Target Explores AI-Powered Approach to Elevate the Retail Experience
By harnessing state-of-the-art AI capabilities, including advanced edge device functionality, Zebra with its partners Target, Google Cloud and Qualcomm Technologies, aims to automate core processes and transform retail with Generative AI.
Zebra Success Story: Target
Overview: Co-Innovation
Consumer and employee expectations continue to grow. Zebra Technologies is at the forefront of addressing these expectations by introducing the next level of Generative AI maturity and workflow automation with its partners Target, Google Cloud and Qualcomm. For Target, co-innovation partnerships like these are essential for driving forward innovation and delivering transformative solutions to optimize inventory management and shelf readiness, ultimately improving the shopping experience.
Co-Innovation Project Goals
- By leveraging GenAI, Target aims to offer a more personalized and seamless shopping experience ensuring that shelves are well-stocked and that customer service is readily available
- Automation of routine tasks will allow employees to focus on more meaningful work, improving overall productivity and reducing the time needed for tasks like inventory management
- AI can provide real-time insights into stock levels, helping to prevent stockouts and ensuring that products are available when customers need them
Customer
Target
Brooklyn Park, Minnesota/USA
Partner
Google Cloud
Qualcomm Technologies
Industry
Retail
Solutions
About Target
Target is an American retailer operating nearly 2,000 stores across the United States. It’s known for its commitment to quality, value, design and an exceptional guest experience, whether a customer is shopping in-store or online.
The Challenge
Customer expectations are evolving more rapidly than ever before. Guests want to be inspired, but they really also want convenience and speed.
Target's main goal with technology is to provide a seamless experience for both guests and team members. Target believes that GenAI can make the things that people love about Target even better. It's a critical enabler to Target's roadmap for growth and a key accelerant of its strategy. And for Target's team, it's about making them more efficient, automating tasks that don't have meaningful work and allowing them to focus on the guest experience.
"Target has always obsessed about the guest experience," explains Yogesh Kulkarni, VP of Product and Solution Strategy - Generative AI Frontline Solutions, Zebra Technologies. "What we see in Target is a great tech-forward partner. In fact, so much so that in some ways Target is comparable to some of the Silicon Valley greats in their approach to actually using technology for business."
At Target we like to partner with innovative companies that will really push the boundaries of our thinking for our team member and guest experience. Zebra Technologies is one such partner who's cutting-edge hardware and solutions really allow us to do experimentation and elevate our performance in the stores. There's no better partner that can push the boundaries of our thinking that way.
The Solution
Target is exploring Zebra's Merchandising Agent to optimize inventory management, ensuring that shelves are consistently stocked. Additionally, they aim to enhance staff availability to better meet customer needs. "What it really means is I take a picture, the picture tells me what's in stock, what's out of stock, what's misplaced," Kulkarni explains. "All of that happens within milliseconds of taking a picture. So, the idea is that with this workflow orchestration, you can quickly get the shelf back to where it should be, which is guest-ready and fully stocked."
"It's like having an assistant right in your pocket," adds Meredith Jordan, VP of Store Product Engineering with Target. "So, if there's anything you want to learn, any information you need to know to do your job or any tasks you want it to do for you, it learns about what you are working on."
The Zebra Difference: Outcome and Benefits
Zebra is partnering very closely with Qualcomm Technologies whose chipset provides the ability to run on-device AI, which Target refers to as far edge. Zebra is also working very closely with Google Cloud. There is a lot of brain power that has to come from the cloud. All of that is built with Google's AI capabilities.
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