[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A huge video wall made up of 54 seamless displays, interactive tables, SMART shelves, LCD touch screens, futuristic real‑time data visualizations and even a robot that packs the products you choose. This is not science fiction but the realization of the first mega‑innovative Coop supermarket in a new format, which opened in Milan, Italy. Designed by Carlo Ratti Associati, the new supermarket was first presented as a prototype at the World Expo in Milan within the “Future Food District” pavilion.
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text][/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3326″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]This true supermarket of the future is now open to consumers in central Milan. The main goal of the project is to gather real, up‑to‑date feedback from both consumers and businesses to shape a strategy for implementing and monetizing innovative sales and visitor‑communication methods. The Carlo Ratti supermarket provides shoppers with current information about food products, the origins of the most in‑demand items, and much additional product information available on the shelves.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3332″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]The largest player in the grocery retail market has, without exaggeration, presented a store of the future — a grocery store showcasing cutting‑edge digital technologies and Digital Signage solutions. The flagship store, spanning over 1,000 square meters, is generously “stuffed” with innovative technologies, radically changing everyday perceptions of grocery shopping and consumption. The cherry on top of this installation is a massive 54‑panel seamless video wall composed of 49‑inch screens, where customers can view information about store products, including special offers.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3327″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Large interactive tables also present more than 6,000 products, allowing customers to view up‑to‑date product information, recipes for preparing various dishes, and a scroll of social media content.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3328″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]Now a bit about innovative consumer interaction scenarios. When a shopper raises a hand toward a product, additional information about the item is displayed on an overhead “digital mirror” screen above the counter, as in augmented reality, with no extra devices or interfaces required. Using digital media and advertising monitors, each product can communicate its nutritional properties, place of origin or production, presence of allergens, instructions for waste disposal after use, promotional offers and much more. This became possible thanks to Microsoft Kinect innovations, which use motion sensors to identify customer gestures.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3329″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]“Each product has its own story and has something to tell the customer. Today this information reaches consumers fragmentarily, but in the near future we will be able to know everything we need about the apple we’re looking at: about the tree it grew on, the CO2 it produced, the chemical treatments it underwent, and its journey to the supermarket shelf,” says Carlo Ratti, founding partner and managing director of Carlo Ratti Associati and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3330″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]The interactive consumer‑engagement project presentation was successful and helped the project team rethink standard approaches to developing the retail grocery market. The pilot project became a base for collecting current consumer data. The innovative communication approaches aim to reveal more stable consumer habits. The first supermarket of the future offers customers a consumption experience of an entirely new level and provides businesses with relevant feedback. The project is a bold first step toward implementing pioneering ideas that will later be integrated into the real world and scaled across the network.[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”3331″ img_size=”full”][vc_column_text]“The next step is the opening of a new supermarket, whose realization we hope will change shoppers’ stereotypes about everyday supermarket visits,” says Marco Pedroni, president of Coop Italia. This supermarket of the future uses technologies developed and patented by Carlo Ratti Associati. It is worth adding that the flagship was built by Inres Coop in collaboration with Accenture and Studio FM Milano. For added intrigue, another new store will soon open in Milan at the Bicocca Village shopping complex.
It is worth noting that Innovative DMC offers a range of professional services and solutions to automate centralized management of audio and video content in networked retail. From one of our previous articles you can learn details about implementing iDS SMART electronic shelf labels in the consumer electronics retail segment.
*All photo materials belong to Carlo Ratti Associati[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
