This Black Friday Learn how AI-based predictive analytics not only determines the demand of products but also of distribution centers
A time of great excitement for both customers and retailers is here. From the marvelous discount deals to amazing in-store offers. It is more important than ever before for sellers to look ahead at what they should do to improve their business to meet ever-evolving consumer demands.
Adobe Analytics finds that the 2018 Black Friday online sales reached US$6.22 billion. Cyber Monday sales eclipsed even that total, hitting a record US$7.9 billion.
To predict the future, and reaching to merely expected sales, Artificial Intelligence plays a bigger role in generating a database from previous years’ products purchase data and customer buying patterns. And if you can predict this year’s sale on the AI-generated database, bingo, you are good to go. AI is used in multiple manners – for instance, it is used in UX-friendly websites – which are easily navigable by the consumer. Auto-generated email newsletter and offer pop-ups, personalized messages to retain the old customer.
Contribution of AI for a Black Friday Sale
RetaileMeNot predicted an increase in deals, consumer spending and online shopping over an elongated Black Friday. Almost 61% of retailers are planning to offer more holiday discounts than they did previously because of the economic challenges in America. In today’s world, the increased means of AI – specifically Machine Learning which is powered by data has programmed the playing field dramatically. And in retail, it has two main uses – Predicting Demand and Personalizing Services.
Let’s see how predicting demand and personalizing services are helpful to the retailers to clear their year-old inventory with profits.
- AI-powered Predictive Analytics for Demand Forecasting
According to the KPMG Survey, the average holiday season is expected to rise by 5%. Average spending per person holiday 2019 season is expected to increase to $768, compared to $730 in 2018, with the majority of consumers (57%) starting to shop before Black Friday.
During the Black Friday period, retailers need to manage inventory and distribution with as much efficiency as possible. And if they fail to do so, they will be left with the unsold inventory. With the help of AI, retailers can now look at their inventory and receive recommendations which will be helpful in predicting which items require immediate replenishment.
AI can account for multiple factors – both seasonal and ad-hoc. The deeper you dive into the data, the more accurate predictions you will get. The suggestions which come through can help in optimizing stock movement and cut out waste. Retailers can boost sales and help in preventing unwanted deadstock, but they can also learn to increase the relevancy of their products. AI can even help retailers to personalize the shopping experience for their consumers.
- AI-Powered Personalized Recommendations
One of the best ways to recover your cost is – over the holidays throughout the year. Target the customers the business already has. And to do that, it is important to identify when a customer is happy or unhappy with the products and services. Both can be because of a good or bad experience in the past. While selling products or services online to millions of customers, it becomes a real challenge to identify how and when that has happened before.
AI is there to take care of your back in this scenario. It will help you in keeping the customers by predicting when a customer might be dissatisfied and offering timely offers to retain their business. The holistic approach of using own data of customer data to identify potentially unhappy customers, and by offering them a customized deal – to predict the likelihood of retaining that customer. Many of the best-known retailers are successfully incorporating new technologies such as AI and machine learning to accomplish this goal.
- Machine Learning and Analytics to Track the Customer Voice
AI-powered chatbots and analytics can determine what customers are saying about online or in-store experiences. It will help the retailers to know and understand the areas they need to improve on. Through the capabilities like sentiment and tone detection, retailers can grasp the true nature of their customers’ feelings for their products or services and why they are or why they are not desirable to the customers.
Conclusion
As every year passes, it becomes more efficient to drive force for retailers to make the most on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Managing inventory and monitoring orders with better effectiveness – which then helps to increase sales and making the holiday period quite a beneficial and profitable one. Retailers should prepare for the holiday period in advance by collaborating among all the levels – from production, marketing to logistics departments. It will help in meeting consumer wants and needs.
Few things retailers should take into account – their website should be up to speed, as Google stated that nearly half of all the visitors leave if a mobile site doesn’t load within 3-5 seconds.
