In today’s retail environment, the journey towards achieving both visually striking and emotionally engaging shopping spaces has never involved so many challenges. However, with current technology solutions, these challenges are quickly turning into unique opportunities for retailers to innovate and deliver captivating environments like never before.
From robotics to facial recognition software, technology has allowed retail businesses across the globe to streamline work processes, increase productivity in manual tasks and even capitalise on the creativity and innovative skills of their teams. Aiming to simultaneously combine all these benefits, 3D laser scanning technology is gradually being adopted by the retail industry and represents an innovative solution for shopfitters not only to simplify the process of designing a new space, but also to exercise the creative freedom that’s crucial in delivering the striking spaces of the future.
Ultimately, when deploying 3D scanning technology, retail designers and shopfitters can capture the existing data and dimensions of any space with extremely high detail so plans can then be developed accurately.
As retail becomes more digital, high street participants have little choice but to morph their shops from functional units to experiential locations. The data collected by 3D laser scanning, which provides a digital record that can be revisited later in time, can also be used to develop 3D visualisation and virtual ‘fly-through’ experiences for teams to collaborate with throughout the planning, design and sign-off process when creating experiential retail environments.
A clear and current example of a business in the UK that’s using this technology to improve their services is A. Edmonds & Co. Ltd. These constructional shopfitters with offices in London and Birmingham are using the Leica BLK360 to quickly survey complex room environments in one single visit and use that detail to prepare their designs. Managing Director, David Edmonds praised the technology and says, “the inclusion of photographic representation of areas and the ability to fly through the building using Autodesk® ReCap™ Pro software has proved invaluable in the design process.” This also enables the business to identify possible problem areas well in advance of arriving on site to carry out the complete installation.
As 3D laser scanning technology becomes more widely adopted by retailers, we expect to see not only an improvement in the delivery of entire spaces, but also newly found room for innovation and creativity. We should all be very excited about the possibilities and future shopping environments this technology will help deliver.
“As 3D laser scanning technology becomes more widely adopted by retailers, we expect to see not only an improvement in the delivery of entire spaces, but also newly found room for innovation and creativity.”
For more information on the Leica BLK360 imaging laser scanner, please visit our website
This article was originally published on A1 Retail Magazine (May 2019 issue). You can read the original article here.