Amidst COVID-19 Restrictions, How Can AI Help Retailers?

COVID-19 has changed the world of retail almost overnight. Its impact on e-Commerce is creating challenges to online retailing, selling & services that no one has imagined in the first quarter of 2020-21.

During this pandemic situation about 15,000 retail store closures have been reported within a few months consisting of big names in the retail industry i.e.,  Adidas, Columbia Sportswear, H&M, and more. 

Retail companies are focusing on advancing their e-commerce channels. And best of all, more efforts and strength are being put into improving customer experience online. 

There are appropriate reasons for the retailers to implement artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) , as these technologies can help them to stay competitive and relevant.

How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Is Helping Retail Companies Amid Lockdown Situation?

1. AI For Next Level Customer Experience

• Source: Appinventive

As retailers facing the COVID-19 crisis, they will begin working on how they can improve the shopping experience that consumers will expect from stores and brands. In today’s world, retail is not only centered around products, services, and promotions — it’s all about creating a more positive customer experience. Meeting the expectations of customers is critical for retailers who want to build brand loyalty.

Retailers can understand customer’s expectations by using AI and Machine Learning to predict their future behaviors. Customers want to have a more convenient way to shop across multiple retail channels, and this is what machine learning and AI is doing in this space.

Using AI and machine learning, retailers can find our which inventory items are being sold most in specific locations, so they can stock their store accordingly. AI is having powerful technical capabilities that empower retailers to be able to offer better support services by enabling in-store pickup and same-day deliveries of the products.

AI and machine learning can ensure that your inventory is prepared on time, distribution centers are in alignment, inventory items are moving to the right routes, and get to customers right on-time. This the capacity of AI to understand a multitude of real-time scenarios including prediction abilities, recommendations, action, and even interaction.

AI technology helps prepare, consolidate, analyze, and enrich data, by using data-driven recommendations that allow business owners to focus on more strategic decision-making.

But, how can you utilize AI for your business amid the coronavirus pandemic?

Some Use Cases

In Manila, Philippines, retail companies have ordered their customer support teams to work from home. To bridge this gap some companies are deploying AI-powered contact center messaging services to improve customer experiences.

One such example is LivePerson a tech company that builds conversational AI software for business brands and helps their operations running remotely with AI-powered messaging. Over 18,000 brands are using their software including top companies — IBM, Vodafone, and RBS. Their goal is to create a personalized contact center for companies that should be to deliver a service that empathizes with the customer.

• Image Source: LivePerson

During this pandemic situation, retail brands need to make the right decisions for their customers. To help solve this, Greendeck a tech company has built a software solution to understand your customer wants, market trends, competitor’s pricing, and access to the in-depth information that retailers need to make the right decisions. Greendeck uses AI and natural language processing (NLP) to tap into customer data from over 9,000 retail brands.

AI is helping retail brands enable their teams to work remotely and meeting the demand of customers on time through AI-enabled solutions.

2. AI Creates a Win-Win Situation For All

• Image Source: McKinsey

Every downturn produces some new opportunities for businesses that propel the idea of innovation. In today’s scenario retailers are competing with other eCommerce companies every day, as some are centered around customer engagement, others are focusing on supply chain management, and others around data, real-time analytics, and more. 

Using AI and machine learning technology, retailers can serve customers with the right levels of inventory and products to meet their needs and expectations without any costly overhead or waste.

Implementing AI and machine learning into your eCommerce business is the key to gain more awareness of your customers’ demands and market forecasts. The technology is helpful in making more precise calculations using real-time data & analytics, so you can make the best-informed business decisions for a more secure future.

These technologies can ensure that your pricing, product presentation, promotions, and operations are all aligned with customer demand. Retailers today have the unprecedented opportunity to elevate the customer experience in a more meaningful way.

Artificial intelligence in retail has the potential to transform the complete experience from automation to personalization, and increased sales. And it’s already happening!

Examples of AI in Retail

• Image Source: mandmglobal.com

Amazon Go Store is on the top of the list of how AI is revolutionizing retail. The technology eliminates cashiers so customers aren’t stuck waiting in line. Customers can simply buy anything from the store and walk out without going through a cashier. The sensors and cameras record their complete purchase history, and their Amazon account is charged when they leave the store. So this is how AI helps customers who don’t want to be stuck waiting in line.

Kroger is an American retailer that uses AI and also developed the idea of Kroger Edge, the store of the future. EDGE stands for Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment that uses AI technology to replace traditional shelves with digital shelves. These shelves display video ads as well as product nutritional information and also allow Kroger to change the prices of goods in real-time.

Digital shelves are already deployed in 92 Kroger locations. It also helps in automating product recommendations by tracking customer purchase history, the app sensors identify the shopper and highlight products they might be interested in. The app can also recommend products and alert shoppers if an item on their shopping list is on sale.

3. Role of AI in Surviving Against the Disruption

• Source: www.consultancy.uk

Retailers in China, Europe, India, USA are already going through this disruption. This pandemic, retailers’ primary focus is on business continuity and setting up new ways of customer engagement, and communicating with everyone. AI ensures that retail is more automated and more personalized in this situation, so it will be less chaotic for consumers.

Surviving this disruption means understanding and predicting what your customers willing to buy. 

Using the AI technology, retailers can tap into real-time insights from historical data on customer buying behaviors, panic buying behavior, order history, need of essential items, competitor pricing, demand levels and other impacts of coronavirus spread on consumer shopping behavior. 

This way businesses can advance their strategies and survive the undeniable impact of the pandemic on retail.

Retailers need to prepare for more promising and realistic future scenarios in retail using AI technology. For example, you can add virtual try-on to your clothing store, virtual racks, AI drones, robots, AI chatbots, and more. 

Few Examples

This coronavirus pandemic, retail companies in the USA, UK, India, China have seen rapid changes in customer demand causing constraints in expenses. By moving their IT systems to Cloud and AI-enabled solutions can help retailers reduce their operational costs and meeting customer demands during unexpected business disruptions.

For example, Lush a UK based beauty retailer migrated its global e-commerce sites to Google Cloud solutions that in return helps them save operational costs and drive their business forward in the COVID-19 situation.

Retail brands, particularly those in grocery and mass merchandise are realizing how critical it is to build and maintain social distancing inside their store. As social distancing continues to be the norm for retailers, Indyme has designed a device meant to create awareness of social distancing inside retail stores. 

• Source: YouTube

These devices are called SmartDome, that tracks shoppers’ locations and notify with a message when it detects too many people inside a store. The Indyme device is designed to be used in retail shops, food shops, and grocery stores.

During this pandemic, stores are looking for ways to reduce contact during the payment & checkout process. In this line, Walmart Pay has come up with the idea of contactless checkouts for shoppers. The use of the Walmart Pay app in self-checkout lines encouraged shoppers to make contactless purchases.

End Note

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are the advanced technologies that can significantly reduce the potential impact of the disruption on your retail enterprise.

Artificial intelligence has shown us how to run the entire business by predicting customer demand, and to adjust inventory and operations accordingly in this pandemic situation.

To date, no technology has been able to this at scale. AI will transform the way the eCommerce industry operates. It is also creating opportunities for customers to shop online in a better way.

We at Syncrasy Tech understand these are challenging times. As a global IT solutions company and PIM solution provider, Syncrasy has supported clients from the eCommerce industry through many crises.

To assist in this one, we are deploying our team of experts and developers to help you address any business challenge. Contact us here.