Stockbot, the autonomous mobile robot for your stock tracking
Seamless data capture and inventory tracking in today’s retail sector is essential to ensure efficient store operations, successful money-mapping strategies, and above all, can help to contribute to improved customer experience and increased revenue.
Gaining a better understanding of the most profitable locations in-store means maximum benefits can be drawn from those locations. Rather than guessing which stock may sell best in which location, money mapping displays all the data from sales in-store to be able to sell more of what customers want and have it most suitably placed.
Use of robotic automation in retail with technologies that perform tasks such as inventory tracking and data collection to improve operations, money mapping, and customer experience is growing rapidly, showing their potential to bring some of the improvements needed in the industry.
At PAL Robotics, for a number of years, we have been helping some of the biggest retailers automate their processes, strengthen their relations with customers, and stay ahead in the retail sector with our StockBot automated inventory tracking and data collection solution.
Getting started with StockBot for inventory tracking and data collection in your store is straightforward. As a first step, our retail robot makes a map of the store. During the installation these are the first steps to consider:
- The installer will set up StockBot for you using the remote control that comes with the robot so that the autonomous mobile robot (AMR) moves around to get to know the store or warehouse.
- The remote control can be used to show the stock-taking robot the inventory path to take, or the robot can generate paths itself through furniture detection.
- You can divide your store into as many areas as you like: for example, separating the store by product categories.
- This map can be combined with data from the point of sale to create a money map, including the top sellers in the store as well as their locations.
- Using an inventory tracking solution daily can make it easier to understand which products sell most in which locations.
When looking at StockBot data it’s helpful to consider sales concerning both placement and pricing. For example, is the placement of the product optimal, or is it hidden by other products, and is the pricing appropriate to be placed at the point of sale? It’s also possible through StockBot to see how different combinations of products in-store displays affect sales.
The dates on money maps will help to make results more meaningful in terms of seasonal products and seasonal promotions, and changes to store layouts. Observing money maps over time will also help to determine whether it’s the products or the locations that are having the strongest impact on sales.
Being able to track where more sales are generated makes it much easier to repeat success, as well as making it possible to re-use successful displays and record other items or displays that worked less well.
The benefits of money mapping include:
- Being able to improve store layout
- Providing customer experience insights
- Helping increase sales and revenue
Our retail robot generates data that can be manipulated for numerous applications and to suit the needs of each store thanks to inventory tracking
StockBot provides different types of data to suit the needs of each store. There are two different types of our retail robot:
- StockBot Vision: pictures along with the location of each picture are provided. StockBot Vision offers the use of vision cameras to enable image recognition of items of stock.
- StockBot RFID: the tag IDs (EPCs) and location of these tags are provided: StockBot RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) uses radio waves to track tags attached to stock items. Inside these tags is electronically stored information that is counted or ‘read’ by an RFID reader.
Our autonomous mobile robot also generates data that can be manipulated for numerous applications such as store floor management, supply chain visibility, process automation & accuracy, omnichannel retailing, promotional activities, returns, locating items, loss prevention, and cross-selling. Those have a direct impact on store/brand reputation, customer satisfaction, and thus on sales; providing essential information that allows you to further improve your overall performance and daily operations.
Our inventory tracking robot adapts to work across large stores as well as in the smallest spaces. Our certified autonomous mobile robot is the most mature in the inventory tracking solutions market and in recent years StockBot has been used in supermarkets, apparel, sports retailers, warehouses, and distribution centers around the world, from Europe and Asia to the US.
You can have your retail robot solution set up and working in less than a day with a single setup. Staff don’t need specialised training to operate our RFID robot: after the installation which includes setting up the initial store map, StockBot is ready to work autonomously, even around customers in-store.
StockBot is used in Decathlon Singapore where the solution provides data on stock and business, as well as most importantly, helping ensure customers find the products they are looking for. See StockBot in action at Decathlon here:
If you would like to learn more about our retail robot make sure you visit our website to read more. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch with our team to ask more about how to use StockBot, and StockBot’s capabilities for improving operations in your store. Visit our blog to keep updated on our robots and robotics trends!