Retail<ization/> 4.0 - Digitalisation of Stationary Retail

• Funding: COIN Aufbau, FFG
• Lead Partner Organisation: Salzburg University of Applied Sciences
• Project Lead: DI (FH) DI Simon Kranzer (Department Information Technologies and Digitalisation) and FH-Prof. Mag. Dr. Robert Zniva (Department Business and Tourism)
• Team at Salzburg University of Applied Sciences: Tina Neureiter, BA, MA, Viktoria Müllner, BA, MA (Department Business and Tourism), Matthäus Horn, BSc, DI Reuf Kozlica, BSc, Julian Nöbauer BSc (Department Information Technologies and Digitalisation)
• Duration: July 2021 - June 2025
• Project Website: www.retailization.at 

Trade can rightly be described as an economic engine due to high industry sales and the resulting jobs. Although more than 90% of sales are generated via stationary retail, digitalisation poses new challenges for the core business of the classic stationary retailer. Due to the Internet, distance selling in general has gained in importance and large international trading platforms have increased their market power. In addition to the option of creating a fusion of online and offline retail using so-called multi- or omni-channel approaches, the question is increasingly being asked which digitalisation steps in the physical store itself should be sensibly promoted in order to keep the stationary retail spaces crisis-proof, productive and competitive in the future.

In this context, the concept of Industry 4.0 has established itself in industry in recent years. This involves the integration of the "Internet of Things and Services" into the industrial production process. In a "Smart Factory", machines, storage systems and equipment will be networked as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) in the future. Intelligent machines, storage systems and equipment independently exchange information, trigger actions and control each other. In this way, industrial processes can be fundamentally improved and new forms of value creation or new business models can be created. Stationary retail as an interaction of various actors along the supply chain and the resulting convergence of various business competence areas (production, logistics, personnel and marketing) at the point of sale (POS) represent a similar environment as in industry. Therefore, the present project aims to transfer the already established concept of Industry 4.0 to stationary retail.

In a cooperation between retail and IT companies, a transfer hub is being set up whose task is to install and test Industry 4.0 technologies at the POS. In contrast to other initiatives implemented in Austria, the focus is not on the efficiency of distribution logistics, i.e. the relationship between retailers and producers. Rather, it is about the main players of stationary retail: about employees and consumers. Technology should create sustainable benefits and quality of life for these user groups in stationary settings and also master ecological and social challenges at the POS.Thereby, the following applies: The use of technology is developed on and with humans. The people affected are not subordinated to technology or the process of digitalisation. This approach is intended to determine potentials for a technological strengthening of stationary retail in different industries, business types and ownership structures (especially SMEs).