Artificial intelligence is here, and it will stay whether you like it or not. If we say that retail is one of the most affected market segments, then probably it will be right, or at least not totally wrong. With the personalization opportunities offered by AI, brands are utilizing it from marketing to content creation, adding a pinch of human element.
As we have seen, AI is now touching every aspect of our lives, and its integration and utilization are evident in education at all levels, in medical practices, from drug development to diagnosis and even X-ray analysis, and also in legal procedures and conservation efforts. And, of course, retail is no different. But the question is, how can brands use AI to stay relevant and improve their market share?
With the adoption of AI by the general public, the way they interact with different brands and consume media has changed a lot and is further changing. Along with the limitations of AI, which often result in backfiring, it still has immense potential to craft a satisfying customer experience.
Understanding AI literate customers
The huge amounts of data fed to AI models for training them equip the models with extensive knowledge. So users of these models definitely get access to expert type advice on any niche they require. From shopping for a pair of shoes to planning holidays and suggestions for the best places to visit and stay during their visit, to dining or children’s activities, everything is now at their fingertips. A chatbot can suggest the type of sneakers or boots according to the customer’s taste and sense of fashion, along with personalized instructions on every product and its usage as per customer needs.
Despite sounding complex, it provides brands with an immense opportunity to cash upon. Better customer understanding has always been the backbone of any successful product or service, and AI makes this very process much easier. It is also helpful in creating a frictionless shopping experience. Along with customer satisfaction, AI also offers a long list of uses in operational activities and inventory management. but that is not our subject here.
Personalized retail operations
The fact that AI has changed the approach to how people access and interact with information and it has also made an impact on their decision to purchase any product. Brands can adopt and validate their creative techniques to engage their audience in a better way. Generative AI has also made it easier to create localized content in a more affordable fashion and quickly, which offers bigger brands a way to strike a cord with customers at the local level, which in turn results in better brand loyalty.
Let’s say you are at a clothing brand and you want to try a trouser. Often, it’s a bad experience to get into the changing room with the wrong size, trying it, and coming out and lashing an employee or cursing yourself for taking a size smaller. Changing in try rooms is hectic, isn’t it? But American Eagle has come up with an out of the box solution, they have changed their try room experience by throwing all the frustration out the window.
American Eagle’s interactive try rooms offer the option of scanning the item’s tag and seeing what is in stock. The store worker is automatically notified if the customer needs the item at the try room. Their model can even suggest options based on what customers have already tried to match their individual tastes.
Despite the fact that the retail sector remained stagnant during the past decade from a customer experience perspective, but now AI is here, which will change it a lot. As now, brands have started to incorporate artificial intelligence into their retail processes, which will change the shape of the industry in the coming time. We are in for a time of more personalized and efficient retail experiences, which we expect will make our shopping sprees more interesting and less hectic.
