5 ways AI in retail improves the shopping experience

Companies invest a lot of money in product images, compiling product data and sharing it online to run their online stores.

Remira is a company that specializes in optimizing supply chain and retail processes. It realized that such information could be repurposed to be shown to the customers visiting the physical retail outlet. They have come up with digital signage that showcases such images and descriptions across the physical stores of a brand.

These screens offer many advantages:

1. Seamlessly Retrieving Product Details
   Each of the products in stores that have partnered with Remira has RFID tags attached to it. These tags are recognized by the digital signage screens. When the customer comes in front of the signage along with the product of their choice, the digital signage recognises the product and the customer can seamlessly retrieve the product details from the shared database. This enhances the customer experience, as they can now learn about the product they are considering in detail.

2. Catering to the Eco-Conscious Customer
   With customers becoming more aware and conscious, sometimes it becomes important to showcase to them the seals, certificates, and tags associated with the product. Customers are often interested to know where the product comes from and how it was produced and sometimes such things drive their decisions. With the help of such screens, it is possible to meet the expectations of such customers as well.

3. Smart Solution to Transfer Items From Shopping Basket to Online Cart and Self-Check-Out
   With the help of the digital screen, it is also possible to scan the QR code and transfer the items from the physical shopping basket entirely to the online shop. The customer can now check out on the mobile device and opt to get the items delivered directly to their home. This also saves the customers from the hassle of carrying the items with them for the rest of the day.

4. Advantages for sales staff
   Sales staff can access the information on the screens. And that offers two advantages: less training for the staff and convincing sales arguments through visualization.

With shop rentals rising on the main shopping streets of the city centers, the ability to pay and run a business is going out of reach for small players. 

Findeling, a digital platform that strengthens the position of the retailers, has come up with an app that is like a “digital city center,” where small retailers can rent a space in the digital app/website and gain visibility to thousands of customers visiting the app. The app content can be sorted by cities and districts across Europe, allowing users to discover local shops and retailers.

The good thing is that the listing of retailers happens without any distractions of ads or likes/dislikes and comments. This ensures that every retailer gets a fair opportunity to make themselves visible to its customers.

Drawing a comparison with big retailers who have their digital platforms and highlighting the power of effective collaboration, Oliver Bock, partner and managing director of Findeling GmbH, said:

The conventional purchase journey for a customer spans awareness, consideration, testing (trying it), and finally, purchasing. Wearables equipped with AR technology can elevate the testing experience to a whole new level.

Here are some of the use cases where augmented reality can play a game-changing role:

1. Bike Retail Showroom Experience
   Let’s say, a customer interested in purchasing a new bike visits a showroom. This customer wants to take a look at the different components of the bike and their functioning closely. Through AR, it is possible to do that. Using a smartphone with a camera, it is possible to just point towards the components like a shock absorber and see how it works. This takes the game of highlighting the USP of the product to a completely new level. 

2. Repairing the Broken Stuff
   Imagine a product you recently purchased stops functioning. In the conventional world, what do we do? Find a technician/specialist who could repair it. What if there could be a virtual guide, who could advise us step by step to troubleshoot by ourselves to get easy things repaired instantaneously? With AR, it is possible!

Such applications of augmented reality demonstrate the potential smart devices have to revolutionize the conventional retail experience. With the launch of Meta’s glasses, AR, which seems inaccessible to many, is slowly becoming accessible to the masses. Therefore, we have an exciting time to see where retail experiences are powered by augmented reality.

In retail, vouchers, coupons and tickets are often issued as part of advertising campaigns.

Disadvantages of physical vouchers:

• Difficult to carry: Vouchers from different stores accumulate, cluttering purses or pockets and becoming cumbersome during shopping trips.
• Possibility of losing out: Vouchers carrying multiple uses, often are misplaced by the customers after their first use. This leads to an unhappy experience for the customer.
• Lack of personalization: Physical vouchers are printed in bulk and are the same for every customer. It is difficult to personalize them (such as with customer names) and distribute them.

Alexander Hell from Passcreator by Fobi has solved this problem with digital cards that can be integrated into Google and Apple wallets.

Advantages of digital cards:

• Care-free travel: Users do not have to carry the gift vouchers and cards separately in their wallets.
• Customization of the cards: Companies can easily customize the digital cards for individual customers, simply by fetching their details from the database.
• Knowing the user better: Let’s say the Wallet Pass was created via the poster at the airport. The company issuing such a pass can now easily analyze and understand how campaigns near the airport are doing. They can use this data to decide how they would spend their money to better advertise and acquire customers.
• Easy activation: For inactive customers, the company can use push notifications to encourage purchases.

Digital Wallet Passes are a great example that shows how technology can be used to bring businesses closer to their customers and also solve their pain points.

This is an interesting use of technology to drive retail sales. Display signage by Remira can also be programmed in such a way that they can process the weather data in real time.

Imagine it is raining outside, and the signage automatically prioritizes products like solid shoes, umbrellas, and raincoats. When it is sunny outside, on the other hand, it switches to show bathing shorts, flip-flops, and similar items. What would be the outcome?

The customers present in the store would naturally be drawn towards an immediate solution to the external problem. Thereby, leading to impulsive purchases. Good for the business!