With the ability to serve customers in real time and provide customer insight, AI technology is being happy applied in the retail industry to enhance customers experience.

The Role of Customer Experience for Retail Businesses 

A study by Walker shows that by the end of 2020, customer experience will surpass price and product quality in the task of developing new customers and retaining loyal customers for businesses. Understanding and focusing on customer experience is the first and most important basic step for every business to improve customer experience. Through the help of AI technology, retailers can serve customers in the fastest way, while bringing satisfaction to customers.

Improve customer experience through AI technology application 

The term AI is no longer strange in recent years. AI stands for Artificial Intelligence. AI technology is understood as computer intelligence created by humans. Artificial intelligence can think, reason, and learn like human intelligence, and can process data at a larger, more systematic, and faster level than humans. With these advantages, AI technology is being applied in the retail industry to improve customer experience in many aspects. 

Serve customers as quickly as possible 

How businesses bring AI technology into business operations 

Many companies have integrated chatbots and virtual assistants into their websites and mobile apps. The assistants answer common and not-so-complicated customer questions. Customers can save time and get their requests quickly, because chatbots/virtual assistants always respond immediately without having to wait for their turn like when working with call center agents. At the same time, customers will be served 24/7 at any time they need, the information received is more accurate and consistent because AI technology works regardless of hours and the speed of information search is much faster than humans.

Practical examples of enterprise AI applications 

Retailers can use AI technology to assist in-store customers with information or to help intelligently order and pay applications to optimize delivery times: 

LoweBot is an example of an autonomous robot used to improve in-store customer service, helping answer customer questions or quickly guide customers to the product they are looking for using verbal or sensor commands. 

Starbucks has launched the My Starbucks Barista mobile app, which allows customers to order and pay by texting or chatting with a virtual barista and pick up their orders at the nearest store without waiting in line. The AI technology built into the app processes orders quickly and tracks the products customers have purchased, thereby suggesting additional product recommendations and discounts tailored to their preferences based on their purchase history. 

Thanks to that, the customer experience with Starbucks is enhanced, they are served faster, more conveniently with suggestions on the most suitable products. 

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Personalize the customer experience 

Emotions when shopping are one of the most important factors in attracting new customers and increasing the loyalty of old customers. Up to 70% of individual customers and 82% of business customers say that personalized experiences influence their loyalty. This shows the important role of personalizing the customer experience. Realizing this need, retail businesses have also been applying personalization in their business. 

Nowadays, consumers are gradually no longer looking for the right product for them, but retailers will directly suggest based on their search and purchase habits. This is possible because AI technology has analyzed the entire history of customer interactions and transactions on all channels as well as proactively asked questions, received feedback to predict customer habits and preferences and made suggestions for them. 

Examples can be easily seen around such as favorite videos being suggested on Youtube, favorite music being suggested on Spotify, products that customers have just searched for being immediately advertised on Facebook or websites that customers visit later. 

Customers can also receive emails about the exact products they need, based on the data they leave during interactions on social networks and search engines. According to research by Request Metric, 80% of personalized marketing emails are more effective than mass emails. Thus, personalizing marketing emails through AI technology saves time and resources for businesses while bringing more value to customers. 

Retailers are improving the customer experience by integrating AI technology into their apps to find or select the right product. For example, Asos has introduced a visual search feature on its mobile app, allowing users to upload a picture of a person wearing an outfit and search for similar products. Asos’s system will automatically analyze and search through its clothing database to recommend related items to customers. 

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AI Technology for the Future of Retail  

Technological developments continue to change the face of retail . Increasing customer demands, changing tastes and a growing choice of suppliers require retailers to constantly strive to bring new and different experiences to customers. To meet these constant changes, applying artificial intelligence AI technology to continue to exploit and utilize the data generated by customers will help businesses bring the best ways to serve their customers.