retail automation process
From CrunchBase Jun2021
In Brief:
- Expediting food orders with robots is major selling point for Wings
- People order a million ways, but food is made one way
- Constraints of job market and attractiveness of jobs
- Fear of interacting with unvaccinated people is major problem
- Headless checkout — see a bowl of soup you want to buy? You can buy the soup but on the same screen you can buy the bowl if you want, without leaving the screen.
- Investment — Since 2017, more than $3.2 billion was invested into 329 U.S.-based companies focused on retail technology, per Crunchbase data.* So far in 2021, 36 companies have raised $297 million.
- Interesting online data table — *The query used for this article was U.S. Retail Technology Companies, in which the organization industry was “retail technology” and companies headquartered in the United States. This list includes companies in categories, such as e-commerce, analytics, grocery and software.
Excerpt:
Touchscreens, kiosks, headless commerce, drones and even robots delivering pizza are the present and the future of the retail and restaurant industries as those sectors grapple with continued labor shortages, experts say, and that spells growth for startups focused on automation technologies.
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“Wings created its lab to understand the psychology behind this,” said Haitham Al-Beik, founder and CEO at Massachusetts-based robotics startup Wings. “We invent robotics that make sense, don’t take up a huge amount of space in the kitchen and elevate this industry.”
Wings, which has raised $750,000 in venture funding, per Crunchbase data, makes purpose-built robotics, some that come down from the ceiling, and expedite food orders without human assistance. By automating the mundane tasks with robotics, chefs aren’t cutting tomatoes, but spending more time being creative with their food ideas, Al-Beik said.
Read complete article at CrunchBase Jun2021
