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Figure 3. Extra revenue opportunities with dynamic pricing27 physical entity, brands must also think how to remain relevant to consumers. This is challenging with the grocery duopoly providing so much automation scale and opportunity, while leaving brands vulnerable to the whims of each. The introduction of online shopping caused disruption, and in response, brick-and-mortar retailers integrated ecommerce as part of their omnichannel strategy to better serve consumers. This shapes my belief that all the potential changes in retail and how consumers buy, won’t destroy retailers, just shape their evolution. The pie-chart for channel market share will change but the pie will get bigger. Retailers have the responsibility to lead the way in preparing their workforce for the road ahead, which will require adapting the internal mindset with a focus on talent acquisition, redeployment, and reskilling. This isn’t about changing coal miners into website coders – but evolving retail staff to remain in the retail environment. With the growth of gig workers and freelancers, outsourcing may also play a larger role to be able to fill specific gaps with complete flexibility, and the potential to pay for outcomes rather than time.37 Conclusion Automation is an incredible opportunity for retail and Australia to grow. The supply chain is the backbone of what a retailer can deliver; automating this will slash costs and unlock potential for retailers to thrive in an era of retail closures.38 Despite the reactionary topic of job loss any time automation is mentioned, it’s the key to making humans more relevant in retail. Unleashing human staff from operational and manual tasks allows focus to reinvent what their relationship with the customers is. This essay concludes that there are productivity, utilisation, economic and customer benefits at every operational stage from distribution centres and automated transport to the store experience. With any great change there will be positives and negatives to be carefully managed, but regardless of any action, it’s an unstoppable process of innovation, competition and survival. Automation will define Australia’s future and prosperity in the 21st century and beyond. References available on request retailers, like Amazon, which changes product prices 2.5 million times a day.26 Research estimates that 4.99 per cent of average monthly store turnover is spent on manual ticket pricing and promo changes28, which roughly calculates savings to $1.8 billion per annum for Woolworths29 and $1.4 billion per annum for Coles.30 Customer behaviour tracking Kroger tackled long checkout times using sensors and analytics. It tracked customer traffic and behaviour to predict when more cashiers were needed, which resulted in reducing customer wait times from four minutes to 30 seconds. It forecasted 15-30 minutes ahead and identified opportunities for staff to be moved from floor tasks to open a new checkout, and better scheduling of breaks and shifts.31 This concept of automated dynamic staff management based on metrics and store needs while prioritising customer service will be a focus for store operations. Shelf-scanning robots Walmart is leading the space here and continues to expand its network of roaming robots that wander down aisles using cameras to identify shelf and merchandising issues, and reports back to staff to correct the issue.32 This lifts on-shelf availability and provides a better store experience leading to more sales for the retailer and the brand, and a better experience for the customer. This technology could plug tasks straight into the automated dynamic staff management system. Discussion and implications for retail The top-line benefits for retail are simple: reduce labour costs, improve productivity, grow sales, and make customers happier. The billions of dollars saved annually drives larger cash reserves for companies to invest in the next new horizon. Automation will make us re-evaluate how we think about every part of retail; a platoon of self-driving trucks with 200 tonnes of goods spreads the imagination to becoming a roaming DC. Automated transport will be a global game changer – for example, personal cars could potentially earn income delivering groceries while unused.33 Production in Australia has declined in favour of countries with cheaper labour.34 However, it poses the question if labour costs were removed by completely automating factories too, could we revive local manufacturing? It’s not inconceivable to imagine one-week timelines from production to delivery. That would lead to DCs or warehouses becoming less relevant, or at the very least shrink and pivot their purpose. For investment, it’s actually a positive to have a grocery duopoly to access the capital required to automate retail operations, leading to job protection and growth. Retailers that have been unable to survive in the market face potentially wiping out entire workforces.35 Nevertheless, retailers will have to rethink how they build relationships with customers to keep them coming back into stores when they won’t need to. Fundamentally, making consumers want to visit, rather than have to visit. Personalisation, curation and the in-store experience are the best strategies for this.36 With human interaction being at the crux of this, it leads me to believe quality retail staff will be paramount, and thus lead to career retail staff and increased prestige in the industry. Brands will have to consider how consumers want to buy and how to engage with them. With retailers moving to be an omnipresence not tied to a INDUSTRY INSIGHT AUG, 2020 RETAIL WORLD 29