Retail Innovations for 2019: Getting Started

D2C

Direct-to-consumer retail has a lot of control over managing customer expectations and building an end-to-end brand. Key areas of improvement therefore revolve around bettering the customer experience: What are the points of interaction with the customer and how can they be improved? What does the customer journey look like, applied from point of contact to point of sale?

Psychometric analysis, for example, uses artificiaI intelligence and machine learning to deliver next-level personalization to the customer and showing the retailer what each customer wants, faster. Analyzing different aspects of customer habits and breaking these habits down automatically, psychometric analysis automates a tailor-made experience for the individual. Take a look at our OCEAN demo to see how we’ve partnered with retailers to drive personalization efforts and increase customer loyalty.

B2B and B2C

B2B and B2C retailers can benefit most from speeding the retail cycle from contact to order to delivery.

Within a sales cycle that includes multiple players and intricate logistics, it’s in the best interest of both B2B and B2C businesses to automate processes. For example, decreasing the number of steps in the warehouse saves time, money, and human error. B2B and B2C businesses should start automating within the warehouse with robotics. Shelves move from a resting state directly to employees, increasing speed and efficiency by using preprogrammed routes that prevent multiple trips and congestion.

CPG

CPG is reliant on product design to attract customers, and is an area ripe for innovation. How are products designed and how are consumers reacting to them? Consider components such as range of products, packaging, marketing efforts, customer engagement, and more. This is another area that can be improved with AI and ML, which gathers a profile on customer likes and dislikes to deliver what they want.

Interested in learning more about assessing innovation for retail in 2019? Take a look at our white paper, “Retail 2019: Where to Invest.”