Page 43 - HW February 2020

retail edge
Walmart’s paradigm shift?
PUREPLAYER AMAZON HAS so far been at the forefront of innovations when it comes to distribution, but now bricks & mortar is joining the party.
Based in a DC in New Hampshire, Walmart has been taking its first steps towards automated picking.
Developed for Walmart by Massachusetts start-up Alert Innovation, the Alphabot system is currently operating inside a 20,000ft2 warehouse-style space, using autonomous carts to retrieve items ordered for online grocery.
Alphabot may be picking right now but it’s not packing. Instead the cart delivers the products to a workstation, where a Walmart associate checks, bags and delivers the final order.
Walmart says Alphabot will make fulfilment more rapid, enable ordering closer to the customer’s pick-up time and keep track of stock levels more quickly and with less dependence on associates.
At this point, Walmart is keeping quiet about a broader roll-out for the Alphabot system.
Looking further out, Alert Innovation says Alphabot technology could even make possible “a new-type of supermarket featuring automated-service rather than self-service” which, it believes, will
become “the next paradigm in food retailing”.
Such a model, with online or in-store ordering meaning no
checkout lanes and no centre store as such, could allow for much smaller footprint and much more parking than the conventional FMCG model.
www.walmart.com www.alertinnovation.com
International back end bits & pieces
Lowe’s broadens pro offering – From January, Lowe’s is partnering with Yardi to enable users of North America’s largest provider of property and asset management software to purchase products direct from its trade facing LowesForPros.com online portal. Orders are approved within the buyer’s e-procurement system and sent to a local Lowe’s store for fulfilment. Customers can also make purchases through the Yardi platform at more than 1,700 US Lowe’s stores. In addition to the partnership with Yardi, Lowe’s has expanded its end to end e-procurement offering to all Pro customers.www.lowes.com and www.yardi.com
Aussies get Amazon Flex – Amazon Australia has “done an Uber” in Melbourne and Sydney with an interesting additional delivery service where private individuals can earn extra money in their free time by delivering Amazon packages to customers using their own vehicles. Using the Amazon Flex app, these new “delivery partners” sign-up, choose the four-hour “delivery blocks” that suit them, collect their
packages from pick up points in Sydney and Melbourne and deliver them. The app includes a verification process and is also how they are paid. flex.amazon.com.au
Towards a smart home standard? – Flying in the face of the hard fought competitive advantages achieved by so far going their
own ways with smart home platforms, Apple, Google and Amazon have reportedly been working on a unified standard which may
be revealed as early as this year. The idea is to make it easier for consumers by making the smart home more brand-agnostic.“Project Connected Home Over IP” (CHIP) aims to boost interoperability and security between different companies’ smart home products and will be working with the Zigbee Alliance and its members (including IKEA, Legrand, Samsung SmartThings, Schneider Electric and Signify [aka Philips Lighting). The downside is that current products from Apple, Google and Amazon may not be compatible with this new standard... www.connectedhomeip.com
MORE AT www.facebook.com/nzhardwarejournal FEBRUARY 2020 | NZHJ 41