Shownotes
In this Retail Technology Spotlight episode, Nick Matthews, VP of Solutions and Architecture at Wiliot, joins Omni Talk to reveal how Walmart is deploying Bluetooth-enabled IoT technology across all 4,600 U.S. stores and 40 distribution centers.
From wireless energy-harvesting tags to real-time pallet tracking, Nick breaks down how Wiliot's ambient IoT technology is reducing food waste by tens of millions of pounds, improving inventory accuracy, and improvingg store operations without requiring associates to change their workflow.
If you've ever wondered how retailers are solving the "where is my product?" problem at scale (who hasn't?), then this episode is for you.
🔑 Topics covered:
- How Wiliot's BLE pixels work and differ from RFID technology
- Walmart's nationwide deployment strategy and infrastructure requirements
- Real-time alerts that prevent inventory discrepancies and cold chain breaks
- Food waste reduction projections for 2026
- The concept of "Physical AI" and its retail applications
- ROI benefits from inventory accuracy to FSMA compliance
🎧 Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more retail tech insights!
#retailtech #walmart #IoT #supplychain #inventorymanagement #retailinnovation #foodwaste #omnitalk #bluetoothtechnology #physicalAI #retailpodcast
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Transcripts
Foreign.
Speaker B:Hello, this is the Retail Technology Spotlight series.
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Speaker B:The top five headlines making waves in the world of omnichannel retailing and comes your way every Wednesday afternoon.
Speaker B:I am Anne Mazinga.
Speaker B:I'm one of the co hosts for.
Speaker C:Your today's interview and I'm Chris Walton.
Speaker B:And I, and we, Chris have interviewed so many people in our years of doing this show, but one of my favorite things that we get to do is when we get to have companies that get to come back on the show and catch us up on all that they've been up to.
Speaker B:And that's exactly what we get to do today.
Speaker B:So please join us in welcoming Wiliot's Vice President of Solutions and Architecture, Nick Matthews.
Speaker B:Nick, welcome to omnitalk.
Speaker B:We're so excited to have you here and you have so much to catch us up on that we're going to have to break this into two shows.
Speaker B:So this is just part one of our catch up with Wiliot.
Speaker B:Welcome.
Speaker B:We're so happy to have you.
Speaker A:Thank you, Ann.
Speaker A:I really appreciate it.
Speaker A:It's really a pleasure to meet both you and Chris and being on the program, I actually remember the first time that Williot got featured and I remember thinking, I know I'm going to make it one day onto that show.
Speaker A:And so pretty, pretty glad to be here today.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker C:That's awesome.
Speaker C:That's awesome.
Speaker C:Well, flat real get you everywhere, Nick.
Speaker C:And, and you guys have some big news which we want to get to for sure.
Speaker C:But, but for maybe those of, for those listeners that are maybe new to Omni Talk or relatively new, it's been a while since we had Wiliot on the program.
Speaker C:So start off by reminding us of about what Wiliot does and, and what do you oversee in your role there?
Speaker A:Yeah, so I think Williot's generally known for being a company that produced a wireless energy harvesting tag that uses BLE or Bluetooth signals to basically Collect enough energy and then transmit.
Speaker A:We transmit data such as location, temperature, humidity, and we can use some of that to determine movement or other kind of contextual activities and operations.
Speaker A:But what I think that people don't fully understand or maybe what we didn't communicate I think well enough as a company is that we, we also integrate all data that systems are using already.
Speaker A:And so that includes, for example, manual scanning that takes place or other point of sale activity, even signals from rfid.
Speaker A:And we actually aggregate all customer signals into our platform in the Wiliot intelligence platform.
Speaker A:And then we provide a more complete, unified view of their supply chain.
Speaker B:And tell us a little bit about your specific role at Wiliot.
Speaker A:Yeah, so I'm very fortunate enough that I get to lead a lot of the solution strategy, the development of use cases that are helping our customers.
Speaker A:Primarily I focus on the Fortune 5.
Speaker A:We are really trying to show them the power of ambient IoT.
Speaker A:Walmart's been a very early and awesome partner through that and we've certainly been able to augment their AI systems and unlock new levels of visibility and automation for them.
Speaker B:Yes, well, I want to dive into that a little bit more.
Speaker B:Big, big time headline.
Speaker B:This we just covered on our show actually just a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker B:Greg Cathy, who heads up this department for Walmart, he's been on the show before, he said in the press release for this announcement that Williot's allowing Walmart to do things that they couldn't do before.
Speaker B:So what are those things in your mind, Nick?
Speaker A:Greg immediately saw the gaps in the current Walmart systems.
Speaker A:We always think that all of these big companies have all the data that they, that they really want, but we actually find out that's very much not the case.
Speaker A:There's data that they wish they knew that happened from the past and there's data that they wish they had when it's happening in near real time.
Speaker A:And Greg knew that the BLE technology with WilioT could get us those signals.
Speaker A:And so right now we're using it to directly notify associates in stores.
Speaker A:They need to take actions to improve their, their pallet unloads to make sure that their pallets are in the condition that Walmart needs them to be.
Speaker A:They're using it to manage inventory accuracy within the store.
Speaker A:We have already seen a significant amount of food waste reduction which has been outstanding.
Speaker A: And really next year, in: Speaker A:To keep food where it needs to be.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker A:At the end of the day, Walmart has this motto about, they talk a lot about helping people save more and live better.
Speaker A:And that's, that's 100% true.
Speaker A:I, I've seen it as part of their culture and I, I really think that on top of all the really awesome stuff, ultimately there is going to be some increased sales at Walmart.
Speaker C:Yeah, Walmart's got their eye on the ball, without a doubt, Nick.
Speaker C:So I want to put this, I want to put the Walmart, you know, news in more context, though.
Speaker C:So, you know, recently, to set the table for everyone listening.
Speaker C:Like, you had been deployed at Walmart in 500 locations.
Speaker C:And, and just I think a couple weeks ago they announced that they're gonna, they're taking you to 4,600 stores plus, you know, roughly 40 plus distribution centers as well.
Speaker C:Can you walk us through what this actually looks like in practice?
Speaker C:Like, so from a deployment perspective, I'm curious, like, how are these BLE pixels placed on products?
Speaker C:How do they actually get read?
Speaker C:What infrastructure did Walmart need to make this happen?
Speaker C:Or, you know, what did they already have in place?
Speaker C:Can you go through all that in detail?
Speaker C:Because I'm really curious about it.
Speaker A: So when you talk about the: Speaker A:Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker C:Yeah, it is, yeah.
Speaker A:Coast to coast, that's, that's the United States.
Speaker A:And we're really, we're really flattered by that vote of confidence from Walmart.
Speaker A:And those 40 distribution centers are going to manage all of their grocery pallets.
Speaker A:So you're talking about hundreds of millions of units moving around across the country.
Speaker A:And that all really started in Texas.
Speaker A:There's a very, very large effort by Walmart to integrate new technologies.
Speaker A:And they do a lot of their deployments and their testing in that Texas metro.
Speaker A:And so we did, we focused on deploying in sites across really three states, Texas, some in Arkansas as well as in Louisiana.
Speaker A:We got up to a couple of hundred locations.
Speaker A:And what we did was we looked for opportunities where the data could easily be associated to the tag.
Speaker A:And so, you know, nobody is just applying a new sticker on all these pallets.
Speaker A:That's not what's happening at all.
Speaker A:We actually look at where Walmart is already applying a label and we look at the system they're using to apply that and we just integrate into the existing label.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So their 4x6 label is now a Smart label, it's got Wiliot Bluetooth sensor in it.
Speaker A:It's applied with the same automated technology that they're using to apply labels today.
Speaker A:In some cases, order pickers and distribution centers are using printers.
Speaker A:Those printers were just simply replaced and retrofitted with a BLE enabled printer.
Speaker A:So when they queue up that label, the label that comes out, it associates to the order that they're filling and then goes on the pallet from there.
Speaker A:We follow it actually from the distribution center through the store and really through the end destination of the pallet.
Speaker C:So Nick, just to make sure.
Speaker C:So the pixel is getting placed at the pallet level, the carton level, the individual product level.
Speaker C:Which one?
Speaker A:Right, yeah.
Speaker A:So right now we are at pallet level.
Speaker C:Pallet level.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker A:Now what's really awesome though is of course we have been in development of other granular inventory solutions for Walmart, but that's really what we're going to be doing.
Speaker A:Exactly the same thing we just did here where we went to a couple of hundred sites this last year.
Speaker A:We'll be doing that this next year with some expanded use cases.
Speaker A:So I'm actually really looking forward to another national announcement next year.
Speaker A:Now that's not a commitment by Walmart.
Speaker A:I don't want to put them on the, on the, on, on blast there, but I'm just, I'm very, very hopeful that with the success that we've had at pallet level, with the excitement that we have from so many different VPs inside the organization, that we'll, we'll no doubt continue to see some more success there.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's at least the goal.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And with all the regulations around food safety at the pallet level, that's pretty important too.
Speaker C:So how are, how are the, how are the pixels actually red?
Speaker A:One of the cool parts about Bluetooth is of course that it is rather ubiquitous across the environment.
Speaker A:This is one of the big differences between Bluetooth and rfid.
Speaker A:RFID is a great technology, but it's kind of like a hydrogen car.
Speaker A:They're super, super cool, but it's hard to find a hydrogen gas station.
Speaker A:So it's very similar with an RFID reader.
Speaker A:They're not everywhere, versus a Bluetooth reader, which is.
Speaker A:And so we have added some architecture or some, excuse me, some infrastructure to the stores.
Speaker A:So very few.
Speaker A:It's basically just less than five to six devices typically for every store.
Speaker A:And that enables us to really just use the printers at the distribution centers, the infrastructure at the store, and then all the associates, they have the ability to use their phones to receive alerts and actually take action.
Speaker B:This is so cool.
Speaker B:Nick, thank you for letting us dive in and ask all these questions because it's just so fascinating how it's working.
Speaker B:And I think it's really important that you set the context for how this differentiates from rfid, which we're also hearing about in the space quite a bit these days.
Speaker B:One thing that you mentioned earlier though, is that this technology, now that it exists, is helping store operations.
Speaker B:So at the store level, associates are able to kind of see, see what's coming into their back of house.
Speaker B:Will you talk a little bit more about how this data from the devices is kind of converging into actionable items on a Walmart associates to do list?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So IoT pixels or Bluetooth pixels, they're continuously streaming data.
Speaker A:So as long as there's that level of RF in the environment, they're going to continue to harvest energy and transmit.
Speaker A:And when they're giving you that constant signal of temperature, you can reference a lot about movement, you can reference about condition.
Speaker A:Certainly with every transmission you have an impression of location.
Speaker A:And so all of that goes directly into Walmart's AI systems.
Speaker A:And then what the associates are doing is they're receiving alerts.
Speaker A:Mobile notifications we started out with, I mean we can do emails, we can do text messages, we can do alerts through apps, we're using native systems to Walmart.
Speaker A:So one of the biggest things here is we don't require the associate to do anything additional.
Speaker A:They just enable a site and now they're getting all this information.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So in from an associate standpoint or somebody that's working in the store on the ground, it's completely transparent.
Speaker A:They don't even care that it's there.
Speaker A:They just know, hey, now I know that I've got a problem that I can go address or I know that I can go do something before I have a problem.
Speaker A:So we're giving them that continuous real time visibility, you know, that enhances Walmart's ability to anticipate, respond and really optimize their operations right there in the moment.
Speaker A:So I think in the future, you know, the ambient IoT data integration with AI that's just going to continue to kind of grasp more and more use cases to enhance the supply chain performance.
Speaker C:So Nick, what's an example of that?
Speaker C:So say I'm a Sam and a Walmart store associate, what's an example of that?
Speaker C:That I can do my job in a better way than I could prior to Wiliot being In the store.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So let's just say for an example that you receive a truck and you've got a set number of pallets, you're supposed to pull off that truck, but it's got multiple deliveries it's going to make.
Speaker A:One of the things that we can do now is you can unload that truck.
Speaker A:That truck.
Speaker A:But if you have to pull off a pallet that wasn't supposed to go to your store, but you had to do it to get to another pallet.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So now it's in the store where it shouldn't be, and you get the pallet that you were supposed to get.
Speaker A:We can actually send you a reminder if we determine that, hey, you guys, don't forget to put this pallet back on the truck.
Speaker A:And that's huge.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because there's an incredible amount of cost with these pallets.
Speaker A:You know, they're very valuable.
Speaker A:And when you do that just a few times in a year, you can imagine there's significant inventory discrepancies.
Speaker A:So we're fixing that.
Speaker A:You know, we're preventing that problem from even happening.
Speaker A:If you were to take a cold pallet and let's say you're.
Speaker A:You're unloading multiple cold pallets, you're moving one, but you forget to move another, and we can say, hey, don't forget to put that cold pallet back in the freezer.
Speaker A:And because we don't want it to, you know, go out of cold chain compliance, William is really being leveraged to keep problems from happening, not.
Speaker A:Not, you know, document that a problem happened.
Speaker C:Right, right.
Speaker C:And then you have a system of record that the items have been in compliance, too, throughout the process as well.
Speaker A:Up until that is correct.
Speaker A:And it does attract.
Speaker A:Yeah, it does.
Speaker A:And that does lend itself to the.
Speaker A:To the fisma aspect of Wiliot's potential.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And in addition to Nick, like the AP aspects of what you're talking about, too, there's a lot of products you want to know where those pallet, you know, I think, like, high value electronics, things like that.
Speaker C:Like, I want to know that those are still on my truck at the end of the day and not, you know, winding up somewhere else.
Speaker C:All right, so, you know, we've touched on it a little bit in terms of, you know, you mentioned Greg, Cathy before.
Speaker C:He's kind of the executive sponsor of Walmart.
Speaker C:We've had him on the show.
Speaker C:You know, it's one of the hardest problems in retail is, of course, just knowing where your product is.
Speaker C:But in addition to that, what other roi, you know, can retailers expect from deploying a solution like Wiliot if they make an investment like this?
Speaker A:I think, Chris, you know, when thinking about the retail market in general, the benefits are, they're so vast.
Speaker A:You know, you've got your inventory accuracy will yachts helping resolve inventory discrepancies through this, this continuous pallet level visibility and really automating a lot of alerts that previously didn't exist.
Speaker A:We are very, very committed to freshness and waste reduction.
Speaker A:So real time location, temperature sensing, we're protecting perishable goods and reducing spoilage.
Speaker A:Then you've got labor efficiency, automation.
Speaker A:You know, it's eliminating a lot of manual scanning that is a huge benefit to any company.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:It really frees the employees to focus on customers.
Speaker A:And Walmart is absolutely committed to customers.
Speaker A:Then you've got your compliance, the Food Safety Modernization act or FISMA.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:That ambient IoT data provides a verifiable proof of delivery, handling, cold chain integrity.
Speaker A:It really helps strengthen supplier relationships and ultimately virtually all of our customers.
Speaker A:When we are landing the right use cases, you know, we see improved sales.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So we're improving the customer shopping experience.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:As I mentioned, right.
Speaker A:Walmart is very committed to the customer and they're looking at this from how are they making the, the customer journey easier and still helping the customer, you know, live better and save more?
Speaker B:Nick, you know, on this show we say often, like, if Walmart's doing it, other retailers are likely going to be paying attention.
Speaker B:And obviously this partnership that Williot created with Walmart is a ringing endorsement of the product.
Speaker B:But what has to be true at a retailer and those listening in our audience for Wiliot to work successfully, like, are there any things that you would caution listeners or you would say, you know, this is the right investment for you?
Speaker B:If X, Y and Z is true.
Speaker A:That'S a, that's a really great question.
Speaker A:I guess the way that I internalize it though is I'm kind of thinking about what are the things that I've seen go wrong with retailers to take a look at it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I think one of the biggest things is they try to do too much with it too fast.
Speaker A:I think the first thing that you need to do is say, I've got this problem, let's go see if we can solve it.
Speaker A:Once you solve that one problem and you said, okay, through that process, you integrate into all of your ERP systems your entire tech stack.
Speaker A:You get the right security permissions, suddenly all the other use cases that you want to use the technology for they become very easy and fast to execute.
Speaker A:And I think that any retailer who is moving goods that they actually want to know where they are at can use our technology again.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Bluetooth is in fact everywhere.
Speaker A:I don't know what the world's current phone saturation rate.
Speaker A:You know, everybody has a smart smartphone these days, but because of that, the ease of adoption only, only continues to get easier.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:The cost of edge devices that we do use to augment some of that RF in the environment that those prices continue to go down.
Speaker A:As you mentioned, Walmart is a real leader in the retail thought space and I think we're going to be seeing some additional announcements soon as additional folks are saying, hey, there's something here.
Speaker A:And our goal with Wiliot, right, our North Star has always been a truly ambient IoT experience that tracks something end to end.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Farm to fork is something we used to say, but this idea of absolute compliance and ability to make sure that customers are getting the highest quality with the highest confidence that it's been within those safety conditions that we expect for food, for example, Right.
Speaker A:Even if it's material that we want to make sure, you know, we're not getting a fake Apple Phone whatnot.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We're getting a real Apple Phone, that sort of thing.
Speaker A:So, you know, anybody who wants to actually monitor their inventory, anybody that wants.
Speaker C:To.
Speaker A:Make sure that their goods are in temperature compliance, that they are making sure that it is the highest quality, can, can certainly receive a ROI from, from Williot.
Speaker B:Nick, I'm what I was just going to ask you to go into that a little bit deeper so it doesn't have to be a Walmart size operation like this could be for a smaller regional grocery chain that's sourcing locally that, you know, may or may not have more than one distribution center or something like, is it still a viable option for them to be considering right now or would you recommend that they wait until they've got more of like a infrastructure system set up so that they can tack more onto this before it really kind of starts to show its value?
Speaker A:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker A:I think that the size of the operation doesn't matter as much as the commitment to quality and the commitment to excellence.
Speaker A:The truth is, is that we are working with some very small suppliers that are just kicking out, you know, a few tens of thousands of products or even less.
Speaker A:And we're making sure though, that as they build their operation, they're doing it with, with those cost saving benefits.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So we're actually helping them scale faster by making sure.
Speaker A:They lose less material or that they're getting that material in the, in the, in the right quality that it should be to their customers.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's interesting too, Nick, because when I think about like the fact that there's a lot of new legislation coming too, that also tends to force a commitment to excellence that maybe was not there before across the industry in total as well.
Speaker C:So that's, that's a nice thing to think about in regard to what you just said.
Speaker C:And so Nick, let's get you out of here on this.
Speaker C:You know, Ann said it at the outset that, you know, know we're going to have, you have folks from Wiliot on a couple times with us because there's just so much to cover on this topic.
Speaker C:And one thing that's particularly caught An's and Maya's attention is this concept of what your CEO calls physical AI, which is he thinks the next evolution beyond digital AI.
Speaker C:That's a pretty bold vision when you get right down to it.
Speaker C:So what does he actually mean when he says physical AI?
Speaker C:What does that mean in practical terms?
Speaker A:William's been really good at putting the t back in IoT or the Internet of things.
Speaker A:We put the thing back in it.
Speaker A:So what we're really trying to do is extend artificial intelligence from the digital world of clicks and searches and really put it into the physical world around us.
Speaker A:We're trying to bring intelligence to objects, products, into the environment and help move our economy.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We want to create a seamless connection between data and the real world.
Speaker A:So physical AI really, it connects the billions of everyday things pallets produce, medicine, manufacturing equipment, all of that to really deliver a continuous stream of real time information.
Speaker A:This live data layer, it powers AI systems and it gives them that understanding of what's happening across the physical world.
Speaker A:And really it becomes an extraordinary fidelity.
Speaker A:You know, with, with that power AI can really operate with, with true precision.
Speaker A:It, we're making, you know, instant adjustments to decisions on supply chain routes.
Speaker A:We're looking at, you know, the temperature changes in near real time.
Speaker A:We're looking at expected journey compliance and patterns where if that journey is shifting, we now know the, the third and fourth order effects of that.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:So we're, we're driving improvements to freshness, we're driving improvements in efficiency, even safety.
Speaker A:And I hope that your listeners tune in because physical AI is, it's already here, right?
Speaker A:We're operating at a massive scale.
Speaker A:Walmart's nationwide deployment with Wiliot is really demonstrating just how combining ambient IoT and AIT is transforming.
Speaker A:Excuse me.
Speaker A:And AI is transforming the physical world.
Speaker A:It's becoming an intelligent, responsive network that is, is providing benefits to businesses, associates, consumers.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And I, I believe it's Jerome you're going to be speaking with for that bulb.
Speaker A:And what a genius he is.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:That guy is doing amazing things.
Speaker A:So I can't wait to, to listen to that episode.
Speaker C:Yeah, it sounds really cool.
Speaker C:I can't wait either.
Speaker C:I mean, you just got me thinking about this, like, as this evolves, like.
Speaker C:Right, yeah.
Speaker C:You can start to get a sense of where things are moving in the physical space without cameras.
Speaker C:And like, I just start thinking about even the application of this in the store.
Speaker C:Like, product comes in off the truck, what's the best path optimally to get that product back on shelf or back in the warehouse?
Speaker C:We don't really know the answer to those types of questions right now because we can't study them and document how they actually exist in the world today.
Speaker C:So, yeah, that's going to be a really fascinating topic.
Speaker A:Totally agree, Chris.
Speaker B:Well, Nick, thank you so much for sharing all of your expertise in your years of working with Wiliot and for bringing us all up to speed on everything that you've been working on.
Speaker B:You have been busy, and I can't wait to dive into the physical AI conversation in our next session that will be coming out in December.
Speaker B:So those of you listening, stay tuned.
Speaker B:That will come out right before the holiday break.
Speaker B:But, Nick, if people have questions before then, they were intrigued by this conversation.
Speaker B:They want to ask you more questions about how you did the Walmart deployment.
Speaker B:What's the best way for them to get in touch with you to learn more about Wiliot?
Speaker A:Yeah, thanks.
Speaker A:So you can get me at LinkedIn.
Speaker A:Really, I'm pretty active there.
Speaker A:But you can also email me directly at my work nick.matthewsilliott.com all right, that.
Speaker C:Wraps us up today.
Speaker C:Thanks to Nick Matthews of Wiliot for educating us on all things Bluetooth tracking in store and also talking about his deployment at Walmart.
Speaker C:And thanks, everyone, for listening in.
Speaker C:Today's podcast was produced by Ella Searior.
Speaker C:As always, on behalf of all of us here at Omnitalk, be careful out there.