The store of the future is technical and digital

The technological sun has been rising in the East for decades in the major segments of the economy and industry. So too for the Japanese home improvement sector.
One of the pioneers in this field is undoubtedly DCM Holding, top of rankings in the Japanese home improvement industry. For some months now, a pilot project has been running in Kushiro, a city on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. The pilot store has a sales area of 6 200 m² and offers around 67 000 SKUs.
The project, called Smart Home Center, is the result of a task force led by the DCM's president and CEO Yasunori Ishiguro.
"Our team has a profound understanding of the recent developments in home improvement and especially regarding the symbiosis between the online activity and what is happening in-store. The DCM think tank has led us to create an environment which embraces technology and high level services," says the DCM president and CEO in an exclusive interview for DIY International.
"The main challenge of the Smart Home Center pilot project is to focus on four dimensions in harmony with our global marketing research findings. They are: enhance the customer's experience and satisfaction, reinforce the customers' understanding with the support of high-tech intelligence, discover how we can move to extend the service level when introducing the latest digital customer support in-store, improve the efficiency of the global store operations and improve the store sustainability whilst reducing operational and administration costs."
Following thorough investigation, Yasunori Ishiguro said, the task force came to the conclusion that mainly four technologies could meet the above-described expectations. These are artificial intelligence, internet of things, digitalization, and robotics.
In practice, the Smart Home Center is equipped with AI cameras enabling a 360° understanding of traffic flows and customers' movements and behaviours which cannot be captured by classic POS control systems.
These cameras are more than just observation tools, they operate as analytical "intelligent advisers" pointing out which aisles and categories need better service assistance and in-store marketing support, e.g. extra lighting.
The AI cameras enable the store management to adjust, as a result of its learnings, the DCM shelving planogram regarding shelving lay-out, the facing of specific SKUs or total product categories. The DCM marketing teams also learn from the AI information which packaging or POS material - e.g…