Retail Asia Expo 2016 Recap - fbicgroup · Retail Asia Expo 2016 Recap • We attended the eighth annual Retail Asia Expo, held June 14–16 in Hong Kong. • The event showcased
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• The event showcased more than 170 local and internationalexhibitorsfocusingonthreeareas:retailtechnology,retaildesignandin-storemarketing,andInternetretailing.
• The latest retail technologies we saw at the event includedaugmented reality (AR), facial recognition, touch-screen vendingmachinesandinteractivemirrors.
This week, the Fung Global Retail & Technology team attended theeighthannualRetailAsiaExpoinHongKong.Theregionaltradeshowis dedicated to retailers and retail solution suppliers. In addition toexhibits, it features seminars, retail awards and networkingopportunities, including a gala dinner and cocktail reception. Thisyear’s expo also included an Interact Experience Space, a new areawherevisitorscouldgainhands-onexperiencewithnewtechnologiesadoptedbyretailers.
Thetradeshowfocusedonthreeareas:retailtechnology,retaildesignand in-store marketing, and Internet retailing. Below, we highlightsomeofthemostpromisingretailtechnologiespresentedattheexpo.
ARinRetail
RetailersuseARtobeabletopresent products tocustomerswithoutneedingtoshow the real physicalobjects. AR headsets arebecoming morecommonplace, but a Frenchtechnology company calledAugment has developed anARapp(availableonbothiOSand Android systems) thatretailers can download anduseindifferentscenarios. Source:FungGlobalRetail&Technology
For example, Coca-Cola’s sales team used the app to demonstratehowthecompany’scoolerscanfitintoretailstores.Withtheapp,thesalesrepresentativescouldsimulate3Dcoolerconfigurationsontheirmobiledevicewithouthavingtobringtherealcoolerswiththem.Theappalsoallowssalesrepresentativestopresenttheirentireinventoryofavailableproducts in3D,evenwhensomeoftheproductsarenotontheshowroomfloor.
FacialRecognition
Technology company Cognitec Systems displayed videos with facialrecognitionfunctionalitythatcanrecognizeandanalyzepeopleinlivevideo streams and provide retailers with an analysis of visitordemographics, such as age range and gender. The facial recognitionfunctionprovidesmoreaccuratevisitorcountsbyreducingthechanceofdoublecounting.
We also saw innovations in closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems,whichcanhelp retail storescollectvisitor information, inaddition totheir traditional application in monitoring store security. SecuritysolutionproviderGuardforcedisplayedCCTVproductsthatcancountnumbersofvisitorsandanalyzewhichareasorproducts in thestorehaveattractedthemostvisitors.
Touch-ScreenVendingMachines
A new generation of vending machines display products on a big,interactive LED touch screen that includes a product menu andadvertisingvideos,andallowsitemselection.Comparedtotraditionalvendingmachines, the touch-screenvendingmachines storeand sellmore products of greater variety. For example, traditional vendingmachines are mostly used in selling snacks and bottled drinks, andtheyoften sell onlyone categoryof product.However, touch-screenvending machines sell different categories of products at the sametime, such as medicine, cosmetics and accessories, in addition tosnacksanddrinks.
The touch-screen vending machines we saw at the Retail Asia Exposupporte-paymentmethods,includingNFC,QRcodepaymentandtheHongKongOctopus card. They canalsoprovide statistical reportsofsalesandinventory.
InteractiveMirrors
Anothertypeofwidelydisplayedretailtechnologyattheexpowastheinteractive mirror. These mirrors are mostly used in apparel stores,wheretheydisplayproduct-relatedinformationascustomerslookintothemwhiletryingonclothes.