How retail businesses can use AI to boost revenue

Darko Marjanovic | 06. 03. 2023.

Retail organizations worldwide are increasingly seeking to understand how AI is transforming the industry. One thing is for sure – to stay competitive in today’s market, retail businesses must carefully focus on consumers, prioritizing profit and (labor) productivity.

This is exactly where Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play a crucial role in supporting various business operations and optimizing business processes that will drive better productivity and profits.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to help retail businesses grow revenue in several ways. If we take a look at the expert predictions, AI services in the retail sector are expected to grow from $5 billion to over $31 billion by 2028. 

To show you how this trend can make a significant impact on retail businesses and jobs in the retail sector, we will explain why AI is important for retail and explore how AI can help retail businesses boost revenue. 

Shall we? 

Why is AI important for retail businesses? 

One survey by Capgemini found that about 76% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. Yet, only 49% believe that retailers are currently doing so. 

So, on the one hand, there’s the retail industry which aims to offer personalization by operating with massive volumes of data and complex customer interactions. 

On the other hand, we have AI’s capabilities to analyze vast datasets, recognize patterns, and derive valuable insights. 

You can see how AI can align perfectly with the demands of the incredibly demanding retail landscape. Investing in AI-powered solutions, retailers can:  

• Offer a more personalized customer experience aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty, 
• Provide enhanced 24/7 customer support, 
• Optimize their pricing strategies and maximize their revenue and profit margins, 
• Improve their inventory management, 
• Streamline their supply chain operations, 
• Ensure effective fraud detection and security, 
• Make more data-driven decision-making, 
• Automate customer engagement and improve product recommendations, 
• Implement smarter merchandising and assortment planning, 
• Get valuable insight based on real-time customer feedback analysis, and 
• Gain a competitive advantage and differentiate themselves in a crowded market.

AI’s potential to revolutionize customer experience, build customer loyalty, optimize operations, and drive profitability makes it indispensable for retail businesses. 

How can AI help retailers boost revenue?

Embracing AI technologies can empower retailers to harness the power of data, make informed decisions, and stay competitive in an increasingly dynamic and customer-centric industry.

AI can help retail businesses increase their revenue in the next few years. Let’s take a look at how AI affects different aspects of the retail industry, including: 

• Personalization and customer experience,
• Inventory and supply chain management,
• Pricing strategies,
• Fraud detection and prevention, and 
• Data analytics and market insights.

Let’s explore each aspect a bit further. 

Personalization and customer experience

In the highly competitive retail landscape, providing exceptional customer experience is paramount. AI can play a transformative role in this. 

For example, personalized marketing uses customer data and behavior to deliver individualized marketing messages and product recommendations. 

It can be a powerful tool for increasing sales and revenue – it targets specific customers with relevant products and promotions in a fully personalized way.

There are several ways for you to use AI to enable personalized marketing:

• Customer data analysis: AI can analyze customer data, such as purchase history, browsing behavior, and demographic information. This helps identify patterns and preferences. You can use this information to create targeted marketing campaigns and product recommendations.
• Predictive analytics: AI can use predictive analytics to forecast future customer behavior, such as which products they are likely to purchase and when. This enables retailers to create targeted promotions and offers that are more likely to resonate with individual customers.
• Customized offers and promotions: AI can analyze customer interactions and preferences to help you deliver targeted and personalized offers and promotions. This level of customization ensures that customers receive relevant discounts and promotions, encouraging them to repeat purchases.
• Chatbots and virtual assistants: Based on the customer’s browsing behavior and purchase history, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can provide personalized customer service and product recommendations in real time. 
• Personalized shopping journeys: With AI, you can optimize the entire customer journey, from personalized product discovery to simplified checkout processes. By tailoring the shopping experience to each individual, you can create a sense of convenience, drive customer loyalty, and increase customer retention.

As you implement a more personalized customer approach, you’ll witness the (positive) results in customer experience. Make sure to always provide your customers with personalized product recommendations over the channel customers prefer. 

Inventory and supply chain management

Another way you can use AI to your advantage is to improve inventory and chain management. In this case, Ai can assist by: 

• Providing invaluable insights into consumer demand patterns, 
• Identifying potential stock shortages, and 
• Helping you make informed decisions about inventory management.

To help you forecast demand and adjust inventory levels accordingly, AI will analyze data from a variety of sources, including sales data, social media trends, and weather patterns. This can help you reduce inventory costs and prevent overstocking or understocking of products.

Additionally, AI can assist in optimizing your supply chain by providing real-time data on shipping, delivery times, and logistics. 

This is a great way to improve the efficiency of your supply chain, reduce shipping times, and minimize waste.

Pricing strategies 

Before we explain how AI can revolutionize the way you optimize your pricing strategies, let’s explore two key concepts – pricing and dynamic pricing.

• Pricing 

Pricing is the process of determining the monetary value of products or services a business offers. It involves setting a specific price point that customers are willing to pay while considering the company’s profit margins and competitive positioning. 

• Dynamic pricing 

Dynamic pricing is a strategy where prices are adjusted in real-time based on various factors such as demand, supply, competitor pricing, and customer behavior. 

Now, here’s how you can optimize your pricing strategies: 

• Real-time market analysis: Use AI algorithms to analyze vast amounts of real-time market data, competitor pricing, and customer behavior. This allows you to identify trends and fluctuations and adjust your pricing strategies promptly. 
• Demand forecasting: AI-powered demand forecasting models analyze historical sales data, seasonal patterns, and external factors to predict future demand accurately. You can use these insights to optimize pricing and inventory management and avoid overstocking or stockouts.
• Competitive pricing: AI can monitor competitors’ pricing strategies in real-time and adjust pricing accordingly which can help you attract customers while maintaining profitability.
• Personalized pricing: AI-driven algorithms can segment your customers based on their behavior, preferences, and buying patterns. With this, you can offer personalized pricing and discounts to individual customers.
• Dynamic pricing: AI can use dynamic pricing to adjust prices in real-time based on various factors. This allows retailers to offer personalized pricing to individual customers, improving their shopping experience and increasing the likelihood of a purchase.
• Price testing and optimization: AI allows you to conduct A/B testing and price optimization experiments to determine the most effective approach.

Fraud detection and prevention

Improving sales and growing revenue is a must for any business. Yet, having proper fraud detection and prevention approach that safeguards a customer is the backbone of a customer’s trust in your brand.

This is where AI comes to play! 

By leveraging advanced algorithms and machine learning, AI can effectively identify and mitigate potential fraud, keeping both your customer and you safe.

AI can help to secure customer trust in your company in several ways:

• Identifying patterns and anomalies: Machine learning algorithms can analyze large amounts of data from various sources, including transaction history, customer behavior, and external data sources, to identify patterns and anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activity.
• Real-time monitoring: AI-powered fraud detection systems can monitor transactions in real time and automatically flag any suspicious activity. This can help retailers quickly identify and respond to potential fraud.
• Behavioral analysis: AI can analyze customer behavior and detect any deviations from their normal patterns. For example, if a customer suddenly makes a large purchase in a foreign country, the system may flag this as potentially fraudulent and require additional verification.
• Continuous improvement: Thanks to machine learning techniques, AI algorithms are continuously improving fraud detection accuracy. As they encounter new data and fraudulent techniques, they adapt and learn to better identify evolving fraud patterns.
• Link analysis: AI can perform link analysis to detect complex fraud networks involving multiple individuals or entities. By connecting related data points and identifying hidden connections, AI can expose organized fraud rings.

Data analytics and market insights

Data analytics plays a crucial role in the retail industry and underlines everything else we discussed previously. Basically, you can’t provide more personalized products or optimize your prices if you don’t have real-life data to base them on. 

Moreover, thanks to AI-powered advanced data analytics, you can:

• Make smarter and more informed business decisions, 
• Go a step further when it comes to understanding your customers’ behavior and making sure they have a seamless shopping experience, 
• Optimize all operations, including inventory and supply management and pricing strategies, 
• Improve product performance and optimize your product assortments, 
• Track market trends and analyze your competition to adapt your approach, and
• Ultimately drive profitability. 

As you can see, data analytics is truly of utmost importance for your retail business. Not only does it analyze vast amounts of data, but it also enhances the efficiency and accuracy of data analytics. 

By embracing data analytics and AI-driven solutions, you can stay ahead of the competition and thrive in an ever-evolving market.

Transform your retail business with a tailor-made AI solution

Overall, AI has the potential to transform and benefit the future of retail businesses by:

• Optimizing operations, 
• Reducing costs, and 
• Increasing revenue by improving the customer experience, optimizing supply chain management, and automating tasks.

This is a new opportunity for retail businesses to create a more efficient and enjoyable experience for customers while also increasing profits and remaining competitive in an ever-changing economy.

If your goal is precisely that, don’t wait long before you invest in a tailor-made AI solution!