5 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Helping Retailers to Remain Competitive

The effect of technology in all present industries is noticeable. Even though the retail sector is referred to as among the unconventional industry that has different surgeries and working standards but nevertheless is highly influenced by technological progress. Innovation entered in the retail sector by replacing the conventional accountancy management with background Retail POS systems. Shortly after retailers shifted to these accountancy techniques, new upgrades in technology forced the merchants to further enhance their operations and maximize their profits with cloud-based POS program . So how do you believe technology will stop today from getting upgraded? Artificial Intelligence is continually interfering with the retail sector and is supported by the merchants since it’s become one of the key sources of the competitiveness. Recent researches have shown that for nearly all the retailers, investment in technology is their greatest priority. More specifically, 58 percent of Chinese retailers have shifted digitally along with 40 percent of the U.S retailers. Whereas, those retailers who refused to change from conventional desktop retail POS to internet POS system have dropped their prospective clients because they were anticipating new upgraded services for getting the desired expectation. In response to this response of the customers, most the retailers around the globe have embraced this trend. Going online isn’t a piece of cake for retailers. It requires a merchant to provide 24/7 accessibility to the clients and stay receptive to their queries.

But how exactly artificial intelligence is creating the retail industry competitive? 6 manners discussed through which AI is helping the merchants in remaining competitive are discussed as follows.

Improved Online Shopping With Integrated Product Images, Description And Reviews

AI is targeting the most significant concern of the retail sector i.e. consumer experience. Cloud-based pos system for retail shops is now the requirement of the retail shops because customers have begun demanding exceptional shopping experience. For fulfilling these expectations, AI has enhanced the online shopping experience of the clients. It has completely eliminated the need for customers to go to the shop for purchasing any product by incorporating the product image together with its description. This enables the customers to get the comprehensive idea of this product through the site. AI has the power to classify the merchandise, interprets and understands the picture that enables the consumers in finding the things that they need but do not recall the name. AI has made the idea of digital retailing workable.

Improved Shelf Intelligence

Item placing and positioning in shelves is a significant concern for retailers since it impacts customer purchasing behaviour and store’s revenues. If the products aren’t placed correctly, they may get ignored or left on purpose from the consumers. But analyzing the right shelf for those products has been a problem for the retailers. AI is managing these with its shelf intellect. The technology monitors the actions happening in all of the shelves by taking photos from in-store installed cameras, robots or cellular phones. In addition, but AI also alerts the direction if any thing went missing or if shelf needs refilling.

Sources

1. how-to-manage-staff-when-not-in-the-store
2. why-should-integrate-e-commerce-and-pos
3. best-pos-systems-for-fashion-retail

Improved Pricing Plan

The cloud-based POS systems designed for retail shops have the flexibility of indicating relevant products to a client by assessing their previous purchase history. And if they’re new clients, then upgraded POS software solutions can recommend most relevant choices to them according to their sex and age. Recent upgrades in AI are assisting the merchants in determining the competitive prices. Do you know how? AI depicts the outcome of different pricing strategies that empower retailers in creating attractive promotional offers. Additionally, it enables the merchants to conduct competitive analysis for comparing products, promotions, and prices of competitors. Finally, these actual statistics based advertising strategy enhances customer interest and overall sales of the retail shops.

Improved Voice Product Search

AI has analyzed an additional gap in the client’s physical store and online shopping experience. Retail stores have various labels of the products with different pronunciation and spelling. Vast majority of the people today prefer visiting the store as opposed to buying online as they can explain their requirement for your sale’s person for speaking to a certain product. AI has made it possible for the customers to look for their necessary product easily using the voice search option. It has eliminated the requirement of typing the questions or ask of customizations while purchasing online. And also encourages the clients to ask about their placed order i.e. their delivery status, arrival time and etc.. Do you understand why this characteristic of AI is now important for you as a merchant so as to sustain? Check these statistics for obtaining a clear perspective and understanding!

Improved Logistics and Supply Chain Management

The sustainability and productivity of the retail business is highly determined by its supply chain management. That’s the reason AI has focused on this specific area and enabled greater contextual intelligence that offers the appropriate information needed for reducing the operational costs and stock. The issued report by DHL and IBM has emphasized the characteristics of AI including smart robotic sorting, al-powered visual inspection and etc which are improving the logistics of their retail shops and making them responsive to customer requests. These new technologies incorporated into Retail POS will also be facilitating the retails shops with enhanced manufacturing planning and factory scheduling by providing them the monitoring of real time sales.

Improved Staffing

Having the perfect number of employees at the shop at the right time is vital for the sustainability of their retail shop. In both of those cases, over-staffing and under-staffing impacts the operations and overall profits of the shop. This is because over-staffing will make it a cost whereas; under-staffing will influence the customer experience. AI has made this all manageable for its merchants. There are seasons and special events once the proportion of store visitors is relatively high than normal times and vice versa. But how to analyze the amount of staff members necessary to hire? AI is working beyond the human ability with its own memory and efficacy for providing accurate and best solutions with appropriate justifications. By utilizing the past data and client response to these events, AI has the power to guiding the retailers concerning the staffing concern. It utilizes predictive models which are based on historic traffic, sales trend and advertising efforts made in that particular period of occasions to be able to aid the merchants for dynamically hire employees for their shop. Ultimately this reduces the hiring cost of the merchants while ensuring to offer exceptional experience to the clients.

See also

1. black-friday-tips-for-small-businesses
2. 10-essential-features-of-inventory-management-system
3. top-inventory-management-software-in-2020