AI in Retail – Increasing Revenue and Improving the Customer Experience
High street stores are facing stiff competition from the internet. Once-dominant retail chains are collapsing. Progressive retailers are turning to artificial intelligence to learn more about individual customers, improve their shopping experience and increase revenue growth.
According to a report by Research and Markets, the global AI adoption in the retail market is expected to grow by over 35% a year. Retailers are increasingly employing it to study consumer behaviour and capture relevant data through technologies like computer vision.
Jupiter Research also predict artificial intelligence spending by retailers to grow, from today’s estimated $3.6 billion a year to $12 billion in 2023. They say that AI-equipped retailers will displace slower movers by offering a superior service.
The growing rise of AI in-store offers a more personalised experience to consumers and provides an interactive environment. It drives faster decisions in marketing and product management. Immediate insights allow prompt actions increasing sales conversion, revenue and customer satisfaction.
How AI Benefits Retailers
One example of how retailers are benefiting from using AI is in gathering information about individual customers and personalising their shopping journey. Retails Sensing’s system identifies such things as a consumer’s age, gender, what products they are looking at and for how long. When integrated with digital marketing the right offer can be presented at the right moment to the right person, increasing revenue and improving customer engagement. Artificial Intelligence lets retailers:
- Boost revenue growth
- Improve the shopping experience
- Improve the speed and quality of decisions
- Conduct in-store experiments and see immediately how well different products, displays, layouts and staffing are working
- Gain insights from integrated data sources and better analytics, with data made available over the IoT.
References and Sources
AI in Retail Market Research Report: By Offering, Technology, Regional Insight – Global Industry Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2024. Research and Markets, July 2019
AI Spending by retailers to reach $12 billion by 2023, driven by the promise of improved margins. Juniper Research, April 2019
