The future of retail was once thought to be posed for inevitable decline at the hands of e-commerce.  However, physical stores have persisted and remain the dominant share of retail sales in most countries and certainly within Southeast Asia.

The internet has provided greater knowledge, choice, and transparency to consumers. Online platforms have redefined expectations of choice and convenience by showing consumers what can be achieved.  Through data and analytics along the user journey, online commerce has been able to create more personalization in recommendations and experiences.  Further, the same data and analytics have enabled shifts in how the supply chain is managed.  A variety of technological implementations have driven improvements in e-commerce that benefit the customer experience.

Physical retail has been mostly slow to adopt technology.  Larger retailers have focused on implementing systems in the supply chain and logistics end of the business.  This has long been a focus because of the intricacy of managing distribution and inventory across a network of distribution centers and physical outlets.  The in-store experience has largely remained the same as it has been for modern memory.

It is unclear what the exact end destination for retail will be, but the need for a technological revamp of the current physical retail environment is necessary.  Much of this will fall under three key themes.

We are very proud to lead the investment round of Aye Technologies along with top-tier angel investors.  The company is working towards being a leader in the AI-driven transformation in Retail.  They have successfully innovated with automated stores, facial recognition payments and driving automated functionality across retail management.  An ambitious undertaking by an ambitious team.  We are happy to be part of the journey.