How retailers like Walmart and Lowe’s use digital twins of physical stores

“Our goal is to create more agile operations, reduce friction for associates and deliver shopping experiences that feel natural and helpful for customers,” said Chandhu Nair, svp of data, artificial intelligence and innovation for Lowe’s, in an email.

The term “digital twin” typically refers to a digital model of physical items, such as stores or products, which companies can use to layer on additional information or integrate with other systems. E.l.f., for example, has sold items like a hoodie and popular skin-care items on Roblox that also give guests “virtual twins” of the same products. In the case of virtually replicated stores, there are several ways in which retailers have employed the technology.

While some retailers are creating conceptual virtual spaces that customers can see, some are shifting toward more internal uses of digital twins meant to keep stores running more efficiently, or to plan and construct new locations.

Stephanie Lin, vp and gm of design, construction and facilities management use cases for Matterport — which real estate data firm CoStar Group acquired in March — helps companies create and display digital twins.

Popularized as a property marketing tool for residential real estate around 2020, Matterport’s 3D models have evolved to democratize information about the locations other companies, including retailers, own or lease. They can use it to help them build out spaces or figure out whether to invest in a retail project.

Lin added that, historically, building information has been captured in detailed design drawings that other people who work for retailers would not be able to look at without having access to architectural software. She said that Matterport customers can also use AI to, for example, determine how many items are on the shelf, how many light bulbs are out or where the fire extinguishers are.

In previous roles at brands such as Tory Burch and Michael Kors, Lin said she would frequently get calls from other leaders at these companies asking questions like, “How many stores exactly do we have in Shanghai that are still operating?” or “How many POS systems do we have?” Digital twins could help executives and other employees get answers more directly.

Retailers and brands that host events could also use the software for crowd management. Two years ago, in the Middle East, Sam Huber and his team at what is now called Napster worked on a digital twin of the Yas Marina Circuit, the Formula 1 track in Abu Dhabi, to manage crowds of 200,000 people by simulating where crowds would go in emergencies, where to put security and what happens if an exit becomes blocked.

Huber is Napster’s global president of enterprise solutions, as well as CEO of its Middle East and North Africa regions. The immersive technology and AI company was previously known as Infinite Reality until it acquired music streaming service Napster in a $207 million deal in March and took its name.

The next phase of the Yas Marina Circuit project will be to use it to help visitors navigate the stadium, such as where their seats are, where the toilets are and where they can buy a hot dog by position-mapping on the digital twin.

“Mapping all of those things out to create a more efficient flow on the day is something that is really difficult to do, unless you can simulate hundreds of different scenarios and pick the best one,” Huber said. “When you build a digital twin, you have this 3D infrastructure, and then you can run simulations on top of it.”

Modern Retail spoke with retailers and technology vendors like Lin and Huber about several areas in which digital twins of real-world stores are used throughout the retail industry, from facilities management to design, construction, marketing and e-commerce.

Facilities management

Retailers often use digital twins as a vehicle on which to display information about different components of a given store or warehouse.

Walmart uses its 3D store models to predict and prevent equipment failures, reduce emergencies, lower maintenance costs and minimize other disruptions, Brandon Ballard, group director of real estate for Walmart U.S., wrote in an email. He said Walmart and Sam’s Club have deployed digital twins for maintenance operations in 4,200 locations.

“For example, if a refrigerator’s temperature starts trending toward a risk threshold, the digital twin flags it early, creates a work order, and alerts teams to move product or adjust settings — helping prevent waste,” Ballard said.

Ballard said the company plans to expand the scope of what its digital twins cover to include fixtures and backroom shelving. This, in turn, will support real-time inventory tracking, improve product availability and enable a faster response to restocking needs. The company is also exploring ways to extend the models to reflect dock availability and unloading times to better coordinate incoming truckloads with the supply chain teams.

The retailer’s digital twins were created with drone image captures and are updated with real-time data. Ballard said the technology has helped Walmart reduce emergency alerts by 30% and refrigeration maintenance costs by 19%.

“These models provide real-time insights into store operations and allow us to anticipate and diagnose issues up to two weeks in advance,” Ballard said. “It’s a powerful tool that helps us stay ahead of disruptions, reduce downtime, and deliver a better experience for both associates and customers.”

At Lowe’s, the models are updated daily, if not in real time, and can be customized and embedded into other Lowe’s tools, like store CADs, fixture layouts, product planograms, and inventory, financial and other operational data.

“The platform understands the location and status of almost everything in the store, including signage, fixtures, landmarks, equipment, and even, in some cases, devices and people,” Nair said. “The unification of that data into one 3D representation makes it possible for our teams to understand a store environment in a visual, accurate manner, rather than piecing it together from flat spreadsheets or physically recreating them.”

Many Matterport retail customers use digital twins to capture fulfillment centers and warehouses, to understand how much inventory they can stack in available shelf spaces and to remotely monitor any types of issues, according to Lin. For example, she said the company has been working with food and beverage company Danone since 2023 to capture multiple facilities throughout Europe.

Anytime something at a Danone facility goes down, service providers from all over the world can access the systems remotely and tell someone on-site how to fix the problem, she said. The provided camera is high enough resolution so they can zoom into equipment labels to determine the high voltage requirement or where the on/off switch is.

“All of that can then translate into information that the technicians abroad can really tap into,” Lin said. “You can even embed warranty manuals and specification sheets.”

Design and construction

Digital twins also work to visualize store conditions and make decisions about future stores or plan for seasonal events.

At Lowe’s, in addition to tracking store operations, Nair said the retailer is looking into applications built in the Nvidia Omniverse that would help merchants test store layouts digitally or tools that would make it easier to highlight relevant products in specific communities.

Retailers will use Matterport to scan locations, particularly when they’re due for refreshes, to capture existing conditions. Matterport has been doing this since at least 2017, she said, and has worked with Dior, Chanel and Hermès service providers, plus Ralph Lauren’s Australian branch, and Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein owner PVH.

“It becomes the background of how these teams start to communicate on-site conditions, and then how they actually adjust and estimate out,” Lin said. “How many fixtures do I need to go into this new space? How much new wallpaper do I need to procure, in order to refresh the store and make it up to modern brand standards, versus something that was built two or three years ago?”

The technology can even assist in visual merchandising. Lin said retailers will capture what one store looks like during a certain period, and use that in other stores to help employees set up the floor sets to look the same.

“Historically, they would print binders and binders of instruction sheets,” Lin said. Now, “they do all the label and instruction and training within Matterport and the digital native tools that Matterport offers, such as tags, notes, etc.”

Marketing and e-commerce

The digital store replicas can also be used in customer-facing applications, such as on retailers’ websites or on their apps.

RV retailer Camping World currently uses Matterport to scan vehicles for virtual tours on its website. Starbucks in 2021 worked with Matterport on an immersive experience capturing a roasting facility in Costa Rica.

“It was a great way to get people who were interested in learning more or investing in the business to see, foundationally, what was driving everyone’s drip coffee or cappuccino that they’re ordering in the morning,” Lin said.

Beyond the life-like buildings, the term “digital twins” could also refer to products within virtual concept stores that are 3D-modeled to exactly represent physical items. For example, Napster creates web-based virtual spaces — including online stores for soccer clubs St. Benfica and Fenerbahçe SK — that include digital replicas of products that customers can look at before purchasing the physical items.

As another example, Napster a couple weeks ago launched a virtual Dick’s House of Sport store for Dick’s Sporting Goods with a prerecorded avatar of J.J. Watt, former defensive end for the Houston Texans. It also housed an interactive sports-themed 3D rooms and the ability to book in-store appointments, among other features.

These are among the next class of “metaverse”-style experiences that are more accessible to shoppers, as they don’t require a headset, and that incorporate e-commerce features as well as AI assistants.

“Now you can pair the beauty and the richness of a 3D environment, by being able to see the product from all angles,” Huber said, adding that retailers “want to create an experience; they want to be remembered for something.”