Artificial Intelligence (AI), according to an article in CIOReview, will play a key role moving forward as online shopping supplants brick-and-mortar retail stores with enterprises prioritizing AI. Additionally, AI can transform every facet of retail business.
In a digital era where consumers are always looking for personalized products and services, retailers are leveraging AI to align their offerings with their customers' expectations. AI has a disruptive effect across the retail value chain and is growing as a powerful tool for retail brands to gain a strategic edge over their competition, according to the magazine.
“If a business considers going the AI route, it would be prudent to learn how other retailers have leveraged the technology to offer disruptive solutions. The list provided here should serve as a good starting point,” CIOReview said. “As to improving the in-store experience, AI has the potential to automate in-store operations and significantly reduce operating costs in retail stores. It can take the place of sales personnel in the store, reduce queues with cashier-less payment, replenish stock with real-time stock monitoring, and digitize store displays and trial rooms.”
The article said omnichannel retail ensures that customer interactions do not begin and end in a physical location. By implementing artificial intelligence solutions in retail, businesses can quickly increase customer engagement through interactive chat programs. Chatbots have the potential to be a highly effective method of communicating with customers.
They can answer frequently asked questions, make product recommendations, resolve customer complaints, and collect valuable data from your customers before transferring the call to a telesales executive if necessary, according to the article.
Chatbots can be programmed to learn from previous customer interactions to improve and continuously personalize their subsequent interactions. Human intelligence cannot match the precision with which AI-powered chatbots handle data and customers.
“Artificial intelligence solutions provide valuable information for pricing strategy in a price-sensitive market like retail,” the article added. “These applications assist businesses in evaluating the efficacy of various pricing models before settling on the optimal price for their products. Additionally, retailers can adjust their prices in response to seasonal trends, competitive products, and consumer demand.
“Retailers worldwide lose money each year as a result of inefficient inventory planning. We recently developed artificial intelligence-powered drones for warehouse management to navigate obstacles and automatically update a central database with available inventory in real-time,” the article further noted. “For example, AI-enabled logistics management can forecast product demand by analyzing historical sales, location, and purchasing trends.”
Also, with personalization and insights into customers, AI solutions in retail can provide customers with a more personalized shopping experience. Biometric and facial recognition technologies can identify customers who return to a store and remember their preferences and dislikes. As a result, they can recommend products and create promotional campaigns for them. Advanced artificial intelligence algorithms can decode consumers' interests by analyzing their demographic data, social media impressions, and digital footprints, the article said.