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Every year, an amount of 1.3 billion tonnes of food is either lost or wasted globally (Lemos, 2019). From this amount, 88 million tonnes of food is lost in Europe (Condamine, 2020). To get a better understanding of this number, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is around one-third of all food (Lemos, 2019). Therefore, food waste is a serious issue. Food waste happens at every stage in the supply chain, namely at farms, shops, restaurants and at households. To reduce food waste in these stages, innovative ways should be used (Mouysset, 2019). One of the many ways that can help reduce the food waste, is by using different types of technology. But what type of technology could be used to solve this problem?

First of all, there are many innovative ways found by companies, using technology, that can help reduce food waste at farms. Two examples of tech companies that are trying to help farmers are Full Harvest and Plantix. Full Harvest has built the first B2B marketplace where farmers and food companies can connect. Here, the food companies can buy food from the farmers that are not perfectly grown or food that they cannot get rid of (Mouysset, 2019). The food companies that buy food on this marketplace, can get it up to 40% cheaper compared to if they would buy it from traditional distributors (Lemos, 2019). The second company, Plantix, uses the technology Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help farmers (Lemos, 2019). They have launched an application that helps the farmers to be more productive. Farmers can upload images of their plants in this application. Then, the application can help recognize plant diseases and pests on time. This will avoid the plant diseases and pests from affecting the health of a plant, which can lead to food waste (Lemos, 2019).

Next to technology used for farmers, there are also technologies used to decrease the food waste in restaurants. One famous example that is really successful in decreasing food waste in this industry, is the company Too Good To Go. In this application, restaurants and cafes can sell food that they did not sell at the end of the day for a relatively low price (Mouysset, 2019). This application has two large advantages. First of all, it will avoid the food from being wasted and second, new consumers for these restaurants and cafes are attracted (Mouysset, 2019).

 

In this blog post, just a few examples are given of technologies that can help reduce  food waste globally. However, next to theexamples given, many more companies are looking into opportunities on how to tackle this issue. If everyone helps in reducing the food waste problem, talking about consumers, businesses, farmers and governments (Mouysset, 2019), I believe that we should be able to decrease the 1.3 billion tonnes of food that is wasted every year.

References

 Condamine, P. (2020). The severity of food waste in Europe. Retrieved 6 October 2020, from https://www.neweurope.eu/article/the-severity-of-food-waste-in-europe/

 Lemos, L. (2019). Innovative technologies to help you cut food waste in 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020, from https://digitalagenda.io/insight/innovative-technologies-food-waste/

Mouysset, C. (2019). 15 Emerging Technologies Helping Reduce Food Waste. Retrieved 6 October 2020, from https://www.lightspeedhq.com/blog/food-waste-emerging-technologies/

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All around the world, companies are trying to deal with uncertainties that the coronavirus pandemic has brought. One of the industries that are facing many challenges is the retail industry (Machtiger, 2020). The need for change in the brick-and-mortar stores was already important before the corona virus. However, now that even less consumers are visiting the stores because they are afraid to get exposed to the virus, the need for change is becoming even more important (Machtiger, 2020).

The need for change in brick-and-mortar stores has led to predictions on how retailers will change the way they do business in the future. It is expected that retailers will make intensively use of technology (Evans, 2020). An example of a form of technology that will be more often used in the future is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Artificial intelligence should be able to improve the customer service. For example, it could be possible that in the future, retail stores will be able to recognize consumers (Marotta, 2020). Once the store recognizes the consumer, the store can adapt their displays, prices and the service based on the profile of the consumer (Marotta, 2020). In this way, the store can create a personalized shopping experience.

A second technology that is predicted to be more increasingly used in the future, is Augmented Reality (AR). This technology could be used in retail stores by providing the consumer with in-store navigation and to help the consumers in making choices by, for example, highlighting products that the consumers finds important (Buder, Dieckmann, Dietrich & Wieting, 2019). Furthermore, consumers could use the cameras of their smartphones to get more information on specific products that are on the shelf. For example, they could request more information on the allergens or customer reviews of the product (Buder et al, 2019). Another way how AR could be used, is for clothing stores. For example, Zara already launched an in-store augmented experience. In the store, consumers could use the camera of their phone and hold it up to sensors in-store to see models wear different outfits. In this way, the consumer can see how different clothing fits the models (Cook, Kusumoto, Ohri, Reynolds & Schwertzel, 2020).

The examples given show that there are many ways in which technologies can be used to change the traditional way of doing business in the brick-and-mortar retail stores. This will be needed for the future of brick-and-mortar stores to still attract consumers to the physical stores instead of online stores. The technologies mentioned will be a large investment for the physical stores, but it is important that retailers consider adopting these technologies, because it brings many benefits and opportunities.

References

Buder, F., Dieckmann, A., Dietrich, H., & Wieting, J. (2019). Technologies Turning Future Brick-and-Mortar Stores into Data-Rich Environments, NIM Marketing Intelligence Review, 11(1), 48-53. doi: https://doi.org/10.2478/nimmir-2019-0008

Cook, A., Kusumoto, L., Ohri, L., Reynolds, C., & Schwertzel, E. (2020). Augmented shopping: The quiet revolution. Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://www2.deloitte.com/xe/en/insights/topics/emerging-technologies/augmented-shopping-3d-technology-retail.html

Evans, M. (2020). 7 Predictions For How COVID-19 Will Change Retail In The Future. Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/michelleevans1/2020/05/19/7-predictions-for-how-covid-19-will-change-retail-in-the-future/#4474f2d95be3

Machtiger, K. (2020). What Will the Retail Experience of the Future Look Like?. Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://hbr.org/2020/06/what-will-the-retail-experience-of-the-future-look-like?registration=success

Marotta, D. (2020). Artificial Intelligence: How AI Is Changing Retail. Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://global.hitachi-solutions.com/blog/ai-in-retail