For big retailers, operating in omnichannel environments, accurate inventory assessments would require nearly constant reviews by human staffers—and even that unreasonable level of effort might not be able to keep up with orders as they come and go in stores, from online channels, and through distribution centers. For retailers that want to eliminate distribution centers and support all purchases from their storefronts, the solution might be inventorying robots. If a robot can move up and down store aisles, gathering complete and constant data about stock levels, the retailer greatly enhances its omnichannel capabilities. For example, it can confirm in real time if the order that a shopper places online is actually available for pickup in the local store today. It also can avoid a situation in which it ships all on-shelf items to remote customers, leaving nothing available to shoppers in the store. Furthermore, it can use the collected data to prioritize restocking efforts. For example, one empty shelf might have reached that status because shoppers are snapping up the popular item, which means it should be restocked immediately. Another might represent a far less popular product, for which the store only stocks a couple of units at a time, because purchases are so infrequent. In that case, the retailer would know it could move the restocking effort lower on its priority list. Some robots already are being pilot tested in select Walmart locations. If they prove effective, they might represent the next step toward totally omnichannel retail operations.

Source: Jennifer Smith, The Wall Street Journal, January 27, 2019