Artificial intelligence (AI) continues to reach new levels of data processing and learning, helping businesses across all industries get better insights and make smarter decisions. AI can be particularly useful for retail companies by improving their interactions with customers. Here are some ways we can use AI to optimize the customer experience in retail stores.
1. Improve Routine Operations
A retail store’s everyday operations can see significant improvements thanks to AI. For starters, it can optimize supply chains by studying route plans and determining the most efficient structure, cutting human error out of the picture. It can also put bigger orders together, helping businesses save on shipping and delivery costs.
Analysis of product trends enables retailers to reduce the number of product returns and overstocks and helps them invest in the right items by analyzing transactions and searches. Even factors like the weather can determine the success of a product. AI analyzes these details more accurately, thus making retail operations more successful.
2. Personalize Each Customer’s Experience
AI connects online and offline shopping in imaginative ways that humans could never replicate. It uses tools like automated checkout, virtual dressing rooms, and mood trackers to study and influence a customer’s behavior, even going so far as to predict their buying habits. Algorithms also gather relevant data through email marketing and a customer’s browsing habits to make more personalized offers on the company website.
A study by IBM showed that 48% of customers expect retailers to provide on-demand, personalized promotions online, while 45% had the same feelings about in-store service.
AI technology enables retailers to fulfill that responsibility, helping companies build a loyal customer base. With AI, you can be sure that every customer receives the proper attention and information to help their buying decisions.
3. Optimize Store Space Usage
AI analyzes many retail store factors to optimize the building’s space and inventory. Factors that humans would never consider can impact a store’s efficiency:
- Consumer preferences
- Product location
- Cash register location
- Shelf organization
- Season and weather conditions
- Expiration dates
- Movements of employees and other customers
Algorithms in a store’s security system can pick up this information and help store managers determine the best product placements, shelf layouts, and employee activity to maximize profits. The process takes time, but AI gets smarter and can provide deeper insights the more it learns about a store.
The standard AI-managed retail store in the near future could consist of cashier-free checkout, autonomous in-store robots, smart shelf tags, and other technology to make the shopping experience more enjoyable and informative for the customer. Companies like Amazon and Lowes have already utilized these machines in their stores with great success.
4. Increase Employee Satisfaction
A happier staff generally leads to a more pleasant customer experience. AI can improve employee satisfaction by optimizing work schedules so that nobody is over-worked and the store never gets over-staffed. It can even identify which jobs get the largest workload at a particular time or day, helping managers to predict and balance their staff’s responsibilities.
With a less stressful schedule, employees can provide a consistently high level of service to shoppers every day. They can get the most out of each shift without compromising their future performance or commitment to the company. AI considers all the complexities of an individual’s work schedule, helping businesses retain their staff and keep operations running smoothly.
5. Strengthen Cybersecurity
A retail store has a lot of sensitive data to take care of, including buying trends and information about its customers. AI can quickly identify abnormal activity in a store’s system, analyzing millions of events and transactions to point out potential threats. These threats range from malware to phishing attacks to bad code.
AI’s self-learning technology continuously gathers data and recognizes patterns that humans need more time and information to recognize. A faster and more accurate response from your security system enables you to control threat exposure, improve communication between employees, and protect your customers from data breaches. Real-time monitoring with AI could be the future of cybersecurity in many industries, including retail.
6. Predict and Adjust Prices
Price forecasting has never been easier now that artificial intelligence is on the scene. Retailers can create an app or online service that notifies customers of potential product price changes, helping them make more cost-effective buying decisions. A price prediction feature is never 100% accurate, even with AI, but it’s certainly more helpful than guessing.
AI can also help retail businesses develop better pricing strategies by collecting data about promotional activities and sales figures. Armed with this information, store managers can make the best offers, boost sales, and get more customers in the long run.
For example, eBay’s online marketplace uses AI to develop flexible price models and make more relevant promotions based on customer input. AI makes pricing and online shopping easy, enabling buyers and sellers to arrive at a fair number.
Artificial Intelligence Is Here to Stay
AI has introduced numerous technologies to the retail industry, including robotics, virtual dressing rooms, mood trackers, and cybersecurity systems. These resources enable stores to optimize their operations – both human and machine – and thus improve the customer experience. AI is still a work in progress, but by all indications it’s here to stay.
