Top 5 IoT automation trends in Supermarkets and Hypermarkets

The technological revolution is drastically changing the way we use energy. Technology is entering the domain of supermarkets and hypermarkets, with the introduction of innovative solutions that can change in a radical way the way business is being done. Global supermarkets and hypermarkets are looking to enhance their competitive edge in markets not only through advanced solutions and standards of technology but also by process efficiency and optimization of asset and energy management. For implementing IoT- based automation solutions, the following are the 5 key trends in Supermarkets and Hypermarkets beneficial for you:

1. Temperature monitoring in refrigeration equipment

Supermarkets and hypermarkets use various refrigeration equipment, such as freezers and cold rooms, in order to meet the basic need to store perishable food items for extended periods of time. Appropriate storage conditions are vital in ensuring that food remains fresh and does not lose its nutritional value.

By the installation of wireless sensors, the temperature of such equipment can be constantly monitored on a real-time basis and precautions can be taken to maintain the same at all times. Centralized temperature monitoring would reduce manual effort by enabling seamless monitoring over multiple pieces of equipment at multiple locations. Processed data extracted by the sensors would be accessible on the facilitator’s dashboard as actionable insights. Monitoring would enable maintenance of idle temperature!

2. Energy Management System in Supermarkets

Supermarkets and hypermarkets fulfill their energy requirements from grids, solar plants, and diesel generators. By transferring the optimal amount of power from the suppliers to various equipment, the health of assets is maintained. Issues like low power factor, voltage fluctuations, and current imbalance can be appropriately tackled.

Monitoring energy supply and appropriate distribution would limit wastage since the amount genuinely required would be transferred to equipment. It would reduce energy costs. Suboptimal machines would be detected since they would be consuming more to deliver the usual. By leveraging the IoT solution, sustainability would be ensured since carbon footprint would reduce significantly.

3. Preventive maintenance

Defective equipment and operational disruptions regularly would affect business operations. Additional costs to replace or get major damages repaired would touch the roof. Major faults would cause long halts directly affecting the customer’s needs.

Smart maintenance powered by IoT enables advanced data collection and analytics and can trigger alerts to building managers to take corrective actions. Taking preventive steps well in advance to sort the problems when their impact is minimum would minimize maintenance cost, time, and effort. IoT solutions can offer much more than simply sending alerts; some smart building solutions are capable of taking corrective action as well.

4. Occupant comfort compliance

Supermarkets and hypermarkets have a customer-centric business model. Customers desire to have a comfortable ambience at the premises of the store when they are shopping. Also, a healthy environment would make them trust the quality of store food and beverages since they are stored in an environment monitored building.

Temperature, Humidity, and Air Quality measurement sensors would allow assessing the environment of the supermarket and hypermarket. The Facilitator would set the parameters to the most desired ones to make the shopping experience of the customers pleasant. It would attract the customers to revisit the same store whenever they wish to shop. 

5. Smart Control

Manually controlling the operations of a large number of assets in a supermarket and hypermarket would lead to inconsistency. It would be impossible to handle the operations for multiple power-controlled assets. Also, recording statistics manually and commenting on the trends about different periods would be a challenge in itself.

IoT automation allows the facilitator to remotely control the operations of various assets from any location using the Dashboard. This would enable the asset and equipment to work efficiently as per the working schedule of the business. The control can be time-based, or sensor-based. Either the operations can be managed by controlling as per the reading of the sensors at the site or by scheduling its working on predetermined time phases. Smart control also leads to optimal operations.

Supermarkets and Hypermarkets are investing in IoT technologies primarily for operational efficiency, followed by customer experience and analytics. IoT is definitely set to disrupt the supermarket industry as it gives way to increased automation of processes and better quality of inventory.

Zenatix offers IoT based energy & asset management solution for built infrastructures (e.g. retail stores, hotels, warehouses, pharmacies, clinics etc.). The solution helps in monitoring & automation from a central/distributed location(s). The consequent benefits delivered by the solution includes optimized energy consumption, maintenance of environment compliances, predictive management of asset health etc. The solution is based on Google’s OpenThread mesh technology and is equipment OEM agnostic. It is a cloud-hosted application with easy to deploy (plug & play) edge hardware. It can be remotely maintained & provides a quick ROI in a timeframe of up to 18 months.

We have been serving our customers across the Middle East region in association with our local partners. If you need IoT based energy & asset management solution for your built infrastructures, please submit your inquiry at this link.