UA to Launch Retail Innovation and Technology Lab

Officials with the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas are working to transform what was once an on-campus retail space into a groundbreaking lab aimed at uncovering the needs and desires of the shoppers of the future.

Specifically, upon its completion, the lab — dubbed the “McMillon Family Retail Innovation and Technology Lab” — will be used by the university’s faculty and students to tinker and experiment with both retail industry technologies and online and physical store environments.

For instance, one of the first displays on tap will be a “Kitchen of the Future” display, which will showcase a host of different so-called IoT (Internet of Things) technologies (everyday items, appliances or accessories that have tiny computers inside). Think a refrigerator that has the capacity to add milk to your shopping list when you’re running low or a pan that will adjust to the perfect temp for frying bacon or a scale that will automatically convert a recipe if you’re running low on an ingredient.

“Technology companies are great at creating these types of technologies, but it’s important to know if consumers have any interest in purchasing them,” says Sue Sedberry, the managing director of the lab.

Sedberry points out that one of the best features of the lab is that it will be open to the public for feedback. For the most part, the area is heavily trafficked by UA students, who for all intents and purposes are “the shoppers of the future,” she says.

In addition to the business students, a slew of other schools throughout the university will have access to the lab for experimentation, including engineering students, students studying fashion merchandising and those studying industrial engineering.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who is an alumnus of the Walton College, and his wife provided funding for the lab, which is slated to open its doors sometime in March in the space that was once occupied by The Parking Spot store in the Harmon Street parking garage on the south side of campus.