Years ago the way of buying was enormously different from today: it involved going to a physical establishment. Depending on the product to be purchased, the visit to the (first) store gave rise to a tedious process of comparing products and prices between stores, consulting catalogs and magazines in search of the best offers, conversations with friends and family to ask for opinions , etc. Nowadays, thanks to constant technological advances, all this has been replaced by a few clicks and a few minutes of our valuable time.

Despite this change in mentality in the consumption of goods and services, physical stores have not died as many false prophets claimed in 2017 proclaiming the "Retail Apocalypse". Quite the contrary: physical spaces are gaining more and more strength. In fact, there are more and more cases of purely online companies that open physical establishments where they market their products , or more “traditional” brands that open stores where you can only buy online.

These and many other strategies respond to the current need for omnichannel , that is, to reach consumers through all possible channels. In this way, someone can develop some interest in a product for which they have seen good ratings on a social network, find out more through Amazon or any other online sales portal, go to the store on duty to try it and finalize the purchase. through a mobile device.

Far from being dead, the predictions for this 2018 and the coming years affirm that more physical establishments will open than they will close . The difference is that they will not be “brick and mortar” places as we used to know them, but rather centers dedicated to the entertainment of consumers , to whom they will offer diverse and personalized experiences that will provide immense added value, both for the client and for the user. own business.

In this framework of in-store experiences and purchases personalized to the extreme for each customer, the Internet of Things plays a determining role. Only the use of highly connected technology makes it possible to collect and subsequently process the enormous volume of information necessary to model the ever-changing Retail ecosystem and give each person, at each moment, the experiences and products they want.

The retail sector has welcomed the Internet of Things with open arms and sees it as the definitive tool to increase sales, better satisfy customers and, furthermore, better manage physical establishments. If the latest studies are correct, in 2024 the IoT will bring benefits to the Retail sector of around 30,000 million dollars. The bet looks like a winner.

One of the main uses of IoT devices and sensors is the collection of large amounts of data automatically, thus eliminating the need for a physical person to take the measurements or make the relevant checks. It is already known that information is power, and with IoT technology we have more than enough.

For example, thanks to the implementation of smart shelves (or Smart Shelves), inventory control in the store is child's play. It is the shelves themselves that, through RFID technology, control the stock of the products and notify those responsible when the quantities fall below an established minimum. In addition, they represent an extra layer of security against theft: this Smart technology is difficult to fool.Another clear example, very fashionable today, is digital signage or Digital Signage; With it, not only advertising costs are significantly reduced, but it also allows prices and offers to be updated in real time based on, for example, comments on social networks about products or information obtained from smart shelves.

These examples, while striking, pale in comparison to what can be achieved if we add robotics and artificial intelligence to the equation. Long ago, the main problem in getting a machine to behave in a similar way to a human was the need to train it, make it “learn”, making a large volume of segmented and annotated information available to it. We have already seen how with a few sensors here and there and a few IoT elements, getting a lot of quality data is easy. We should not be surprised when we enter a store and the attendants are robots, or in the warehouses we see nothing but intelligent drones.

In recent years, IoT technology has brought about a revolution when it comes to facing complex tasks, such as logistics, the maintenance of merchandise warehouses and the management of stores and their products, among others. The main trend now is to put all that technological power at the service of customers, the true protagonists of Retail.

No more going to a store, taking a look and buying a product, after paying the amount in cash. In this digital age, people are looking for an added value that justifies giving up the comfort of their sofas, from those they can buy to a desert island with just a few clicks, and go to a physical establishment.

That added value is none other than being able to live a unique and totally personalized experience.

Why not be able to test running shoes in a tunnel that simulates different types of terrain and makes you feel like you're on an athletics track?

Why go to the dressing room with a basket full of clothes when we can see, in Augmented Reality, how any garment in the store would look on us?

What is the point of customers physically trying on 20 watches when they can simulate as many as they want on their wrist with Virtual Reality technology?

People like, why not admit it, to be the center of attention for a while. We want the robotic assistant of the store to know what we are going to buy before entering the door, to suggest a size or color (without being too smart) and what complementary products may interest us, or for all this to be done by a “beacon” sending us a notification to the mobile. We want paying for products to require no more effort than bringing the mobile closer to a contactless charging device. We want, why not, to interact ourselves with that technology,look at the store's catalog on a fully tactile totem (from which we can also buy, of course), that our children are entertained with Mixed Reality games designed especially for them, that personalizing shoes is as easy as interacting with a projection 3D of the same… This is how we clients 4.0.

What does the future look like? It is very difficult to make predictions in a sector as volatile and changing as Retail. Without going any further, in 2017 it seemed that the world was ending for physical stores and, a year later, they are the new panacea and one of the most differential channels when it comes to impacting and communicating with customers.

Furthermore, we cannot forget that “the customer is always right”. If 5 years from now people decide that shopping consists only of chatting for a while with the voice assistant of our smart home and that in a few hours a drone leaves the order in a locker at the entrance of our building, the physical stores will have disappeared, but this time for real.

What is clear is that, whatever happens, technology will be the engine of change. The term IoT, or “things connected to each other, either through the Internet or through other channels”, is starting to fall a bit short. We are inadvertently entering the era of IoP (Internet of People) or “Internet of People”, or even the era of IoE (Internet of Everything) or “Internet of Everything”. Whatever name we give it, it is an era in which people are nothing more than "objects" connected to the digital ecosystem.

Could this be the new revolutionary idea in Retail? Have we already lost our identity as people at that time? Only time will tell.