Retail giant Shoprite is investing in technology to increase the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to reduce food wastage and long queues, ensure stock availability and drive sales.
With 1,200 employees working at its technology division — from data analysts to software engineers and technicians — the owner of brands such as Checkers, USave and OK continues to overhaul its software and hardware as it uses technology to collect huge amounts of data, mainly from points of sale/tills, e-commerce sites, digital platforms and loyalty cards.
This data is used, among other things, to provide personalised sales, keep track of inventory on shelves and for supply chain planning.
With buying patterns being constantly monitored by technologies deployed by the company, in future customers shopping in store will be reminded at till points of items they usually buy but seemed to have forgotten as part of their weekly or monthly shopping.
David Cohn, Shoprite group chief information officer, said if the system picks up that every week a customer buys a certain item and this week you don’t buy, “we can give you an alert immediately”.
“We know how frustrating it is to forget an item. So those are in conceptual stages and we are playing with ideas. Those are the nuances we still have to work through.”
It's always about timing, cost-effectiveness and the interest of customers
— Chris Steyn, head of data and analytics at Shoprite Technology
Online delivery platform Checkers Sixty60 already reminds shoppers of some items and this will be extended to in-store till points.
Chris Steyn, head of data and analytics at Shoprite Technology, said three years ago the company did an exercise on point of sale transactions that was matched to a chef’s recipe, and once it is detected that some of the items could be for lamb curry, for example, it would prompt the customer to add another product to complete the recipe.
“We didn't have the ability to influence the cashier in real time ... but we never lose track of this system. As the landscape is changing, those will be the things that we will be unpacking. It is very easy to do this on digital channels like Sixty60, and will do this at till point once technology allows.”
Steyn said Shoprite’s new hardware and software at stores will give the team the ability to stream data from stores into data models in real time. Now, this data is updated every 15 minutes. “We will have the ability to get real-time information of what's happening at points of sale.”
Globally, some retailers have screens on shopping trolleys that stream specials and other information, such as reminding shoppers of favourite items they may have forgotten.
Steyn said the group has investigated this but the business case for it is not strong. “It's always about timing, cost-effectiveness and the interest of customers. We are constantly researching these things, sometimes parking them and later returning to them.”
Smart tags and advanced radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology that Checkers looked at a number of years ago has been deployed at Shoprite’s clothing retailer UNIQ and enables self-checkout, also thanks to the reduction in price of those tags in the past few years.
Customers place items in a basin fitted with technology that reads the RFID tags on the clothes, calculating the amount payable.
This is unlikely to be extended to food until the technology improves. Checkers tested this model about two years ago at its headquarters' stores but it did not work. Cohn said if the RFID is attached to metal or something with liquid it does not work.
But Steyn said the group will continue its research on RFID for groceries and keeping track of changes in technology “to ensure that when the market changes, we can act on it”.
Debbie Cunningham, head of digital technologies at Shoprite Technology, said with the evolution of technology, “great success comes with pre-empting what the customer wants without them even being able to articulate what it is. [We] want to test and try different concepts in anticipation of what will happen. We forever question what is right and good for customers and drive solutions with that in mind.”
In some cases Shoprite Technology implements its own technology, including design, installation, maintenance and support in-house, while with some big projects it uses third parties.
Shoprite, which has over the past year grown its market share, is also using artificial intelligence to track store performance, including stock levels; the days, time and period of the month when shops are at their busiest; and events happening in a particular area that may influence shopping. It uses this information to plan with its distribution centre and suppliers.
“Application of data in supply chains is monstrous. We sum all the data we get from stores to make sure distribution centres have enough stock to send to the stores in time. The whole supply chain is huge; every kind of technology you can think of is there. From tracking, checking efficient routes, driver alerts, how to secure stock on the truck in a way that makes it easier to offload and get stock on shelves faster. There is incredibly intense usage of data in that planning space, including where to place product in DCs [distribution centres],” said Cohn.
Delivery trucks are installed with solar power for refrigeration of products.
To avoid long queues, Cohn said Shoprite will use the data collected to ensure that on days when there are many shoppers, there are enough tellers and packers. In some cases that information is used to plan a new store in the same area.
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