RETAIL ROBOTS MARKET ANALYSIS

Market Concentration and Competitive Landscape

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Enhanced Customer Experience

Another important driver for growing popularity of retail robots is their ability to deliver enhanced customer experiences as compared to traditional human-powered retailing models. Shoppers expect highly personalized, seamless and around-the-clock shopping experiences irrespective of their locations. However, providing such personalized one-to-one customer service at scale requires optimizing existing labor resources, which remains a challenge for many retailers. Thus, robots have emerged as a viable solution. Intelligent robots powered by computer vision, sensors and machine learning are being used by innovative retailers to gain richer customer insights, streamline operations and elevate shopping experiences. For example, robots equipped with cameras and advanced facial recognition can greet regular customers by their names, remember their past purchases and preferences, and provide customized recommendations and offers.

For instance, on March 22, 2024, Kuka, a Germany-based manufacturer, launched an arm that serves as the focal point of a store. This arm efficiently handles orders placed online by picking food items from a holding tray, placing them in an oven, and then passing them to its human coworker on the assembly line. This seamless process ensures smooth operations for Kernel, a store specializing in plant-based sandwiches and sides. Despite the robot's prominent role, Kernel's human workers remain content, contributing to the store's exceptional employee retention rate of 100%. Established by Chipotle founder Steve Ells with US$ 36 million funding, Kernel has been operational for about a month with only three staff members on-site at any given time.