10 minute read
5G, The New Experience
The New Experience
MRCA recently held a webinar on 5G technology in which panellists exchanged their views about 5G, the retail industry and omni-channel experience, as well as its impact on life and businesses as the fifth-generation cellular broadband technology takes root rapidly.
Date: 18th December 2020
Panellists
1. Andrew Gordon, GM – Mobility Solution Architects of Telstra Enterprise (AUST) 2. Chai Ming Ching, 5G & Private Network Practice Lead of Maxis Berhad 3. Vincent So, Chairman of Hong Kong Retail Technology Industry Association (HK) 4. Jacob Isaac, Managing Director of Fusionex Group
Moderator: Raymond Woo, MRCA Deputy Secretary-General n his opening remarks,
IStan Singh, MRCA Academy Deputy Chancellor said that as early as 2020, the industry was all abuzz about 5G technology including phones, networks and capabilities in business. “5G readiness differs from country to country in terms of the adoption rate, deployment, government and community attitudes,” he added.
With technology at its best today, it has mobilised and empowered employees to work from home. “All of us are now either working from home or from an office that’s enabled by a network infrastructure. Malaysia is about 4G and with fibre internet at home, we are very excited to understand from industry experts what members and retailers need to do in getting ready over the next 10-12 months for this technology,” said Raymond.
In his sharing, Andrew explained that 5G has three transformation characteristics, which include; • Enhanced mobile broadband, which provides faster data and greater connectivity for people on the move. • Ultra-reliability and low latency, with the potential to revolutionise
modern industrial processes and applications including supply chain, agriculture, manufacturing and business.
• Massive Machine-to-Machine
communications, unlocks the potential of the network for real-time control of connected devices, facilities management, industrial robotics, vehicle to vehicle communications and safety systems, autonomous driving and safer networks. 5G has enabled various capabilities that were once not viable. Andrew goes on to state that in a 5G world, mission-critical tasks can be enabled through 5G without bandwidth and latency concerns, and the constraints of having to run fibre optic cables.
According to Andrew, a high level comparison of the spectrum available, reveals that it goes from 600Mhz-3.5GHz to 3.5GHz-35GHz – offering a wider range of frequency. Latency goes from 30 milliseconds to a fraction of a millisecond. “For example, when your phone makes a request to a website, it takes 30 milliseconds on average in 4G, but in 5G it takes less than 1 millisecond to make it to the other end. Area traffic, capacity, peak data rates which include the amount of space that you can cover is increased by 10 times,” he elaborated.
He explained that there are two emerging network capabilities that include Network Slicing and Beam-forming. Network Slicing offers the ability to specify priority of traffic within the mobile network. “For instance, you might have a consumer that is using their device for watching a YouTube video or you might have a business that wants to handle robotics. You might want to prioritise the company that’s actually doing robotics on that network over the person that’s just watching a YouTube video,” he added.
He went on to elaborate that Beam-forming, on the other hand, is the ability to not just broadcast the signal, but to be specific about where it goes and what it allows to be done. With this, frequency and performance can be better controlled.
Andrew also mentioned that 5G gives users the ability to execute network function virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking, such as the ability to define a network virtually rather than physically which allows for a great deal of flexibility during rollouts. In addition, 5G, if used as the primary means of wireless connectivity, dispenses the need for waiting for fibre optic cables to be run, establishing connectivity for popup stores really quickly. Merchants
set up stores within a day once they have got all the furniture moved in, with internet going live within an hour, courtesy of the minimal infrastructure required for 5G.
In his advice on the adoption of 5G by MRCA members, Andrew explained that retailers and businesses should consider transforming their businesses over the next couple of years using augmented reality, virtual reality, and edge computing alongside state-ofthe-art security systems.
Chai Ming Ching, 5G & Private Network Practice Lead of Maxis Berhad, Head of IoT Connectivity Solutions, Enterprise at Maxis
Chai explained that 5G technology promises;
• Data transfers that are at least
10 times faster than current speed when using mobile phones; • Low latency – real-time feedback without the slightest lag as currently experienced;
• The ability to connect many items
– up to a million items per square kilometre including from shelves, chillers crates, to even the tools in your shop; and,
• Prioritizing your critical
applications, and ensuring that your mission-critical data is highly secured when transferring over the internet.
She explained that brick and mortar stores have essentially remained the same for the past 20 years, offering the same experiences, in that, customers walk in, browse through the shelves, and then pay for their purchases. During the pandemic in Malaysia, many retailers have gone online to keep their businesses going. With the roll-out of the vaccine, the million-dollar question is how to get customers back to the brick and mortar stores?
“Alibaba addressed this in Hong Kong by merging the online experience with the physical store experience using digital screens. They use a “smart mirror” for customers to browse through the product selections. It’s builtin with artificial intelligence that recommends matching items and captures customer preferences in real-time as they browse,” she added. 5G enables all of this through fast updates of images and video feeds in real-time which include facial recognition and customers’ behaviour when browsing through the store, whereby the system draws on information of past purchases quickly, and analysing matches, before the customer leaves that screen. “With the right recommendations made to customers, higher sales potential is achieved, ultimately increasing the topline,” shared Chai. 5G is able to reduce conventional overheads for businesses today, such as rent and wages, and still maintain the right showcase for customers. For instance, Ikea has started its virtual reality showroom where customers are able to plan their kitchen or living room in real-time using VR goggle.
“VR displays provide safer browsing for retail of high value goods such as jewellery and watches, through use of virtual replicas,” she said.
Chai shared that with 5G business owners can analyse real-time video feeds of customers moving around the store. The AI matches the body language and behaviour to large databases of shoppers’ and shoplifters’ behaviour. Doing so ensures retailers have a high probability of detecting and preventing theft instead of just having a purely reactional response to it.
She advised MRCA members to digitalise their businesses by engaging in e-commerce, setting
up online payment systems, digitalizing inventory and focusing on online sales.
The Hong Kong Retail Technology Industry Association (RTIA) started in 2003, amidst the SARS outbreak, as a platform to support retailers and technology partners, to leverage on each other in generating value. For the past 17 years, RTIA has supported technological adoption by industry, and is currently a proponent of 5G solutions, seeking to help the Hong Kong government broaden 5G coverage in industry.
RTIA has organised many activities which champion innovative solutions, including VIP tours to Alibaba’s headquarters in Hangzhou, awards, and lately, many webinars. The association has affiliations with the Hong Kong government and over 40 industry associations.
According to Vincent, retailers are using the latest technology of coordinated cameras and 5G connectivity to generate a heat map of frequently visited areas in the store, detect customers’ emotions and profiling, as well as collect anonymous storefront data such as conversion rate based on footfall.
Vincent pointed out that surveillance footage, when fed into advanced retail analytics systems, can return real-time information that increases revenue per store. In such a scenario, a VIP customer entering the store, might trigger an automated SMS or WhatsApp messaging system that delivers content targeted at building up interest in a certain product, such as vouchers or special discounts.
“The system would then process the profile of the customer and inform sales staff about products the customer is interested in and those which they are predicted to buy, so the staff are able to formulate a timely and effective sales approach,” explained Vincent.
Vincent said that most mobile operators in Hong Kong have been aggressively pitching 5G solutions to the retail community and consumers alike. “In F&B, restaurants are using 5G connectivity to empower robots to serve food to customers in the same building. Hotels are also ripe for the same level of disruption, such as room service by machines,” he added.
Jacob Isaac, Managing Director of Fusionex Group
“5G is merely infrastructure. It is the enabler for all communication devices, for people, machines, sensors, and everything that has to do with data. It will bring us up to speed with the latest information and datasets,” explained Jacob.
“There is no denying that analytics and AI will definitely be one of the biggest winners. User groups are leveraging on 5G because it solves a big challenge of information transportation and delivery of data or insights,” he added.
Jacob shared that the world already had a taste of AR (augmented reality) technology with Pokémon Go when it took the world by storm back in 2016 and 2017. In the same way, VR (virtual reality), immerses the wearer of a unique visor in a whole new world. Adapting these technologies into retail, empowers businesses with tremendous digital content, and the ability to create any object or simulate any experience that can lead users to visualise products in their personal space.
He also explained the uniqueness of Mixed Reality (MR), an application that is very immersive, and combines visuals with action. “You will not only be able to see virtual content that overlays with the physical world, but also interact with these virtual objects,” he shared.
With MR, the user can now “grab” a device, drop a piece of hardware, as well as touch and feel with digital sensations, essentially blurring the lines between the real and virtual worlds.
In as much as 5G has tremendous advantages, a few challenges to consider include the affordability of such technology, budgetary constraints for such technology in the face of financial difficulties during the pandemic, mindset in adopting the technology, and the availability of skilled talents to successfully implement 5G.
Jacob encouraged businesses to work with partners because “technology adoption is a feat with challenges at every corner”.
“Beyond “doubling” customers’ in-store experience with virtual insight overlay, AR can be used to monitor product sales, stock movement, and stock replenishment – reliable and real-time 24/7 because of 5G. Paired with the right software, retailers can expect optimised inventory, with stock-out predictions and automated triggers for replenishment, with automated input data from visitor video analytics,” Jacob elaborated.
Jacob mentioned that Fusionex has also launched virtual exhibition platforms complete with features, such as product demos brochures, chat rooms, video meetings, AR/ VR, search calendars, talks and seminars, which are “gaining strong popularity because they are more interactive, more efficient, and richer in content and analytics”.
Fusionex’s clientele has reported a 300% increase in leads from such events, improved with auxiliary services, that include AI powered marketing.
In advising MRCA members on 5G adoption, Jacob stressed, “Do it now so you’ll have more time to improvise your platforms, and appreciate the full learnings and the full experiences of 5G when it is fully implemented and deployed.”
