How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Became Key Element in Digitalization of Retail Stores

4 min read

by Samantha Kaylee

Remember the good old times when we used to worry about alien invasions and robots taking over humankind? While we're still that superstitious, just that instead of fretting over aliens and robots, we have a revolutionary weapon at hand now; Artificial Intelligence or AI for short, is the capability of a machine to exhibit its intelligence, practically equivalent to that of humans.

Implementing AI in industries has become the latest trend, and it is eventually going to be used in every sector. Nearly 83% of people believe AI is a strategic priority for their businesses today. For instance, you can train an AI model to correspond emails using your branding once, and it'll automate the task by doing so on its own in the future.

How Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) Help?

Artificial Intelligence has made quite some mind-blowing advancements since its discovery from programming Tesla's self-driving cars to filtering hateful data on social media and whatnot.

However, how will it benefit retail store owners? Let's see.

As stated earlier, an AI model is based on an algorithm that learns from the data it is provided and works its way from there. The fact that it can be applied in every retail store sector is from the manufacturing of products until the sales are an impressive feat.

Let's dive into AI and its usage a bit more: 

Sales and CRM Applications

In Japan, Softbank employed a humanoid robot "Pepper," a courtesy of French robot manufacturer Aldebaran, for customer service management. Pepper could perceive human emotions and even courteously interact with customers. It resulted in 70% more-foot traffic for Californian stores.

"Conversica" was a sales assistant software that'd automate the process of the selling process. It'd also engage with potential internet leads, converse with them, and make sales.

Customers would have no idea that they're talking to an AI robot. The sales management team said their sales spiked 30%, thanks to Conversica's sweet-talking ways, which would mimic a sales assistant.     

Customer Recommendations

IBM's "Watson" provided eCommerce and customer management services to various retailers. One of them being 1-800-Flowers.com's Gifts When You Need (GWYN), it'd act as an AI gift concierge service. You could converse with the GWYN, describe the kind of gift you wanted for the recipient, and it'd recommend the similar gifts that have been bought.

It'd replicate the concierge service experience for you, but it'd be altered to your recipient's preference and be more precise. During the first two months, more than 70% of the online orders were completed through GWYN.

Payment Services

To safeguard its customer's online transactions, PayPal has now upgraded its security detection system by feeding its deep learning algorithm the data of thousands of transactions to analyze.

The latest news is that they've so far very well succeeded in detecting fraud payments being made from actual or, in fact, fake accounts.

That is pretty amazing, considering that'd mean their algorithm should be able to easily distinguish between family buying tickets for a concert from a user making multiple faux accounts only to sell them in black or if your account is being used they're likely to email you to act upon it. 

Manufacturing

These days manufacturing processes have even been automated.

For instance, Brilliant Manufacturing software of General Electric has taken over their entire line of operations from designing parts to distribution and services; it is single-handedly done through automation. The software includes a control to a bunch of manufacturing operational tools.

The WIP (Work-in-Progress) management software allows the supervisor to oversee all the real-time work being done. In case of a hitch in the manufacturing process, he's duly notified.

Now, instead of mundanely checking for any issues, the task has been made more efficient and cost-saving.

Logistics and Delivery

Drones at one point were used solely for capturing magnificent sceneries or for some not-so-peaceful purposes.

However, nowadays, not even Amazon wants to be left behind in this AI incorporation business. Amazon made a deal with the UK Government, which then permitted and helped Amazon to make deliveries through drones an actual thing.

 It was named Amazon Air, and it is more or less called the future of the delivery system.

Although at the moment, drones can only deliver a 5-pound package that even within 30 minutes.

Product Layout

Artificial Intelligence has certainly helped retail stores in understanding their customers on a deeper level by processing and analyzing past data; an AI can predict what products are you likely to buy in the future.

You can even buy dissertation online based on AI if you don't believe us.

Thus, the retail store can stock more similar items to those so that you may come back to the store once more.

It's quite a cunning strategy to attract customers; however, it does undoubtedly pay well, literally. Retail stores like Kroger and American Eagle follow these AI tactics.

Virtual Trial Rooms and Smart Mirrors

How often have you been to shopping only to be confused about how you look, and you don't have the time to go through various dresses? Well. Worry no more. AI has now made Virtual Trial Rooms a reality.

These rooms are equipped with Smart Digital Mirrors to assist on your look and make recommendations based on the dresses you've virtually tried. The gesture and touch interface are easy to use, and you'll be done with your shopping in no time.

Rebecca Minkoff Design AI stores even have custom lighting options in their fitting rooms at your disposal. According to Stella James, an expert for delivering the best essay writing service UK, Virtual Trails rooms has made shopping essay and more accessible than ever before.

In her paper, she has written some of the least techs, which reflects the great advantage of this innovative shopping feature.   

Digital Racks and Smart Shelves

With each technological advancement, it seems like the entire world is getting a makeover, or moreover, it's getting digitized.

To make shopping experiences more efficient and personalized, retail stores are looking into AI for more assistance.

The latest talk is that digital racks and smart shelves are coming into play by offering easy-to-find products, product information, and even recommendations like you'd be provided in an online store.

So basically, you'll get an entire experience, but in real-time.

Robotic Assistance

Here we are; finally, the robots have taken over the world, but it's not exactly what we thought.

Mundane tasks that would take a human being usually 3-4 hours could be actively done within 10 minutes if done by robots.

 Hence, at massive warehouses, where one has to run around the entire facility placing, taking out, locating, and re-ordering items from the shelves, a robot would be a better choice.

That is no wonder why Amazon warehouses in New Jersey, USA, make perfectly good use of such robots. 

Conclusion

In the end, Artificial Intelligence could be of immense potential if appropriately employed in the retail sector. There's no denying that it churns some fantastic results, and when a fast fashion retail store like Zara is using AI to get to the top, surely you can too.

So, one thing is for sure; it's not going to go away any time soon. It has just begun being incredible, and let's see what's more the future has in store for us in regards to this minefield that is Artificial Intelligence.

About the author

Samantha Kaylee is currently working as a Planning Manager at Free Essay Writers, an academic service provider from where students can request a plagiarism free essay at low prices. Samantha aims to help marketers and new business startups to take maximum advantage from the innovative high-tech features are available in 2020.