The basic retail experience hasn’t changed much over the years: go into a store, look for the right product and make a purchase. Artificial intelligence has the potential to completely transform the traditional retail experience and take it to the next level with personalization, automation and increased efficiency. And it’s already happening.
AI can help retail stores in various ways. Firstly, AI-based systems can eliminate manual guesswork for activities like conducting product promotions, inventory assortments, and identifying supply chain complexities, etc. Major retailers are already experimenting with the use and possible applications of AI in the above fields. Some are even aiming to anticipate customers’ orders and good to be shipped without waiting for actual purchase confirmation.
It helps customers make smarter decisions with better accuracy and real-time forecasting. Good forecasts also help retailers optimize supply chain, create impactful promotion strategies and improve customer experience.AI also makes operations very efficient using robotics, process automation, and optimization. This greatly enhances productivity and reduces manual labor cost.
Lastly, retail is competing with ecommerce, where data generated by users is easily captured online. So, AI becomes an indispensable tool to capture heterogeneous data generated by customers in a retail store. Making coherence of in-store customer from multiple resources is of utmost importance. Customers just do not try, buy and leave but even use their smartphones to assist them when they shop in brick-and-mortar stores to check prices, read product reviews, and share on social media to get confidence in their purchase decision.
Understand how AI can enable smart retail solutions:
- Personalized In-store Recommendations
- Personalized Out-store Recommendations
- Intelligent Customer Experience
- Visual Search and Listen
- Voice Assistants