'Connected Computing' Internet of Things Boosts the Development of Smart Retail

From the perspective of global trends, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution are gestating and emerging. Global science and technology are showing new development trends and characteristics. There is a clear trend for new technologies to replace old technologies and smart technologies to replace labor-intensive technologies. As a typical representative of intelligent new technologies, the Internet of Things is becoming an important field in which countries are competing to lay out and seize future technological progress and industrial development. With the rapid development of the Internet of Things technology, the continuous emergence of new products, and the gradual expansion of application fields, the future development of smart digital signage and the Internet of Things has shown a trend of convergence. With outstanding advantages such as intelligence, precision, interconnection, and strong visibility, Digital Signage is entering more and more application fields, from shopping malls, supermarkets to subways, airports, from offline classrooms to online e-commerce, almost everywhere. At present, digital signage has become the second largest form of media after TV. IDC's latest data shows that in 2013, the sales volume of China's digital signage market reached 1.463 million units, a year-on-year increase of 23.2%, and the development momentum is swift and violent. Today, the Internet of Things technology is rapidly spreading to the third-generation digital signage applications. For example, the use of RFID proximity cards to obtain coupons has been applied to tens of thousands of terminals of Focus Media nationwide. Some time ago, Xinyi Technology provided a food supply chain query system for Beijing Jingjing Fashion Hotpot Restaurant. Customers can query the entire upper end of the food supply chain by simply tapping on the touch screen. Through digital signage, businesses bring green and healthy to the table, so customers can eat safely and eat at ease. 'Connected computing' enters digital signage, and the Internet of Things boosts smart retail. In 2013, China's retail industry showed a clear trend: the growth of traditional retail has slowed, physical retail has started to go online, and online and offline have begun to join forces. The statistical results of a typical survey conducted by the Ministry of Commerce in the commerce industry show that in the third quarter of 2013, the sales of convenience stores and supermarkets in the retail industry increased by 13.3% and 13%, while the growth of department stores and specialty stores were 7.4% and 6.5% respectively. From the perspective of gross profit margin, in the third quarter of this year, various business types decreased by 0.6-1.7 percentage points compared with the same period of the previous year. In sharp contrast, on November 11, 2013 alone, Tmall created a sales miracle of US$5.74 billion. Therefore, from the traditional physical retail represented by the chain economy, to the virtual retail represented by e-commerce, to the current online and offline (O2O) model combining virtual and real, the global retail industry is undergoing an unprecedented dramatic change. With the increasing maturity of the Internet of Things technology, the retail industry will therefore regain a new lease of life and evolve toward a more intelligent, interconnected, and integrated direction. The current retail store’s “display, experience, advertising, and sales” model will inevitably support the future of “data collection and analysis, social and community interaction, smart payment, and after-sales service”, while integrating online platform offline store user experience functions Retail industry development. Correspondingly, digital signage has gradually evolved from a simple advertising display with limited content and a basic presentation method of one player per display to the current display of dynamic multimedia content, supporting ratings and evaluation and touch-sensitive man-machines. Interactive, remote/centralized management, high-end digital signage for precise content arrangement and distribution. The wide application of emerging technologies, such as face recognition, real-time data analysis, perceptual computing, and mobile payment, has given birth to a large number of innovative products. Taking full advantage of the Internet of Things technology, combining the characteristics of network operators with the good customer experience of physical stores will undoubtedly be the most effective means to increase user loyalty and enhance the shopping experience. With the closer integration of digital platforms and traditional industries, as well as the widespread use of smart mobile terminal applications, digital signage will provide end users with a better interactive experience, timely and effective intelligent response, thereby further enhancing the brand-customer relationship, Become an effective link to O2O. The advertising screen can quickly determine the viewer’s preferences and automatically update the display content; the mobile phone can connect to the supermarket network to help the owner find the goods and check the latest offers; just stand in front of the mirror and let the infrared sensor help you wear... System standards to simplify the deployment of smart digital signage As a subset of the Internet of Things, digital signage applications will be further popularized in the future, and the interactivity will be significantly enhanced, especially cloud-based communication and data sharing, interconnection between each other, and smart mobility The combination of terminals will enable more and more groups to benefit from this technology. At the same time, new perception technologies will also emerge, such as naked-eye 3D, holographic projection, and odor provision to enhance the attraction to consumers. But we must also be aware that while the digital signage industry is booming, there are still challenges in standard building. Digital signage technology will focus on embedded, multi-screen interaction, cloud computing, multimedia, etc., and in the final realization of the application of these technologies, standardization is a crucial link. How to make hardware, software, content creation, content delivery, advertising, and digital signage network search run smoothly on a unified platform, is a problem that the digital signage industry has to think about. Hand in hand with partners to build an ecosystem. As digital signage transforms from traditional 'lightbox advertising substitutes' to manageable intelligent interactive devices, the supporting industrial chain is constantly improving and growing. Intel has established close cooperative relationships with partners such as digital signage manufacturers, network operators, system integrators, and terminal application providers. By actively deepening local cooperation, innovating the use of digital signage, broadening the application of digital signage, and working with China's digital signage ecosystem to meet the new opportunities brought by smart retail.