Smart Stores 24/7 - The Future of a Niche

A syreta travel report

Prof. Dr. Rüschen has been working at DHBW in Heilbronn since 2013 as a professor of food retailing and as head of the study program. Through his extensive research work in the field of smart stores in German and European retail, he has developed into a true leading expert in this area.

In March 2021, the two smart stores “shop.box” and “collect.box” were opened at the education campus of the university of cooperative education. Unsurprisingly, these two stores are supervised by Prof. Dr. Rüschen together with a research associate, Julia Schumacher. On the one hand, the stores serve to provide food and refreshments for students and teaching staff; on the other hand, they are also regularly integrated into ongoing teaching as part of an integration seminar. This allows students to conduct practical research and acquire new knowledge in fields such as assortment optimization, marketing, customer satisfaction, or price comparison.

Since syreta uni retail technology gmbh was also able to look back on numerous innovative projects in the past year, such as various UNIBoxes, the EDEKA Smart Box on the Baltic Sea, or the Nah & Frisch hybrid store, those responsible now met for an exchange of ideas about the future development of the smart store concept. At the same time, the opportunity was also used to visit various smart stores in the Heilbronn and Stuttgart area and to review future target markets and market viability on site.

An educational day

The key findings of the get-together of the smart store experts can be summarized as follows: some stores function using a wide variety of technology concepts, and when deploying smart stores, the distinction between rural and urban areas plays a crucial role. The smart store of the future must align its assortment very strongly with the geographic and demographic conditions of the location; a standard assortment alone will not be sufficient for this niche, and the associated logistical optimization will be a challenge for all operators. In addition, fully autonomous stores are currently not yet implemented entirely without staff in all concepts. The main reason for this is the frequency of theft in stores in particularly exposed locations.

Practice beats theory – and vice versa

What makes this exchange between syreta and DHBW Heilbronn valuable is the combination of two perspectives that rarely meet: academic research, which systematically examines and documents smart stores, and operational practice, which actually builds, operates, and further develops the stores.

The realization that autonomous stores in exposed locations still face challenges in theft prevention and that assortment and location belong together inseparably are not academic side notes – they are directly relevant to the further development of one’s own solutions. It is precisely this transfer between research and implementation that makes syreta an informed partner for all those who are seriously pursuing smart store concepts.

At syreta, we will use the newly gained insights to further improve our own products and are already looking forward to another exchange with Prof. Dr. Rüschen in the near future – many thanks again for the invitation to Heilbronn!