Fire TV because it’s an Amazon product that hasn’t always found its way. 

 

“If you go on Amazon.com and you look at reviews of Fire-TV, there are often over 1,000 questions that people ask about connectivity, about compatability. The Best Buy staff can help smooth those friction points and generate sales,” said Spieckerman.

6 Startups Selling Retail Automation Solutions with AI

Amazon recently showcased the use of AI for retail automation. Startups are developing similar tech to turn retail jobs over to the machines. 6 AI startups.

Source: www.nanalyze.com

Earlier this year, autonomous retail store Amazon Go opened to much fanfare, which just goes to show you how much we love buying isht. Every organization on the planet—even the 24-hour Elon Musk show known as Futurism—covered the event as if it were a visit by the pope. Headlines declared that the store of the future is here—and then promptly chased after the next squirrel. We’ve been watching the evolution of retail automation for a while now, so as the store went live in Seattle, we wrote about 11 Examples of Grocery Store Technology that will enable the grocery stores of the future. While Amazon Go is probably the most advanced convenience store on the planet, it’s far from being the only one ushering in the era of retail automation – where self-checkout is replaced by no checkout at all. 

Kiosks Enhance C-Store Offerings

Digital kiosks are providing retailers the ability to provide a wider range of services. By Erin Del Conte, Senior Editor As disruption across channels continues, due to Amazon’s on-going innovation, changing consumer demands and rapidly developing technologies, many channels are turning to kiosks to manage labor

Source: www.cstoredecisions.com

While c-stores have been in the touchscreen food-ordering kiosk game for more than a decade, it is by far the quick-service restaurant industry that is currently leading the charge into the future with food kiosks. Wendy’s embarked on plans to install self-ordering kiosks in about 1,000 of its U.S. franchises at the end of 2017. In January 2018, McDonald’s confirmed plans to add touchscreen ordering kiosks to half of its U.S. restaurants by the end of 2018.

Braum’s Ice Cream & Dairy Chooses NovaDine to Launch Digital & Kiosk Ordering

Raleigh, NC (PRWEB) April 11, 2018 — NovaDine, an online ordering software solution for the restaurant industry, has been selected as the digital ordering

Source: www.prweb.com

NovaDine, an online ordering software solution for the restaurant industry, has been selected as the digital ordering partner/system for Braum’s Ice Cream & Dairy Stores.

 

Oklahoma City-based Braum’s plans to pilot the new service this summer. The service will then be rolled out to the 280 locations that offer three stores in one – a grill, an old-fashioned soda fountain and a fresh market grocery.

 

“We want to make sure that our customers are presented with a platform that is easy to use, quick and efficient,” said Bill Ricks, Vice President at Braum’s. “After extensive research in the online ordering market we found NovaDine’s features and POS integration to be unmatched in the industry. We reached out to their clients and they had nothing but positive things to say about the company. Then we actually began the conversation about initiating this project and were completely blown away by their knowledge and ability to make our vision come to life.” 

City Market betting on new Scan, Bag, Go system to save customers time | SkyHiNews.com

If you walk into Granby’s City Market in coming days you will notice a large new kiosk just past the store’s interior doors and a series of signs reading

Source: www.skyhinews.com

If you walk into Granby’s City Market in coming days you will notice a new kiosk just past the store’s interior doors and a series of signs reading “Scan, Bag, Go.”

Both the kiosk and the signs are part of a new shopping and payment system being set up at City Market and King Soopers stores across the nation. Granby’s City Market is one of 34 stores in Colorado where the new technology is being introduced this spring. Adam Williamson, corporate spokesman for City Market, said the Granby Scan, Bag, Go system is set to go operational on April 19.

“The one commodity that everyone wants is time,” Williamson said. “Once you are comfortable with this system the simplicity is nice. You scan as you go, bag as you go, and pay through either the app, if you have it set up, or pay through self checkout.”

Retailers Race Against Amazon to Automate Stores – The New York Times

The opening of Amazon Go was alarming for many retailers, who saw a sudden willingness by Amazon to wield its power in new ways.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Companies are testing robots that help keep shelves stocked, as well as apps that let shoppers ring up items with a smartphone. High-tech systems like the one used by Amazon Go completely automate the checkout process. China, which has its own ambitious e-commerce companies, is emerging as an especially fertile place for these retail experiments.

 

If they succeed, these new technologies could add further uncertainty to the retail work force, which is already in flux because of the growth of online shopping. An analysis last year by the World Economic Forum said 30 to 50 percent of the world’s retail jobs could be at risk once technologies like automated checkout were fully embraced.

Inside Amazon Go, a Store of the Future – The New York Times

The technology inside Amazon’s new convenience store, opening Monday in downtown Seattle, enables a shopping experience like no other — including no checkout lines.

Source: www.nytimes.com

A big unanswered question is where Amazon plans to take the technology. It won’t say whether it plans to open more Amazon Go stores, or leave this as a one-of-a-kind novelty. A more intriguing possibility is that it could use the technology inside Whole Foods stores, though Ms. Puerini said Amazon has “no plans” to do so.

 

There’s even speculation that Amazon could sell the system to other retailers, much as it sells its cloud computing services to other companies. For now, visitors to Amazon Go may want to watch their purchases: Without a register staring them in the face at checkout, it’s easy to overspend.