Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning are transforming the way the retail landscape is changing. There are thousands of new age retail brands that have embraced AI and machine learning to customize retail journeys for shoppers, merchants, and other supply chain partners, including payments and POS touchpoints. If you are pursuing the modern curriculum of machine learning courses, understanding how various retail outlets harness Machine learning technology is very important.
Let’s dive deep into the retail’s dependence on AI.
Machine learning courses are pushing the bar higher for retail companies undergoing digital transformation through these efforts:
- Big Data management and analytics
- Omnichannel Mobile marketing and advertising
- Branded partnerships with other AI providers
- Personalization
- Digital payments and so on
Machine Learning makes it easy to deliver Customer Experience (CX)
Irrespective of the size of the retail business, customer experience is a very important service that allows any brand to amplify its product marketing goals through relevant marketing, messaging, and advertising. In the last 2-3 years, businesses of all sizes and scales have leveraged AI and Machine learning technologies to create boutique shopping experiences that make the whole process joyful and enjoyable, not to forget, seamless. Customers are more likely to find a CX-based shopping platform more user-friendly and faster to access for their needs and demands than those missing the point. AI and Machine learning help streamline the various Customer Experience activities, and here’s a small example of how this happens.
You can identify the journey yourself.
If you like a product on an e-commerce platform, you would be subtly asked to complete a series of activities before you actually purchase the product and order it for delivery. A generic journey would include:
- Search the product
- Find the products
- Compare the various options
- Click the product for features, prices, availability, etc
- Add to Cart
- Order placement or Abandon
- Check out with Payment, etc.
E-commerce companies use AI and Machine learning techniques such as Text Analytics, NLP, and Search optimization to reduce the effort that shoppers may have to take, in addition to also extending a virtual sales experience that allows the shopper to make a quicker decision. The purpose is to make quick sales and close the sales with payments. AI is a great enabler.
New-age e-commerce platforms are so savvy that they extend the services and benefits to their delivery, return, and after sales experiences as well. You can evaluate these efforts through emails, payments options, and customer care service management, which would give you an indication of how well a company is using AI and machine learning for various activities within the same supply chain.
During the pandemic, a majority of the physical stores selling merchandise and branded products switched to completely digital platforms. While most merchants blamed pandemics as the reason behind their decision to go digital, market research proves that AI based digital shops would be the future of retail.
