How Vision Technology Enhances The In-Store Experience

By Nick Tabet and Darrell Owen, Datalogic

This is the third article in a five-part series about how retailers can use technology to create a top-tier, modern shopping experience. The first two articles can be found here: Part 1: Automate The Retail Supply Chain Using Vision & Imaging Technology and Part 2: Retail Inventory Management Benefits from Vision & Imaging Technology. 

Shoppers have almost unlimited options for their retail spending today. To differentiate, retailers leverage technology to improve the shopping experience and keep customers coming back. Image and vision technology is essential in this effort.

Prioritizing inventory accuracy

Regardless of format — brick-and-mortar or online — a positive shopping experience hinges on inventory accuracy. Gone are the days of fulfilling a customer order from a centralized warehouse. Today the physical store has become an inventory location. If a local store has the item, it can quickly be available for pickup or shipment from that location with faster delivery time. This requires hyper inventory accuracy throughout the enterprise. For stores, technology such as handheld imaging scanners and mobile computers, along with vision-based POS devices, ensure local inventory accuracy is maximized.

The same technology that facilitates purchase and delivery can improve the customer experience by unifying multiple delivery or return channels for the consumer. Vision technology provides a unified approach so a customer can buy online, pick up at a store, and have the flexibility to return to a different store location than where the pickup was made. This flexibility reduces the hassles shoppers experience when buying or returning items.