It is encouraging to see the retail sector steadily regaining its footing following COVID-19’s devastation. Things are slowly but steadily returning to normal, and retailers are taking all necessary efforts to reclaim control of their businesses. And now, more than ever, the retail industry recognises the necessity of digital transformation, particularly the role of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) in addressing long-standing issues such as broken supply chains, reduced discretionary spending, and an unexpected increase in demand for contactless deliveries. 

These technologies can offer predictive demand forecasting, dynamic pricing, counterfeit detection, customer hyper-segmentation, supply visibility, and the ability to respond to real-time demand signals. In addition, retailers may want to consider automated shop checkouts and robotic warehouse management systems, which have a strong financial impact but require more effort to deploy. Product planning and development, distribution agent support, and spotting market deals and discounts are also examples of other applications that can be beneficial.

At first glance, such benefits may seem very theoretical. However, to understand its impact in a real-world scenario, we need to look at companies who have gone from being an explorer to expert and then become an evangelist! In other words, here’s a list of traditional retailers who delved deep into the world of AI, implementing them to optimise customer experience as well as their overall business operations.

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd-owned Pantaloons is the first brand in the group to leverage AI-based personalisation solutions to offer tailored omnichannel experiences to customers. They deployed Algonomy’s flagship products Recommend, Engage, Find, and Discover to harness both real-time and holistically stored data to personalise each shopper’s end-to-end omnichannel experience. Pantaloons also uses smart merchandising solutions to give “complete-the-look” recommendations and products to match a customer’s past purchases, alongside product recommendations based on top regional sellers and local festivals that aid with cold start scenarios. The major retailer has also created a Style Finder, allowing customers to choose their categories and occasions and discover customised products or new items.

Bata

India’s leading footwear retailer, Bata, implemented an AI-powered video analytics solution to boost in-store sales, operations, and customer happiness. Developed by Agrex.ai, the platform leverages the store’s video infrastructure to execute data collection and insight generation on smart conversion and audience segmentation. For example, it uses “Emotions Charts” to determine the number of consumers interested in a product and its category. This enables the shore to compare customer responses with the merchandise to see which elicited pleasant or satisfied feelings.

Blackberry

Having capitalised on an omnichannel engagement strategy, men’s clothing chain Blackberry uses an AI and ML platform (Engage+ by Capillary Technologies) to create the most effective Blackberry marketing campaigns. By analysing several parameters such as reachability, responsiveness score, and conversion probability, the platform’s smart algorithm automatically selects the ideal channel mix for a consumer. Thanks to Journey Builder, Blackberry was also able to automate engagement across the consumer’s purchasing life cycle and send the next optimal message.

Bestseller India

Bestseller is on a mission to become an AI-powered business. They envision employing AI to establish an optimal selection plan for each store, forecast the next best product to add to its inventory and increase the efficiency of its supply chain. The ultimate effect will be happier customers in stores, as well as a decrease in the amount of unsold merchandise. In fact, the company worked with IBM® Garage™ to launch Fabric.ai, the first-of-its-kind fashion-focused AI project aimed at reducing unsold inventory and increasing sell-through rate.

Arvind Fashions

With approximately 1,500 standalone stores and 5,000 departmental and multi-brand stores across India and licences to over 20 national and international fashion brands, Arvind Fashions is constantly seeking ways to understand its customers’ behaviour better. As a result, the branded garment retailer has partnered with Nucleus Vision LLC, a San Francisco-based IoT and blockchain firm, to create solutions that offer a personalised in-store shopping experience. Arvind Fashions has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nucleus Vision for a trial project to see Nucleus Vision’s sensor technology applied across its GAP, Nautica, and US Polo Association locations. Nuclear Vision’s innovative technology will provide vital insights into consumer behaviour, assisting the company in improving customer satisfaction and retention.

Reliance Retail

Reliance Retail is leveraging data analytics and AI to stock store-specific assortment. In addition, the fashion and lifestyle division of Reliance Retail is investing considerably in technology to go hyperlocal. By engaging a specialised team to develop applications for a seamless online and offline experience, the company also hopes to increase sales.

Lenskart

To uphold the values of customer centricity and customer obsession, Lenskart is introducing an ‘AI Lens’ into this all-important activity of capturing customer footfalls. To do so, they’ve partnered with Tango Eye, a premier developer of computer vision technology that provides end-to-end video analytics solutions. With no user involvement and no opportunity for error, its AI and ML technology transforms video data into actionable insights for greater productivity, increased sales, and security at retail storefronts. Most importantly, it doesn’t require any gear or software to operate because it simply hooks into the store’s DVR/NVR and analyses the data from numerous camera streams.

Future Group

Kishore Biyani-led Future Group’s AI and ML platform ‘Tathastu’ aims to thoroughly modernise consumer interactions. They have chosen San Francisco-based marketing automation platform MoEngage Inc’s intelligent customer engagement solutions to streamline operations and improve marketing and customer experiences. Having already worked with brands like Tokopedia, Bukalapak, OYO, Traveloka, and BigBasket to improve user lifecycle management, MoEngage has established a strong foothold in the Indian market. Through a unified analytics and marketing automation platform, the group will offer personalised engagement to its users. MoEngage’s technology will be used to increase digital consumer engagement across all Future Retail brands and help them increase the adoption of Future Pay.

As a part of the Tathastu project, the retailer also aims to improve supply chain performance. To support retail scale, they’ve picked o9, an integrated supply chain platform with embedded forecasting intelligence, as their digital transformation partner. Future Group will use the latest generation of o9 platforms to integrate Demand Planning (Forecasting), Replenishment Planning, and Sales and Operations Planning. This will be applicable across Future Group’s 1500 Stores in 450 cities.

There is no doubt that AI has the potential to transform the retail industry in ways that have never been envisaged before. It can improve customers’ purchasing experiences by making the transactions easier and smooth while simultaneously ensuring their safety and security at all times. Evident that AI is necessary for traditional and modern retailers to keep customers secure, happy, and satisfied throughout their journey, the road ahead seems extremely promising.