Researchers, Marketsandmarkets, found that the major drivers for this market are the increasing adoption of smartphones, growing need for better customer service and shopping experience, decreasing cost of electronic components, and emerging new technologies creating new revenues for retailers. The major restraint for the market is data security and privacy concerns with new advanced technologies.

Of all the applications, the robotics sector is expected to grow at the highest CAGR in the smart retail market as this technology can make the shopping experience easier for consumers as by simplifying the process of finding products, as well as managing back-end management for keep inventory up-to-date for the retailers. Also, robotics are able to use inventory scanning and auditing software with autonomous navigation capabilities and voice recognition software.

The hardware market is expected to hold the largest share for smart retail over the forecast period. The higher growth rate of the market for hardware can be attributed to the increasing need for hardware platforms with high computing power to run various AI software for robots and, the presence of major robotics companies that mainly invest in hardware components for use in AI-based robots for smart retail.

Europe is expected to hold the largest share and dominate the smart retail market from 2018 to 2023. Europe, being technologically advanced, is a leader in the market. Europe is the early adopter of the latest technology. The smart retail market in Europe is driven by various drivers, such as the need for advanced retail, faster retail process, and sophistication in shopping. Germany, France, the UK, Spain, and Italy are the major countries contributing to the growth of the smart retail market in Europe.

The smart retail market in North America is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. The customers’ need for sophisticated and efficient retail services, the need to save time, need for accuracy, and high living standards are the factors driving the market in North America. In addition, the presence of prominent technology providers, such as IBM, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel, and Amazon is complementing the growth of the market in this region.