SmartStores are stores that use smart technology, i.e., technology consisting of RFID, smart shelves, smart scales, smart carts, and smart cards, etc. Shoppers can buy products as easily as putting products into a shopping cart and then walking out the exit without going through a cashier. The customers shopping cart is automatically scanned in an instant as the shopper walks out the door. The money is then deducted from the customer’s account or paid for with one swipe of a smart card or phone.
From the retailers perspective, the store is also smart for them. Products that enter the store are scanned instantly at a checkpoint because all products are branded with RFID technology. Smart shelves know what products are on display, what is sold, and what is sitting in the warehouse. Products that leave the store are automatically recorded as sold prompting the backend system to fill the shelf when required.
The customers cart is scanned once at a checkpoint and pays either by deducting the cost from a default account (brick and mortar one click shopping) or a smart card or phone transaction. All this means that a smart store never needs to a perform a stock take because any given time, the retailer knows what they have and what they need to order. Smart stores can save retailers millions of dollars because of efficiencies and less staffing.
