With Ecommerce contributing to retail sales on the rise, whether your customers prefer to shop online or shop in-store, they are likely equipped with more information about your product than even you or your competitors are. 

By 2026, Ecommerce sales will account for 24% of all retail sales in the world and over half of this will be through mobile devices. But the kicker is that 65% of customers will look up the products on their mobile devices even when shopping in-store. If your customers are leveraging technology to shop smartly, it’s imperative that you leverage technology to give them the best experience while shopping. And this is where AI comes in! 

How AI is contributing to revenue in the retail industry? 

Simply put, artificial intelligence is training machines to simulate human intelligence. Basically, it is technology that takes in data and processes it to forecast, predict, suggest, or help you or your customers. 

In retail, you can use AI to not only make it more convenient for your customers to shop more and better, but you can also use AI to make it more convenient for you and your staff too. 

5 ways you can leverage AI to improve your retail business

The idea of deploying artificial intelligence for your retail business can sound daunting, expensive, and overwhelming but we are here to show you that it is not. All you are doing is finding tools that can take the brunt of the mundane tasks so your staff can focus on the more critical tasks.

Here are some ways you can begin to deploy AI in your retail business:

• Conversational support: If you’ve shopped online, you’ve most likely seen a chat box pop up to give you suggestions or offer assistance. At this point, you are most likely talking to a computer.  

By leveraging AI systems like chatbots you help your customers navigate your store better, help them find what they need, and suggest products based on their shopping patterns. You are not only helping your customers but are also engaging them. 

Of course eventually, in the conversion, you might need to involve a person. But this way, your staff is available to attend to customers who most need it and your customers’ wait time is reduced.   

• Personalisation: If you are in the retail business, you are already collecting a tonne of data from and about your customers, their shopping preferences, product preferences, etc. Using AI, you can leverage this data to personalise your marketing and sales efforts and turn shoppers into customers. 

For example, if your customer has looked at a product on your website but has not purchased it, AI allows you to show them targeted advertisements to drive them back into your store. Similarly, when your customers abandon their carts, you can program to send them an email with a personalised offer or price that will make them consider checking out. 

• Forecasting: Predictive modelling aka using data to predict future scenarios is an incredibly powerful AI tool for the retail industry. Retailers use this to prevent loss due to supply chain issues. 

For example, whether you are online or brick-and-mortar store, you are recording checkouts. AI can use this data to forecast demand and help you plan your supply and inventory in such a way that you are never out of stock while not ending up with dead stock. 
(supply, inventory, customer behaviour) 

• Business process optimisation: A fundamental reason to leverage AI for your retail business is to streamline your processes, better utilize your resources, and reduce costs. 

Recruitment, training, and staffing are expensive and the last thing you want your people to be doing are mundane repetitive tasks. By leveraging AI to automate tasks like segmentation, emailing, targeted advertising, competitor monitoring, scheduling, etc. you will both cut costs and engage your people in more crucial and productive tasks.

Leveraging AI to improve the retail shopping experience is becoming a norm. It will not only let you give your customers a more personalised and enjoyable shopping experience but will also allow you to utilise your resources more efficiently resulting in better customer experience, increased sales and revenue, and reduced cost. 

AI has the potential to transform the retail landscape, which means by evaluating ways to deploy AI in your retail business, you will be able to reap its benefits while staying ahead of the competition.

With pricechecker, your team would be able to get the benefit of both AI and human effort while setting the pricing strategy.