The robots in retail are getting smarter. Badger Technologies yesterday said it is rolling out robots at McCoy's Building Supply stores to improve operational efficiencies and customer service after a successful pilot.
San Marcos, Texas-based McCoy's Building Supply claimed that it is one of the nation’s largest, privately held building-supply retailers, with 85 stores throughout Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. The company said it decided to deploy multipurpose robots from Badger Technologies as part of its commitment to customer service.
“We continually seek innovative ways to elevate customer service while removing operational obstacles for store associates,” said Waylon Walker, senior vice president for operations and merchandising at McCoy’s Building Supply, in a release. “With Badger Technologies robots, we can eliminate manual, time-consuming inventory checks and attain real-time data to better address customer preferences and buying trends.”
McCoy's sees the value of automation
McCoy's Building Supply reported that Badger Technologies' mobile robots enable its stores to detect out-of-stock (OOS) and incorrectly priced products with more than 95% accuracy while helping to decrease OOS products by up to 50%. The hardware retailer said it also improved price-tag accuracy by more than 97%.
With McCoy’s storewide robotics rollout under way, local operations and merchandising teams can get daily updates on product availability and pricing for up to 50,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) per location.
In addition, the robots complete inventory shelf scans in just two hours each day, freeing associates from laborious shelf inspections, which previously took up to 50 hours per week. This represents a 72% reduction in time required each week to conduct product and price checks, said the company.
Thanks to collection and correlation of sell-through and pricing-trend data, along with OOS duration and frequency, McCoy’s said it is able prioritize product replenishment. The multipurpose Badger robots also keep track of product locations, which can speed re-stocking the most popular products while assisting stores with merchandise forecasting, commodity management, and planogram compliance.
Robots can benefit bottom line, says Badger
Autonomous robots can alleviate many of the toughest operational problems facing retailers today, asserted Badger Technologies. Not only can they offload tedious tasks from store associates, but they can also help address persistent labor shortages, it said.
In addition, in-store robots can improve on-shelf product availability by generating actionable data and analytics to provide a more accurate view of shelf conditions, the company said.
“Our multipurpose autonomous robots offer retailers much-needed relief by extending staff operations and providing critical data to increase efficiencies and improve shopping experiences,” said William “BJ” Santiago, CEO of Badger Technologies. “The robots deployed by McCoy’s are making a major impact in increasing customer satisfaction, improving storewide operations, and boosting retail revenues.”
Badger Technologies is a product division of Jabil Inc., which offers design, supply chain, and product management services. As part of Jabil, the Nicholasville, Ky.-based company said it has access to retail automation technologies, cloud software and services, and manufacturing services.
A robotics pioneer, Badger said it has deployed more than 650 robots that automate hazard detection and resolve a host of inventory and data disconnects to improve on-shelf product availability, price integrity, store profitability, and shopping experiences.
Article topics
Email Sign Up
Related Inventory News
Related Companies
