Smart retail

Smart retail solution by ThingsBoard is a powerful platform that helps retailers gain full visibility into store infrastructure, automate data collection, respond to incidents in real time, and make informed decisions. Leveraging the flexibility of ThingsBoard, retailers can integrate a wide range of sensors and devices, visualize key metrics through custom dashboards, and implement intelligent analytics.

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The smart retail solution template represents a flexible, ready-to-use structure for building intelligent retail infrastructures using the ThingsBoard IoT platform. As a solution provider, you can provision multiple customers and assign each one a dedicated pool of IoT devices to monitor key assets across their supermarkets. Customers can easily upload custom floor plans, install devices on-site, and place them logically within the dashboard layout to reflect the physical environment.

With built-in alarm logic and fully configurable thresholds per device, users can detect anomalies such as temperature fluctuations or unauthorized access without needing a complex setup. The template also includes interactive dashboards that allow both providers and customers to monitor the current and historical state of their supermarkets—empowering data-driven decisions, operational efficiency, and a higher standard of safety and service.

ThingsBoard dashboard displaying supermarket locations and active critical alarms on the map

Critical motion sensor and list of active alarms for Supermarket S1 in ThingsBoard interface

ThingsBoard interface showing Supermarket S1 floor plan with critical motion sensor alerts and alarm chart

Dashboard view of Supermarket S2 with critical door sensor and major chiller alarm

Supermarket S2 layout with freezer temperature monitoring and no active alarms

Critical door sensor and multiple major temperature alarms in Supermarket S3 on ThingsBoard

Dashboard showing temperature fluctuations of chiller in Supermarket S3 on ThingsBoard

Solution structure of smart retail

A wide range of IoT devices installed across supermarkets—such as motion sensors, temperature probes, smoke detectors, door sensors, and more—are connected to the ThingsBoard platform using MQTT, CoAP, or HTTP protocols.

All telemetry and event data is collected within ThingsBoard, where it is structured, stored, and processed via the built-in Rule Engine. This enables real-time alarm generation, automation workflows, and configurable notifications to ensure prompt response to anomalies. 

Custom dashboards provide visual insights into equipment status, temperature trends, sensor activity, and alarm history. This empowers operators with clear and actionable monitoring across the entire retail network.

Smart retail dashboard structure

Smart retail solution dashboards in ThingsBoard are designed to give retail operators full situational awareness, from high-level monitoring of multiple store locations down to detailed insights into individual devices. Each dashboard state provides a specific layer of visibility to support operational efficiency and safety.

Supermarket map overview state

This screen provides a global view of all supermarket locations on the map, where each store is marked with a color-coded status icon indicating Normal, Major, or Critical state, and the right-side panel lists all supermarkets with their addresses and current operational status.

Supermarket S1 layout and devices state

This dashboard displays the detailed layout of Supermarket S1 with real-time positions and statuses of sensors, while highlighting all critical and major alarms directly on the floor plan, and also provides access to the device list and full alarm history.

Supermarket S1: motion sensor detail state

This state focuses on a specific motion sensor in a restricted area, showing its recent movement detection timeline, current critical state, battery level history, and alarm log for security monitoring and maintenance control.

Supermarket S2 layout and devices state

This view shows the layout of Supermarket S2 where several sensors such as door, chiller, freezer, and smart shelves are displayed, and the dashboard alarms users about critical issues including broken doors and temperature breaches.

Supermarket S2: freezer temperature monitoring state

This dashboard monitors the freezer labeled "Meat" in Supermarket S2, displaying the 7-day temperature history, current temperature status in the normal range, and confirming that no alarms were raised during the observed period.

Supermarket S3 layout and devices state

This state presents the plan of Supermarket S3, showing active devices including a critically malfunctioning door sensor and chiller, along with their types and statuses, and offers quick insights into recent critical alarms.

Supermarket S3: chiller analytics state

This dashboard visualizes temperature telemetry from the "Milk" chiller in Supermarket S3, where temperature exceeded the critical limit of 15°C, resulting in an active unacknowledged high temperature alarm with full context available in the alarm log.

Applications of smart retail solution

While smart retail solution were originally designed for retail store environments, the versatility and scalability of ThingsBoard's IoT platform make it a perfect fit for a wide range of industries where real-time monitoring, environmental control, and asset visibility are critical.

Pharmacy Chains

Smart retail solution enable pharmacy networks to ensure safe medication storage by monitoring refrigeration units, maintaining regulatory compliance, and detecting unauthorized access.

Logistics and Cold Chain Warehouses

The platform helps logistics operators maintain precise environmental conditions, monitor access points, and comply with food safety standards across their storage facilities.

Food Courts and Restaurant Chains

Restaurants and food courts can leverage ThingsBoard to track equipment health, detect fire risks, and monitor access to restricted areas in real time.

Hospital Cafeterias and Institutional Kitchens

Convenience Stores at Fuel Stations

Convenience stores benefit from automated monitoring of refrigeration, security alarms, and predictive maintenance based on real-time telemetry data.

Hospital Cafeterias and Institutional Kitchens

Institutional kitchens use smart retail solution to ensure food safety, prevent equipment failures, and optimize stock levels through smart shelf monitoring.

Pharmacy Chains

Smart retail solution enable pharmacy networks to ensure safe medication storage by monitoring refrigeration units, maintaining regulatory compliance, and detecting unauthorized access.

Convenience Stores at Fuel Stations

Convenience stores benefit from automated monitoring of refrigeration, security alarms, and predictive maintenance based on real-time telemetry data.

Logistics and Cold Chain Warehouses

The platform helps logistics operators maintain precise environmental conditions, monitor access points, and comply with food safety standards across their storage facilities.

Hospital Cafeterias and Institutional Kitchens

Institutional kitchens use smart retail solution to ensure food safety, prevent equipment failures, and optimize stock levels through smart shelf monitoring.

Food Courts and Restaurant Chains

Restaurants and food courts can leverage ThingsBoard to track equipment health, detect fire risks, and monitor access to restricted areas in real time.

Summary of smart retail

Smart retail solution by ThingsBoard is a comprehensive solution that enables centralized monitoring of store operations, improves safety through automated alarms and incident logging, and reduces costs related to equipment failures and product spoilage. By streamlining incident response and automating routine checks, it also enhances staff efficiency. More than just data visualization, this solution transforms retail infrastructure into an intelligent, predictive, and adaptive environment that drives value for both customers and businesses.

ThingsBoard advantages

Security

ThingsBoard protects your data with industry-standard encryption algorithms like RSA and ECDSA. Secure communication is ensured via TLS (TCP) and DTLS (UDP). Role-based access control and audit logs further enhance platform security.

Data visualization

Visualize data with interactive, multi-state dashboards—no coding needed. Use built-in charts, gauges, maps, tables, and control widgets. Customize every detail via advanced settings or custom widget bundles. Real-time, low-latency updates supported via embedded web-sockets.

Connectivity

Connect devices directly to the platform via the following built-in protocols: HTTP, CoAP, MQTT, LwM2M, and SNMP. Connect devices in your local network to the cloud using ThingsBoard Gateway via Modbus, BLE, BACnet, OPC-UA, and other protocols.

Data processing

ThingsBoard allows you to define app logic using a drag-and-drop rule chain designer. Its scalable Rule Engine uses message queues like Kafka or AWS SQS for durable, reliable data processing. You can handle data within the engine or forward it to external systems.

Scalability and high availability

ThingsBoard supports high-availability cloud and on-prem deployments via Kubernetes or bare-metal. Its components scale horizontally and handle 18K+ vehicles and 5K+ devices in prod.

Multi-tenancy

ThingsBoard provides UI and API to manage tenants, customers, users, devices, and assets. Single tenant may have multiple tenant administrators and millions of devices and customers. It also offers out-of-the-box support of OTA updates for your smart meters.

LoRaWAN & SigFox support

Connect LoRaWAN devices via integrations with standard network servers like TTN, LORIOT, ChirpStack, Actility, etc. Connect SigFox devices via integrations with the SigFox backend.

Mobile application

Build your own IoT mobile application with minimum coding efforts using ThingsBoard Mobile Application, an open-source project based on Flutter. Leverage a built-in set of mobile actions to take a photo, scan QR code, update location, and more directly within the dashboard.