Smart Shelves: A Solution for Small Retail Stock Problems

In recent years, the retail customers' dissatisfaction with stock products in physical stores has been one of the major challenges the retail sector has been undergoing.

Failures in resource constraints, internal operations, poor data synchronization and even data disconnections have been some of the driving forces behind this downfall.

However, with the invention of the smart shelves technology, this is going to be a thing of the past. Retailers will be able to effectively keep a track of what specific products are being driven out, and what is remaining on the store shelves.

How Smart Shelves Work

Smart shelves are inventory control systems that are wireless and fitted with weight sensors. The pressure sensors are either installed on the normal shelves or built on the shelf itself.

First, it's important to note that the technology of smart shelves mutually benefits the experiences of the retailers’ selling and the customers’ shopping.

On the part of the retailers’, the analysis of real-time data enables them to stock more on fast moving products and reduce the numbers of the slow moving products. In turn, this is a huge benefit to the customers, because now they'll always find the in–demand products available.

The weight sensors operate by informing the back-end system about the current situation concerning some products on the shelves. The wireless devices work with the help of RFID readers and tags to scan the items in the display and stock shelves.

Through this, you are alerted appropriately when the levels of items are running low or even when a theft is detected in your retail shop.

Additionally, it will also inform the back-end system about the products that don’t belong to a particular shelf.

If you are a retailer, this particular technology will offer massive help and enable you to:

• refill stocks from your stock room as they get depleted from the store shelves;
• promptly inform the Direct shipment vendor for more stock;
• tell your customers about Out of Stock and demand situations.

Advantages of the Smart Shelves

Remote monitoring- Through this system, you can keep a good track of what's in your store. You can quickly identify and solve in demand and out of stock problems inside your store before it negatively affects your various customers.

Automated inventory- For you to manage your costs, to measure shrinkage and improve the buying experience for your customers, you need a good inventory management. With smart shelves at your disposal, you are sure to auto track your stock of property and ensure you don’t run out stock.

Assessment of stock availability- As an owner of any retail store, the availability of stock every time the customers ask for it is very critical for your success. This technology provides automated stock tracking on their availability, thereby informing you if the items are misplaced or running out of stock.

Real-time management of inventory- The real-time inventory management nature of smart shelves technology is of great importance to retailers. Not only does it enable you as a retailer to optimize your in-store sales, but it also guides you toward making informed decisions. You can timely and accurately manage your inventory data and optimize your store with the timely filing of in-demand items.

Provision of offline model operation- Retail stores need to operate in offline mode as well. Smart shelves technology offers this arrangement, thanks to their ability to function even when there is a data disconnect. And nothing in the technolgy prevents you from adding simple plastic shelf dividers to separate the products.

Flexibility and compatibility- The hardware associated with this technology is compatible with any mobile network provider/ any radio frequency devices and in any language.

The Bottom Line

The smart shelve technology, just as the name suggests, is a smart technology that offers lots of benefits to retailers and business owners at large. It ensures that you keep a good track of your products and don’t run out of stock.