Shopping space route guidance systems, devices and methods
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Solution Overview
Problem
In modern retail environments, there is a need to enhance customer experience and convenience, as employees often cannot provide adequate assistance due to high turnover rates, lack of training, and peak-hour challenges such as unattended shopping carts, messy aisles, and inventory issues, which can lead to low customer satisfaction and increased competition from online shopping.
Innovation Solution
A shopping assistance system utilizing motorized transport units controlled by a central computer system that can move throughout the facility, interact with users, and perform tasks such as moving shopping carts, displaying items, and optimizing routes for customers, while also assisting workers with inventory management and theft deterrence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If more employees are hired to assist customers during peak hours, then customer service quality improves, but labor cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables customers to shop and checkout automatically without employee assistance. Sensors detect items taken from shelves, track them in virtual carts, and automatically charge customers when they leave, eliminating the need for cashiers and reducing dependency on employee availability during peak hours
Solution Approach 2:
Physical monitoring and customer service tasks previously performed by employees are replaced by an automated system using cameras, weight sensors, RFID readers, and computer vision algorithms to track customers, items, and shopping carts throughout the store
2Reliability
If employee training is intensified to improve service quality, then customer assistance quality improves, but training time and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The automated system performs all monitoring, tracking, and customer service functions without requiring employee knowledge or intervention. The system independently manages inventory tracking, customer identification, item detection, and payment processing, making employee training unnecessary for these core functions
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the need for trained employees with an automated technological system that uses computer vision, weight sensing, and data processing to perform customer service tasks, thereby eliminating the time and resources required for employee training
3Reliability
If manual monitoring of shopping carts and inventory is increased, then store maintenance quality improves, but employee workload increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides continuous, real-time monitoring of shopping carts, inventory levels, and store conditions without interruption. Sensors continuously track cart locations, inventory movement, and aisle conditions, enabling immediate detection and response to maintenance needs without relying on periodic manual checks
Solution Approach 2:
Manual monitoring tasks are replaced by an automated network of cameras, weight sensors, and RFID readers that continuously track shopping carts, monitor inventory levels, and detect store conditions, transferring the workload from employees to an automated sensing and processing system
Data Source
AI summary
System, method, and apparatus for providing route guidance to a customer in a shopping facility space are provided. A system for providing route guidance comprises a communication device configured to communicate with a user interface device, a store map database storing location information for a plurality of items available for purchase in the retail space, and a control circuit coupled to the communication device and the store map database. The control circuit is configured to receive a list of items for purchase from a user associated with the user interface device via the communication device, retrieve location information associated with each item of the list of items for purchase from the store map database, determine a route based on at least one user entered route preference and the location information associated with each item of the list of items for purchase, and provide the route to the user interface device.