Retail has never been a stagnant industry. Retailers just cannot afford to stand still if they want to succeed. They must adapt and innovate, or risk being left behind.
According to an IBM survey, here are 6 fields where retailers would have the biggest ROI when utilizing AI for intelligent automation:
- Supply Chain Planning (85%)
- Demand forecasting (85%)
- Customer Intelligence (79%)
- Marketing and advertising (75%)
- Warehouse operations (73%)
- Pricing and promotion (73%)
Footprints purpose is to bring Customer Intelligence & Marketing and Advertising to the next level. Retailers can capitalize now on the rise of the AI through predictive models applicable to customers’ shopping behaviors. And with hyper-personalized marketing & advertising (#retailmedia ).
Classification-Type AI for Physical Retail
“Tell me what this thing is”
Knowing what something is, the first step in deciding what to do with it.
One of the most important imperatives in the path of digital transformation for physical retailers is the availability of quality data to feed all the process in the intelligent automation.
However, the quality of data is not so obvious if we consider the variety of products and suppliers in the retail market.
Classification-Type AI can help to convert data from the retailers’ products into knowledge with attributes and insights.
This knowledge can be automatically updated in such a way that any retailer can be assured their quality data is constantly maintained in a dynamic market with a high dispersion of products for all their intelligent automation processes to work smoothly.
Examples of Classification-Type AI in Physical Retail:
- You receive a picture. The system tells you it is of a soda bottle.
- You receive an email. The system tells you it is about a customer complaint.
- You are using autonomous robots in your warehouse. The robot stops when it sees a STOP sign.
- You receive an invoice by email. The system recognizes it is an invoice and its financial data.
- You receive a picture of a shelf. The system creates a list of all SKUs that will need shelf replenish.
What Classification-Type AI can offer to retailers?
- Inventory and supply chain management with assortment planning.
- Customer model analysis with a lifetime customer value perspective.
- Customer interaction analysis using virtual assistants and chatbots.
- Execution of retail analytics on a scale to understand annual growth.
- Detection of item shortfalls in stores.
- Interpretation of text and images from invoices, packing lists, bills, shelves, entrances etc.
The application of #artificialntelligence in retail is set to fundamentally change the shopping experience for customers and retailers. The friction-less store experience is the fundamental approach to blurring the line between in-store and online.
