ZigBee Retail Services – Delivering Next Generation ...

© 2013 ZigBee Alliance. All rights reserved. www.zigbee.org1

ZigBee Retail Services – Delivering NextGeneration Shopping Experience ZigBee enables advanced retail experiences and services

October 2013

© 2013 ZigBee Alliance. All rights reserved. www.zigbee.org

ZigBee Retail Services– Delivering Next Generation Shopping Experience October 2013

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Foreword

Since its inception, the ZigBee Alliance has worked with a singular focus: to create a much-needed global wireless language capable of connecting the myriad of everyday devicesthat pervade our living and work environments as we go about our daily lives. This focus isaimed at the ubiquitous devices often overlooked in an IT-centric world such as lights,switches, thermostats, security sensors, electricity meters and remote controls. In addition,there are more complex sensor devices found abundantly in the health care, commercialbuilding and industrial automation sectors. By connecting these everyday devices, aMachine-to-Machine (M2M) network or Internet of Things is created that significantlyenhances comfort, convenience, security and control for consumers and businesses alike.The more than 400 ZigBee Alliance members have created a smart set of global, open, lowpower wireless standards offering extraordinary control, expandability, energy efficiency,security, and ease of use by enabling connectivity of billions of everyday devices andtransforming how we experience and control our environments in the 21st century.

Today, organizations are using ZigBee technology to deliver innovative solutions for avariety of applications including consumer electronic device control, energy managementand efficiency, health care, telecom services, home and commercial building automationand industrial automation. The ZigBee Alliance is a thriving ecosystem with over 400members. It offers a strong ecosystem of companies and products across the value chainhelping create the Internet of Things that is going to dramatically alter the way we aregoing to live and work in the future. Retail can now use this technology as well to enhancethe shopping experience while improving operational efficiencies and reducing costs atthe same time.



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Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Defining a New Customer Shopping Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

ZigBee Retail Services Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Key Use Cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Location engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Better Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Payment Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Retail Employee Use Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Electronic Shelf Labels and Electronic Shelf Edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

In-home scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

List of Figures

Figure 1: Holistic approach to the retail ecosystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Figure 2: Customer or Cart Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Figure 3: System-level diagram of a Retail Services implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Figure 4: General System Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Figure 5: Location Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Figure 6: Customer Payment Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Figure 7: Electronic Shelf Label Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Figure 8: In Home Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12


1. IntroductionZigBee Retail Services™ helps retailers reinvent theshopping experience for a customer-centric process bylayering new control capabilities into everyday tasks.With this innovative technology, ZigBee Retail Servicesenables retailers to increase productivity, strengthencustomer loyalty and streamline operations with theunderpinnings of a comprehensive data-driveninfrastructure tailored to the retail environment. Theunderlying mesh network infrastructure provided byZigBee is ideal for implementing the retail servicecomponents of a system that enhances the shoppers’experience and brings greater efficiencies to retailers.Standardized retail services solutions enable retailersto build networks incrementally and cost-effectivelywith components, and to scale by adding additionaldevices with specific functions without expanding thenetwork infrastructure or integrating new softwareinto the retail system’s back-end servers.

Figure 1: Holistic approach to the retail ecosystem

The ZigBee Alliance-defined components automatethe retail environment to enhance shoppers’experience, such as:

• More consumer control• Help in remembering what to buy• Locating products easily• Determining the price of an item• Finding help easily when needed• Reduced wait time to pay and bag items

The components bring efficiencies to the retailerthrough:

• Data collection• Shelf item management• Inventory management• Asset management• Physical plant management• Personnel management• Risk abatement• Reduced shrinkage and spoilage

In order to facilitate shoppers’ active participation andretailer efficiencies, we envision enabling many of thekey components of the retail space with ZigBeesystems, creating a holistic wireless network thatincludes the shoppers themselves, IntelligentShopping Carts, and shelf tags.

2. Defining a New Customer ShoppingExperience

Imagine a customer arriving at a store with a portableelectronic Personal Shopping Assistant. As thecustomer approaches the store, the handheld devicecommunicates with and then joins the store’s holisticretail network. When the shopper chooses anIntelligent Shopping Cart that is already part of thestore’s network, the Personal Shopping Assistantcreates a relationship with the cart that the networkunderstands and, more specifically, the back-officeretail server understands.

At the same time, the network’s location engine startsa trace of the Personal Shopping Assistant and theIntelligent Shopping Cart that records the shopper’smovements through the store and the parking lot.

If the shopper uploads a shopping list prior to arriving,the retail server communicates the best way tonavigate the store using the shopping list.Furthermore, the retail server also informs the shopperabout special offers or other promotional events suchas coupons related to the shopping list. If the PersonalShopping Assistant indicates the need for aprescription, the network triggers an order for the in-store pharmacy and adds the directions to the pickupwindow to the customer’s shopping path. Should thecustomer need help, store personnel can get to the


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customer quickly assisted by the location engine.

Finally, the customer is able to breeze throughcheckout as the items in the cart have alreadybeen scanned.

FIgure 2: Customer or Cart Interactions

The ZigBee Retail Services standard defines themessages being exchanged between the PersonalShopping Assistants, the carts and the retail server. TheZigBee PRO specification, the base networking system,handles the joining and authentication process, whichis guided by notes in the ZigBee Retail Servicesstandard. With messaging, the retail tunnel clustercovers the specific application messages between thePersonal Shopping Assistant and the retail server, andthe ZigBee Telecom Services™ location cluster coverslocation services. All are standard ZigBee messages.

As the customer shops, scanned items and PersonalShopping Assistant information are communicated tothe retail server through retail tunnel messages. As theback office receives UPC messages from the customer’sPersonal Shopping Assistant, it compares the weightchange reported by the load cell in the IntelligentShopping Cart with the known weight of the itemthrough its UPC code. If the weights match, the item isaccepted and a text message or another feedbackmechanism displays on the Personal ShoppingAssistant. However, if there is a discrepancy, the

customer receives an alert on the mismatch andinstructions on how to correct the discrepancy. Thesystem tracks if a particular customer is having troubleby registering a high number of discrepancies and itdispatches a retail associate to help based on locationinformation from the shopper’s handheld device.

As the customer continues to shop, the retail serverbuilds the invoice for the cart, as well as other logisticaldata about the customer’s path through the store.

The system recognizes that the customer is ready toleave when the customer enters a “checkout” area. Theretail server transmits the invoice through the retailenterprise network to a POS system that enables thecustomer to complete the transaction.

The customer can then leave the store with the items.When the Personal Shopping Assistant leaves theholistic retail network, the relationship between thecart and the Personal Shopping Assistant is severed.

In the scenario described above, much of thecomplexity of the mobility of the Personal ShoppingAssistant and the cart is hidden from the customer. Forexample, in cellular networks, mobile devices that areend nodes move about and need to migrate fromrouter to router or access point to access pointdepending on the specific network implementation.This mobility causes the mobile devices to roamvarious access points as they move, and this, in turn,causes the holistic retail network’s routing tables to bein continual flux. ZigBee in general, and the ZigBeeRetail Services and ZigBee Telecom Services inparticular, are designed to handle complexity of thismobility, making it possible to have mobility andefficient network use in the same dynamicenvironment.

This use provides customers with an in-storeexperience that enables them to shop at their ownpace, check prices easily, view their running financialtotal as they shop, locate products, scan and bagproducts their way, and minimizes the touching ofitems by others, pay for goods with minimal storeassociate interaction and experience minimal audit


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processes. In addition, it allows for payment withminimal associate interaction, and minimizes auditprocesses. This experience carries over to at-homeshopping uses that enable the creation of shoppinglists, price comparisons, and coupon offers. It alsoreduces out-of-stock situations when customersarrive at the retailer. Additional services couldinclude support for pharmacy services or allergyalerts. What this really boils down to is an experiencewhere the customers have complete control of theirshopping experience, at their own pace withopportunities, gently aided by the technology, tosave time and/or money.

3. ZigBee Retail Services DevicesThe core ZigBee Retail Services devices envisioned inthe system includes:

• Personal Shopping Assistant: Customer deviceswith a bar code scanner to read Universal ProductCode (UPC) labels on products, a two-waycommunication display, a keypad, audiocomponents, and more.

• Intelligent Shopping Cart: Standard shoppingcarts equipped with a load cell designed to senseweight similar to self-checkout kiosks used atgrocery stores today.

• Fixed Access Points: The process of one deviceconnecting to another device in the holistic retailnetwork including the retailer’s back office and agateway device sitting between the store’s holisticretail network and back office.

Figure 3 provides a system-level diagram of the typicalinfrastructure.

Figure 3: System-level diagram of a Retail Services implementation.

Other ZigBee Retail Services devices include:• Employee Customer Concierge: A device similar tothe Personal Shopping Assistant with addedmanagement capabilities to help locate and assistcustomers, re-stock shelves and completepersonal shopping tasks.

• Electronic Shelf Labels: Digital displays with priceand product information.

• Asset Tracking Tags: Devices applied to pallets,forklifts, hand carts, ladders, maintenance andcleaning equipment, and other high-value assetswhich enable decision-making based on historicallocation data.

• Electronic Shelf Edges: Larger multi-media displaydevices showing advertising, product information,movies and more.

• Other Components from ZigBee Standards:Components such as ZigBee BuildingAutomation™ for environmental control, ZigBeeHealth Care™ for pharmacy/clinic operations,ZigBee Light Link™ for lighting control, ZigBeeRemote Control™ for display device controls, orZigBee Smart Energy™ for energy management.

The ZigBee Retail Services network also extends intothe shopper’s home, enabling the shopper’shandheld Personal Shopping Assistant or ZigBee-equipped smartphone to interact with the retailer’senterprise network through an in-home gatewaydevice. This would enable the customer to takecontrol of their shopping experience even beforethey have left their home.

4. Key Use CasesA number of routine activities benefit from increasedconnectivity and control. Below are several key areasaddressed by ZigBee Retail Services.

1) Advanced Shopping: The use of ZigBee handhelddevices and shopping carts lets stores personalizeand customize each shopper’s experience.Shoppers scan items just once using a PersonalShopping Assistant before placing them in theIntelligent Shopping Cart. Personal ShoppingAssistants connect to the holistic retail networkseamlessly and communicates the UPCinformation of each item and the incrementalweight change in the cart to a back-end server. It


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is then verified and added to the ongoing list ofitems the shopper has collected and may triggercustomized purchase recommendations, sales orspecial offers. If the incremental weight reportedby the shopping cart correlates with the recordedweight of the item scanned, the PersonalShopping Assistant adds it to the shopping list. If,on the other hand, the weight does not correlatewith the item, the customer receives a messageon the Personal Shopping Assistant directing thecustomer to either rescan the item or return it tothe shelf. It would also trigger an alert to thesupport staff of the retail facility to assist thecustomer if necessary, for instance if the customeris scanning an item multiple times but the PSA isnot adding it to the shopping list which wouldindicate some technical glitch.

The Personal Shopping Assistant can exchange abroad range of information with the retailer’sback-end servers and personalize a customer’sshopping experience.

For example:• Current shopping and loyalty (if applicable)information

• Daily sales information• Forthcoming sales opportunities• Real-time customer information (e.g, noticeto/from pharmacy such as prescription isordered/ready)

• Special retail offers for “preferred” customers• Help requests to/from Retail Associates, productlocation services

In conjunction with the location engine that is part ofthe holistic retail network, the Personal ShoppingAssistant updates information on items that theshopper is approaching based on the shopper’sprojected path through the store.

The announcements on the Personal ShoppingAssistant could also be tailored using shopper-specificprofiles that determine the level and variety ofannouncements that the shopper wants to receive.

These announcements might be:• Product advertisement • Alerts (such as health and ingredient conflicts)

• Personalized downloading based on customerprofiles and shopping lists

The Personal Shopping Assistant also provides two-way voice and text or short messaging service (SMS)-like communication with store personnel.

2) Customer-Centric Personal Shopping AssistantUsed at Multiple Retailers: In some situations, thecustomer owns the Personal Shopping Assistantinstead of the retailer. As such, the shopper wouldcarry the device home as well as to other retaillocations and potentially competitive retailers.Some scenarios include the use of the PersonalShopping Assistant in retail mall environments orat different retailers within the same complex. ThePersonal Shopping Assistant becomes an essentialpart of the customer shopping experience as theshopper moves from store to store.

A variation of this general case is the use of thePersonal Shopping Assistant at multiple locationsof the same retailer, potentially eveninternationally. Here, the retailer’s enterprisesystems allows shopper’s information and systemaccess credentials to be distributed to a specificstore location when shoppers visit with theirPersonal Shopping Assistant.

3) Customer Retail At-Home Experience: With acustomer-centric handheld ZigBee device athome, the customer can build shopping lists orinquire about product availability using thePersonal Shopping Assistant through agateway device that communicates with theretailer’s enterprise services over the Internet.Further, when a customer arrives at a store witha preloaded shopping list, the PersonalShopping Assistant guides the customerthrough the store using the most efficient path.This eliminates the need to walk up and downaisles looking for specific items or looking forhelp finding specific items.

4) Asset Tracking and Customer Behavior: Theshopper’s Personal Shopping Assistant andIntelligent Shopping Cart are tracked therebygathering critical shopping behavior data andtracking of store assets. Retailers gain insight


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into how and where customers move throughthe retail floor space, how long they pause at aspecific location, locations where they do notshop and how quickly or slowly they travelthrough specific areas. This data providesfeedback into how well areas of the retail floorplan are performing and how and where toimprove merchandising and increasemarketing opportunities. In an emergency,specific tracking data helps to locate customersin distress. Alternately, using this same locationfeature for the Intelligent Shopping Cart, itprovides asset tracking of the cart itself orother items in the store that are mobile and injeopardy of being removed.

5) Personnel/Inventory Tracking: As with thePersonal Shopping Assistant, retail associates usean enhanced version of the device to track itemson the shelf for stocking or re-stocking. With thedevice location feature, management monitorsassociates’ effectiveness at specific tasks usingreal-time interaction with the retail back-endserver to provide detailed task management andreporting.

6) Electronic Shelf Labels and Shelf Edges: Shelflabels, the electronic versions of price tags,product information, and sales information seenon the retail shelf today, allows for two-wayradio contact with the retailer’s back office. Theprimary goal is to enable the retailer to updatepricing and other critical information displayedon the shelf tags in real time and at the push ofa button. More advanced scenarios have theshelf tags interacting with the back-end serverlocation engines to personalize shelf tags whencustomers approach the item in question. A usecase for this is to flash the display on the tagwhen an approaching shopper has that item onthe handheld shopping list, thereby drawingattention to the item’s location.

7) ZigBee is ideal to accomplish the sensing andcommunications processes required for tasksassociated with supply chain management.Managing this side of the retail equation improvesthe way a company finds the raw materials itneeds to make a product or service and deliver it

to customers. In the context of the retailenvironment, it involves:• Obtaining raw materials for production ofmarketable goods

• Asset tracking (e.g., people, forklifts, handtrucks, pallets, tractor trailers, special materials)

• Just-in-time inventory• Virtual demand and predictive inventory• Cold chain management• Delivery loading/unloading• Warehousing/location of raw materials andproducts

• Monitoring temperatures, humidity, unusualmotion, salinity, spills, etc.

• Monitoring sort systems in warehouses• Monitoring activities for safety and security(e.g, video)

• Maintain telematics information for trucks andother vehicles

• Return/exchange strategy

These factors are the critical elements ofsuccessful supply chain management. As anexample, ZigBee technology is already being usedfor monitoring the integrity of refrigeration intruck fleets transporting perishables. Wirelesssensors deployed in pallets to monitor that thecorrect temperature is maintained from origin todestination can be mesh networked using ZigBeeand the information can be sent regularly to thecentral servers. Since ZigBee technology is ultra-low power it is well suited even for long distancetransportation. When the trucks reach theirdestination the monitoring data for the trip can besent to the systems in the receiving facility andany pallet that was not maintained at the righttemperature through the trip can be easilyidentified and not offloaded at all. This proactiveability to identify refrigeration failures can helpminimize spoilage, avoidable paperwork likeinsurance claims etc. The same network can alsobe leveraged to identify spillage en route. This canhave a huge impact on businesses in reducingoperating costs and quality issues.

8) Other ZigBee standards, including ZigBee BuildingAutomation™, ZigBee Health Care™, ZigBee SmartEnergy™ and ZigBee Light Link™, specifically relateto retail operations, safety and security. These inclue:


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• Food Safety Management to report storagetemperatures, humidity conditions in coolers,meat lockers and more.

• Temperature alerts for other appropriate areasas required (such as meats or dairy)

• HVAC systems monitoring• Open/close restricted entrances, windows, etc.monitoring

• Health hazards/high-risk areas monitoring• Safety alerts (for fire, flooding, earthquakes, etc.)• Shelf-stocking issue monitoring

The efficient operation of lighting systems, controlof temperatures and preventive maintenance canrepresent significant savings for any retailer. Forlarger retail chains that can include thousands ofstores and other facilities, it can result insubstantial savings. Large retailing leaders such asKroger are very committed to supporting food atsafe temperatures, which entails very accurate andreliable monitoring of coolers, produce, meat andother perishables. This has an impact on safety forconsumers and also the lifespan of products. Forexample, strawberries should last four to five daysafter purchase but if they have been exposed tohigher temperatures, they will not last that long.Not only does ZigBee technology enable retailersto keep out of specification products from beingsold to customers, but also assists in preventivemaintenance of devices reducing spoilage andenergy wastage. Energy savings can translate intobig dollars and in fact, studies have shown thatthe energy saved is equivalent to one year’spayback of infrastructure cost.

Linking the monitoring and control of the physicalplant to other aspects found in the ZigBee RetailServices standard such as personnel tracking, canyield further benefits in terms of safety, reporting,and risk mitigation.

A prototypical system diagram displays below.

FIgure 4: General System Diagram

5. Location engineA key component of ZigBee Retail Services is thelocation engine, a system which tracks the location ofall radio-enabled elements, or more typically, trackingthe location of the mobile elements, the PersonalShopping Assistant and the Intelligent Shopping Cart.

The devices which require location tracking can usethe Location Cluster from the ZigBee Cluster Library.This cluster provides a means for exchanging ReceivedSignal Strength Indication (RSSI) information amongone-hop devices as well as messages to report RSSIdata to a centralized device that collects all the RSSIdata in the network.


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The example below displays the usage of the RSSIlocation cluster:

Figure 5: Location Engine

This mechanism forms the basis for all the trackingmechanisms in the ZigBee Retail Services standardfrom customer tracking through asset tracking and hasa significant impact on the quality of service beingdelivered by the retailers.

6. The Better SolutionAdvanced retail services are ideally suited for ZigBeewireless technology versus 802.11 (wirelesstechnology) because retail mobile devices require lowcost, long battery life, high security (encrypted data)and maximum location accuracy.

• Most ZigBee devices are typically in sleep modeuntil they need to communicate data. Comparethis to always-powered-on 802.11 devices thatmust be mains powered or require repeatedcharging during the course of the day.

• ZigBee uses radio technologies with blockingfeatures specifically designed to reduceunwanted radio signals. This allows ZigBeedevices to get their messages through on thefirst try. Repeated retransmissions reduce totalbattery life and add latency into devicesreceiving information. By contrast, 802.11devices are naturally very chatty. These frequent

and unnecessary message status transmissionsreduce battery life.

• ZigBee devices operate on a secure networkallowing devices to enter and exit the network.Each one of these ZigBee devices only operateswith another secure device in the network.

• ZigBee networks use robust mesh technologywith built in redundancies and no single point offailure, versus a star network used by 802.11.ZigBee routing devices pass data, allowing asmall number of devices to achieve greater totalrange than any 802.11 network. 802.11 devicesuse a star network, requiring the receivingdevice be within range of the transmittingdevice with potential for points of failure.

7. Payment ScenarioWhen the customer reaches a Point-of-Sales (POS)station, an invoice for the items scanned and added tothe Intelligent Shopping Cart is presentedautomatically to the shopper with payment options.The retail system’s back end communicates theinformation for the invoice to the POS system. Thelocation engine in both the customer’s PersonalShopping Assistant and the Intelligent Shopping Carttriggers the checkout process as the shopper entersthe checkout area. With the handoff completed, thePOS system, which is not specifically part of the retailservices profile but still an essential part of the overallsystem, takes over, enabling the shopper to speedilypay for the items and exit the store.

Figure 6: Customer Payment Experience


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8. Retail Employee Use CaseThe retail-employee use case is similar to thecustomer handheld case. The two devices are verysimilar, and often, the same device. The usagescenarios differ from the customer’s use. In particular,the retail employee uses the device, at a minimum,to track the location of the Retail Associate over timeto allow for labor tracking. The UPC scanner in thedevice is used for shelf-level inventory control, ascenario that is the opposite of the customershopping experience; the item is registered as addedto the shelf rather than removed. The item scansprovide the back-end servers with the informationneeded to manage shelf-level inventory. TheEmployee Customer Concierge device is used forUPC scanning and still images, shelf-level inventorycontrol, capturing photos for security, compliance,and task completion audits. Through the device’sdisplay and potential two-way audio components,management can communicate directly with theretail associate to provide updates or revised work.

9. Electronic Shelf Labels and ElectronicShelf Edges

Future releases of ZigBee Retail Services are expectedto address the use of electronic shelf labels and multi-media shelf edge devices that would replace thecurrent shelf tags that display pricing for the items onthe shelf and other item-oriented information. Theelectronic shelf tag is a display device that allows theitem information, such as a description and its price, todisplay to the customer and allows updating of thisinformation on tag-by-tag basis through the holisticretail network.

Other functions the tags might perform are alertingspecific customers to special offers or alerting theshopper to the shelf location of an item when theshopper is in the area. This can help the retailer inaccomplishing higher sales per visit by the customer.

Figure 7: Electronic Shelf Label Interactions

10. In-home scenarioThe customer Personal Shopping Assistant is a specialretail device that is used in multiple networks. Thecustomer may register with multiple retailers, as well asaccess the retail information from locations other thanthe holistic retail network (e.g., from their home,friends’ homes, hotspots, hotels, etc.) The mostprominent example is of a consumer connecting thePersonal Shopping Assistant via a gateway at home.

With the device at home, the customer createsshopping lists and checks item availability or priceprior to visiting the store, either by entering the dataon the device or by scanning an item’s UPC.


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A system level diagram of the in-home case isdiplayed below:

Figure 8: In Home Scenario

11. Security The data generated by ZigBee Retail Services devicescontains confidential information with respect tohealth care and mobile payment, money-sensitiveinformation regarding pricing and offers, and otherimportant information regarding the control ofequipment used to store goods and track assets. Whilesecurity requirements differ slightly with differenttypes of data, all of it should be protected fromunauthorized usage with respect to confidentiality,integrity, and authenticity.

• Confidentiality: For Consumer Privacy, some of theinformation transferred in the network is relevantfor consumer privacy. Thus, confidentiality of thewhole data flow needs to be protected for amedium timeframe.

• Fraud Protection: Some information directly linkedto transactions that have monetary value shouldbe protected in terms of integrity andauthenticity, and should be capable of standingup in court. Associates who may try to manipulatethe system in order to manipulate their workschedule, may also commit fraud.

• Protection of Control Networks: The networksends control information to both devices andassociates. This information should beauthenticated.

Court Provability (where allowed): Some of the datacollected by the system can be used to demonstrate

that certain events did or did not happen, for example,that an associate was present at a particular spot at aparticular time. In the extreme case, this data may beused for legal purposes, and thus, needs to providesufficient tamper protection due to the varyingrequirements of the different retail applications, ZigBeeRetail Services allows devices to either rely on network-level security alone, or add application level security forapplications with higher security requirements.Devices under the control of the device owner (e.g.,devices taken home by the customers) are especiallyvulnerable to attacks.

Ultimately all ZigBee Retail Services devices supportnetwork-level security (i.e. the network keys shall notbe well known). This network key communicates withthe devices through a set of encrypted messages to asite-specific Trust Center link key. The Trust Center Linkkeys are under the direct control of retailers.

Using network-level security provides protectionagainst sniffer devices that are not part of the networkwhile also providing protection from rogue devicestrying to disrupt the network.

The network can provide additional security at theapplication layer using application layer link keyswhich provide peer-to-peer encryption andauthentication and/or retailer-specific encryption thatcan be applied to the retail tunnel payload.

12. SummaryZigBee Retail Services benefits both the retailer andthe customer with enhanced services throughautomation of many retailer operations and customertouch points. Retailers benefit from using newtechnology that helps increase productivity, encouragecustomer engagement, increase quality of service andrevenues, reduce spillage and spoilage, save on energycosts and reduce the number of devices needed toperform daily operations. Additionally, ZigBee Retaildevices increase security, enables real-time priceadvertising updates, increase customer interaction andautomate store infrastructure for lighting, refrigerationand security systems. New customer-specific devicesempower the customer to take control over their


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shopping experience, create their shopping lists athome, load coupons, and use their list for guidancewithin the store. Customers also benefit from anenhanced customer experience by automating thescanning and checkout processes.

ZigBee Retail Services is a standard designed to helpretailers deliver the next generation shoppingexperience to customers while improving theoperational efficiencies of the enterprise. Thebenefits of the new way of shopping is good for thecustomers, good for the retailers and good for theenvironment.


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