Australian low-price retailer Kmart has a new worker that can do stocktake once a day across an average 8,000 square metres of floor space. But that's not all that separates the new recruit from colleagues.
Tory is a self-navigating robot, Kmart chief customer officer Lil Velis-Bowker confirms. Tory is short for the word inventory, affectionately coined by in-store teams.
Velis-Bowker says Tory uses Kmart’s radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to count stock by scanning ID tags on products at a fast rate. Kmart began rolling out the RFID technology in January 2022, supplied by Checkpoint, which is now across 243 of its 324 stores in Australia and New Zealand.
Velis-Bowker says this includes all its large format Australian stores, and ecompasses the tagging of 100% of its clothing, footwear and accessories at source in volume.
“This fully autonomous in-store RFID data capture at scale completely changes the way in which we operate, as generally data capture in store is via hand wands and autonomous robots are still an emerging technology within the industry,” Velis-Bowker says.
“For Kmart, this new technology has meant that where we would previously do a stocktake once a year – Tory can do this once a day, which is truly ground-breaking in the way in which we are able to collect data not only efficiently, but in a time frame that has never been seen before."
As well as the RFID technology, Tory is also being rolled out across Kmart's portfolio, which Velis-Bowker says will enhance customer experience by giving up-to-date product availability.
“When we have an accurate view of stock, we can help more customers get the products they want, when they want it, whatever channel they are shopping with us.
“Working overnight, Tory helps our store team members focus on serving customers and helps them gain an accurate view of what products we have and where they are in the store.”
Velis-Bowker says the launch of RFID and Tory came from the need for accurate data, which she says can help businesses take advantage of digital technologies.
“Kmart, and other retailers alike, have traditionally struggled with getting timely and accurate data on inventory, particularly the real time visibility needed to support seamless omnichannel service to customers,” Velis-Bowker says. “We knew through customer feedback that this can be a real pain point for our customers, as up-to-date product availability was a priority for them, and therefore a priority for us to address.
“Being a high-volume, low-price retailer with over 300 stores, the Kmart solution had to be accurate in a fast-moving, large-scale environment, and a solution that could capture data at a very low unit cost.
“Making the process less manual and more autonomous was also a priority in ensuring this was successful, which drove us down the path of RFID and Tory.”
Kmart managing director Ian Bailey adds to Velis-Bowker’s comments, saying traditional stocktaking can be bad for customers as you have to stop the inventory flow.
“So you end up having a little bit of out of stock through stocktake, before you get back into stock again - so stocktakes are horrible, but you have to do them,” Bailey says. “If we can move to this daily stocktake, then we've got real data, and all of our algorithms that we have running in our business will work way better. Because the data is accurate.
“At the moment, we're using estimated data to run algorithms on, so then we have to start putting estimates on the algorithms of what we may or may not have.
“So you can see how complex it becomes when we don't have good data.”
Velis-Bowker says Kmart is currently working on data and inventory algorithms that will help improve product visibility and availability.
“We are also currently investing in automation to drive supply chain and last mile delivery solutions,” she says.
“Automating the storage and distribution of product content is another priority for us, so that we can serve the right information to our customers in real time, based on their individual needs.”
Meanwhile, in a bid to improve customer experience, Kmart is also rolling out new updates for its app in 2023. The Kmart App was launched in mid-2022 in Australia, and has since been rolled out across the New Zealand market.
The app currently has over 100,000 downloads on Google Play, and is the #13 ‘Shopping’ app on the Apple store at the time of writing.
Velis-Bowker says it will improve product discovery and store navigation in the app, with the added ability to check product prices and rollout new offers.
It is also seeking to make the checkout experience through the app more streamlined.
“We are currently looking into ways that we can use mobile and RFID technologies to make payments and create an exit process that makes for both a quicker and easier experience,” Velis-Bowker says.
Another improvement area is simplifying online order collections and the processing of returns.
“We conducted customer surveys that identified that predictability and trust are the top priority for our customers when considering who to shop with digitally. Retailers need to be able to confidently make promises to customers about what product is available to them, by when and in what channel – and they need to be able to consistently deliver on their customer promise.
“In a business as big as ours, there are always improvements that can be made as everyone looks to enhance their area, and you must make choices that reflect what’s most important to your brand and your customer.
“So these insights have helped us form a very clear understanding that these are the problems we are trying to solve, rather than starting with the technology.”
Velis-Bowker adds that Kmart’s consumer and market research found stores will continue to play a critical role in retail.
“Physical stores and ecommerce therefore need to come together in a very connected and seamless way to succeed in an omnichannel future, which is something that Kmart is aiming to be great at moving forward.”