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The use of technology is not new, Amazon was one of the companies to take the first step. In 2018, the American marketplace installed its first physical store on Seventh Avenue in Seattle, Washington. To make purchases here, it is necessary to have the company’s mobile application. Upon entering, only the products are taken, which the camera and sensor system detects and collects when leaving the store, with another cell phone scan.
The American company already has 30 of these stores without cashiers in the United States and London, under two formats, AmazonGo, which serves breakfasts, prepared lunches, and Amazon GoGrocery, which markets produce, prepared dinners and household staples.
In Mexico, Oxxo recently cut the bar for the first automated store. The first store of the format Grab & Go It is located at the Tec de Monterrey, Nuevo León campus, and has a digital system with a payment system through a QR code, which is scanned when entering and leaving the store. The company sees that this store model can be taken to other universities, squares and parks.
This model without boxes or ATMs is not the only one that has been implemented in Mexico. In May 2022, the Jalisco brand Tucané opened its first digitized store, where purchases are made through a device in which some data such as name and email are loaded.
The store has only one garment of each model, and to buy you must scan its QR code, select the size so that the garments can be taken to the fitting room. The purchase ticket is also digital and it is possible to pay with cryptocurrencies.
Makeup brands are also jumping on the trend and adding filters to test makeup or hair colors to their mobile apps. Sephora brought these technologies to its sales floor in Asia, where it has a store of the future where there is a lot of technology that allows for, for example, analysis of the skin types of visitors.
“In the United States there is another concept with less technology, but in Europe it has a hybrid. Here in Mexico, what we have seen is that the focus has to be on the product, but we open concepts with some brands, to use iPads that show what makeup looks like,” says Darío Aguilar, the general director of the brand in Mexico.
Jorge Vallejo, from Google, comments that the future of retail immersed in virtual reality and other technologies is a good step forward for the shopping experience. Therefore, digital channels become a relevant part of business, since they are an extension of physical stores when they have screens or tablets to display their extended catalogs, so that the consumer buys in the physical store and receives the merchandise. at home.
“Everything revolves around the user experience, the shopping experience, the return experience,” he explains. “This future with the full reins of virtual reality obviously sounds very sexy, but there is a way to go,” she concludes.