SMART STORES
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The search for answers is on Who will sell baked goods in the future and how? This is a question that interests not only marketing people but also cost accountants. New solutions are emerging.
In European food retailing, attempts are currently underway to digitize the recording of sales at self-service bakery stores using cameras and scales, thus generating faster responses and lowering personnel costs. A development from Bavaria goes much further, employing the use of artificial intelligence and robotics for automation solutions in bakeries. If needed, it can automate all processes, from the removal of the dough pieces from the frozen storage facility and the baking process to the presentation of the goods and the care/cleaning of the output trays. The user can decide whether partial or total automation is used, and what and how much of this process is visible to the buyer of the baked goods. This makes the system interesting not only for supermarkets but also for chain bakeries, which can use parts of it to relieve staff. But it can also be used to think of a pure vending machine solution that offers freshly baked goods 24 hours a day, for example, at transport hubs or in the cafeterias of large companies.
One thing is certain, the pandemic has kicked off the change processes with full force. Baking shop in food retail: camera or scales? The majority of baking stations in food retailing are filled with goods that are delivered deep-frozen and baked in the ovens on-site or just defrosted. The stocking of the self-service shelves is calculated in advance with a great deal of data from empirical values, past checkout events, weather forecasts, the expected influence of special events, organized sales promotions, etc. The data is then used to calculate the number of baked goods on the shelves. But no matter how well the algorithms predict demand, weaknesses remain and they commonly arise from: 1. Despite all the planning, the supply does not meet demand. 2. The presentation of the goods is anything but tempting. 3. The personnel, who are supposed to implement the presentation plans, are overwhelmed with other tasks, poorly paid and/or unmotivated. The result: sales are not closed and the pull effect of the baking station, whose attractiveness is supposed to draw customers into the stores and generate other sales, suffers. There is an increased risk that customers will leave or switch to online delivery services because, in case of doubt, they have time to bake the desired product fresh in their
THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS IS ON
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Which plus points that sales concepts offer today will consumers still perceive as benefits in the future? How quickly will customers react if they don’t get what they want or when they want it, or if the act of sale is not convenient or fast enough? How important will new hygiene concepts be for the delivery and payment of the goods? All these questions are becoming increasingly urgent in light of online competition that can deliver.
