Seamless shopping: AI helps transform shopping convenience
Over the past few years there has been such a change in the tools retailers can use to connect with you, whether you’re online, walking into a store or maxing out their loyalty programme. Retailers can anticipate your needs and reduce your admin.
Photo by Mart Production via www.pexels.com
Instead of getting yet another voucher for a dog you don’t want, you’re getting a voucher or a discount on cat toys.
Personalised shopping experiences are now taking place in real-time and they are context aware, giving you exactly what you need based on what you’ve bought in the past. Or perhaps giving you new ideas based on what your shopping data suggests you enjoy.
You can now get relevant and in the moment offers instead of generic mass promotions, and there’s the added bonus of your experience being carried across all the retailer’s platforms such as mobile, web and instore.
Turning shopping into convenience
There are so many ways in which a retailer can use AI to make your shopping into something special.
The first is to use data across your transaction history, your browsing patterns, your store visits, and contextual signals like the time of day you are most likely to go shopping.
The models built from this information can predict, very closely, what you need next and can then adjust pricing and messages to suit you.
There is a real benefit to shopping online, with platforms such as Spar2U and Spar’s partnership with Uber.
Imagine you are a parent of a toddler whose lunchbox preferences change weekly. When you shop online, your previous purchases help create a smarter experience. If you regularly buy child friendly snacks, the platform can highlight new options, suggest alternatives or surface relevant promotions, saving you from searching aisle by aisle.
With the added convenience of doorstep delivery via Spar2U or quick access through Uber, it becomes more than just grocery shopping. It is time saved, stress reduced and a simpler way to manage busy family life.
Frictionless shopping
This intelligence can also be used to change how stores are designed.
Have you ever gone into a retailer and wondered where the sauces are? Or struggled to get the hang of a store layout so you can find what you need?
There are few things as frustrating as wandering around a shop when you’re tired and hungry.
What if stores were instead designed around hard data? Where movement and basket insights and seasons help stores to decide which products to stock, where to place them and what features to add? What a relief to find the sauce next to the stock, which is right by the pasta.
These intelligent initiatives make shopping kinder. Your retail experience is more precise because stores are using data to make sure that you can move smoothly through your shop with as little stress as possible.
It’s a collection of clever interventions designed to address the fault lines that can cause friction while you’re shopping.
Then there are the loyalty programmes that are benefiting hugely from AI. The days of losing out on loyalty points or having to manage complicated loyalty systems are falling behind.
Now, with careful attention to ethical boundaries and the protection of personal information, retailers can create loyalty systems that protect your privacy while transforming your experience.
Spar has built a careful loyalty ecosystem designed to secure better value for shoppers with targeted discounts on frequently bought items, pay-day relief deals and exclusive offers.
The retailer also uses data with a purpose to ensure that your discounts and shops are more relevant and support your lifestyle.
The Spar loyalty programme uses data ethically to offer personalised deals and smarter shopping experiences that allow you to discover the best value and make your money (and loyalty) stretch even further.
Your experiences are about to get better, thanks to technologies that personalise with you, (not at you) and stores that put your needs first.