As a technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved a lot over the last decade. It had been an academic or research interest until recently, but now it is being widely adopted by businesses across all verticals to develop intelligent machines that have the ability to learn from data, understand human requests, and take actions accordingly says Peter DeCaprio.
In today’s day and age of competition where retailers are fighting for customer loyalty with better product offerings and services, AI has emerged as a potential tool that can help them enhance their customer experience on multiple levels. The power of big data analytics along with machine learning tools makes it possible to deliver personalized experiences to individual customers even if they belong to different geographical locations.
This new-age technology offers immense business opportunities for companies, but its adoption is still in the early stages. It’s important for retailers to realize that they can gain a competitive edge by investing in AI-powered solutions, enhancing customer experience, and getting an insight into consumer behavior.
Here are some of the ways how Artificial Intelligence can be used by retail businesses:
Personalized Shopping Experience Developing personalized shopping experiences could be the biggest advantage of using modern-day AI tools. Retailers can gather insights from their customers’ online activities and predict their preferences before serving them with customized offers. This empowers them to deliver more relevant content during each shopping session, build closer relationships with individual consumers and create brand loyalty towards their products/retailers over time. Using virtual assistants has become a common feature in artificial intelligence-powered websites.
Its software that assists online shoppers by suggesting product options based on their preferences. For example, personalized shopping experiences can be enhanced in clothing e-commerce stores through automated chatbots using which users can ask for suggestions when they are browsing products. Checking Customer Sentiment Understanding how customers feel about particular product offerings is one of the major challenges faced by retailers in real-world scenarios, but virtual assistants have made it much easier to assess customer sentiment by tracking their activities across multiple channels. Retailers can easily identify what sort of content resonates well with consumers, what type of offers entices them to take action, and what features drive satisfaction among end-users explains Peter DeCaprio.
Customer Relationship Management managing customer relationship management (CRM) using AI tools is another way to pave the path for a successful business. Retailers can interact with customers across different communication channels, stay updated about their purchase activities and explore potential growth opportunities through this channel.
Customer Segmentation Understanding customer behavior in depth helps retailers determine which groups of people are likely to be interested in buying specific products. They can then launch marketing campaigns that target these customer segments based on their spending habits or other relevant factors. For instance, an e-commerce store selling travel accessories can segment its customers based on where they are based, how much they travel every month, etc., to serve them with customized offers or bundles targeted towards specific needs. The retailer can also send notifications pertaining to last-minute deals or discounts specifically to those customers who not only spend a considerable time on its website but also buy products regularly.
Enhanced Customer Engagement Developing tech-driven shopping experiences is just one side of the coin when it comes to harnessing AI for retail businesses. Retailers can strengthen their customer engagement strategies using tech tools by using analytics insights to enhance the overall online shopping experience. For instance, e-commerce websites can send customized recommendations to customers based on their previous purchase history or content exploring similar items that may interest them. Personalizing search results based on past activity is another way of building brand loyalty towards specific retailers/brands over time.
Boosting Sales Conversions As stated earlier, retailers around the world are trying hard to increase their customer base and boost sales conversions at the same time. Personalized shopping experiences are one of the most effective ways to address this challenge, but AI tools can help them go a step further by making data-driven decisions that positively impact their business in real-time. Retailers can easily understand when, where, and how to generate maximum revenue through their web stores by using AI analytics solutions. They can also track in-depth metrics pertaining to demographics, browsing behavior, etc. in order to enhance product discovery and marketing strategies over time.
Tracking Business Expansion Every year, thousands of new e-commerce websites are launched with similar business models, but only a handful survives long enough to become household names across different countries. Peter DeCaprio says Using artificial intelligence for retail businesses is one of the key factors behind this trend, as companies can track their business expansion in real-time and take action accordingly. For example, an e-commerce retailer which uses AI tools to analyze its income against operating costs and other relevant factors can instantly identify the geographical regions where it needs to launch its next set of services to generate maximum revenue. It can also track the percentage by which traffic from a particular region increases over time and decide on whether or not it’s financially viable for them to open up new stores there.
Conclusion:
As stated earlier, retailers need to adapt quickly in order to survive competition because consumers these days prefer customized shopping experiences at different touchpoints says Peter DeCaprio. Companies that fail to keep pace with changing customer preferences are bound to see a major decline in sales volumes over time, but by using AI retail tools they can track trends in real-time and take the right steps to stay on top.