Singtel to launch Singapore’s first 5G-enabled smart retail
Singtel announced the launch of Singapore’s first 5G-enabled smart retail showcase to help enterprises adopt digital solutions to meet changing retail consumer demands. Designed to look like a real store, the showcase will feature technology solutions from Apple’s enterprise partners that help enhance retail workflows, improve operational efficiencies and create a great customer experience, which retailers can explore. Singapore 5G-enabled smart retail
Mr Dennis Wong, Vice President, Enterprise 5G and Platforms, Singtel, said, “The pandemic has motivated retailers to become more innovative in engaging with customers, both online and through physical in-store experiences, driving retail enterprises to seek technology solutions to remain relevant and profitable. Retailers also continue to face common issues like figuring out how to attract customers with unique and personalised shopping experiences, increase customer engagement and retention, and improve productivity in a tight labour market, among others. With this showcase, enterprises can leverage Singtel’s high-speed connectivity and ultra-low latency 5G network and multi-edge computing (MEC) solutions like Paragon, Apple products and partner technologies to explore innovative solutions that they can apply in their physical or online stores to help them differentiate themselves from the competition and grow their business in a digital economy.”
For a start, the showcase will feature technology from six solution providers – SFX Corporation, Dabton, Matterport, Zühlke, Scandit and Eleos. These partner solutions will leverage Apple products and software to deliver easy-to-use solutions, utilising powerful built-in features like machine learning and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to unlock new digital capabilities at scale.
The solutions will be deployed through the latest line-up of Apple products including, iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone SE, iPad Pro, and iPad mini, which offer best-in-class performance and all-day battery life to ensure minimal downtime during store hours. Together with Singtel’s ultra-fast 5G network, business customers will be able to deploy retail applications for computational photography, spatial measurement, and real-time operations monitoring to achieve their business transformation goals.
See Annex A and Annex B for more details on all the partners and about the showcase respectively.
The retail applications can also be managed via Singtel Paragon, the industry’s first all-in-one orchestration platform for 5G, MEC and cloud services, which provides enterprises a single portal to conduct network analytics, manage connectivity and workloads across their infrastructure for different connectivity needs, and deploy retail applications at the edge of the network to meet the demands of their business and customers. The platform also provides access to the Paragon Marketplace, where enterprises can list or acquire retail applications for immediate deployment to address their evolving needs.
An EY Reimagining Industry Futures 2022 study found that 75% of retailers surveyed globally had accelerated their digital transformation plans because of the pandemic, and 71% of retailers were interested to adopt 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) use cases to improve supply chain visibility and management.
Retail enterprises keen to leverage any of the technology solutions at the smart retail showcase may request to visit Singtel’s Enterprise 5G website or speak to their Singtel account manager. Financial assistance is also available via the Infocomm Media Development Authority’s 5G Grant.
Annex A
Delivering high-performance enterprise applications Singapore 5G-enabled smart retail
iPhone SE, iPhone 13 and 14 Pro, iPad Pro with M2 chip, iPad Air 5th Gen and iPad Mini 6th Gen are packed with innovative features such as a Neural Engine, LiDAR and true-depth cameras, and deliver advanced 5G standalone network performance. Apple’s developer platform gives business solution partners the tools to create powerful solutions. Developer frameworks such as ARKit and Core ML drive Augmented Reality and Machine Learning capabilities to create lifelike environments, visualization and shared experiences along with real-time insights and actions powered by 5G.
Enhancing customer interactions with digital avatars
On entering the showcase, a customer can use an iPad or iPhone to create and customize his or her digital avatar using SFX Corporation’s platform, RealityTransform, to interact with a customer service officer on a range of topics from product inquiries to mobile payments. Besides, opening up a new channel of communication to the traditional face-to-face engagement, this solution could potentially mitigate the labour crunch facing the retail sector, reduce bias and discrimination against non-native retail staff, and enable the redesign of jobs for older retail workers who will no longer need to spend long hours standing inside a retail store.
Creating an immersive virtual shopping experience
With Dabton’s AR/VR solutions, which include Matterport’s suite of Digital Twin Platform solutions, retail enterprises can develop a digital twin of the physical store, enabling customers to shop in a photorealistic still-life version of the store. Using their mobile device, the customer can view a product from any angle, zoom in to inspect and try on the product before making a purchase – all without physically stepping into the physical store.
Enabling seamless transactions
Zühlke offers a reimagined total experience for retail by leveraging best-in-class technologies like Scandit’s MatrixScan and Smart Data Capture solutions for seamless integration and efficient store operations. Designed for iPhones and iPads, the solution provides store associates and customers with real-time data like product information and inventory levels through an augmented reality interface. Moreover, deploying mobile point of sale with Scandit enables customers to pay seamlessly wherever and whenever they are in-store.
Ensuring real-time efficient operations management
Retailers can leverage Eleos’ suite of retail management tools to manage a myriad of back-of-house functions like real-time mobility order management and AR-enabled real-time inventory management. It also includes an e-commerce tool to develop an online store to support augmented reality and a customer relationship management tool to track conversions, personalise engagement and gain customer insights. Unified commerce capabilities enable synchronized inventory between physical stores, online stores and even marketplaces.
Annex B
About half the size of a standard badminton court, the showcase at Singtel’s Centre of Digital Excellence (CODE) at Telepark, Tampines, comprises a front-of-house “retail fashion store” and a back-of-house “storeroom” to simulate the environment of a real store.
It will feature: Singapore 5G-enabled smart retail
– front-of-house and back-of-house mock setups.
– various items like a fridge, sorting boxes and product cut-outs embedded with barcodes to showcase different use-cases of Scandit/Zühlke’s solutions.
– a kiosk in the front of a house containing several Apple devices like iPhone and iPad, equipped with SFX’s digital avatar and Eleos’ suite of solutions e.g. mobile payment, inventory management dashboard for customers to bridge and align operations across parts of a retail store or across physical locations.
– a test area with AR and Apple devices equipped with Matterport and Dabton’s digital twin solutions that can create interactive and photorealistic digital environments of stores so customers can access them from anywhere.
