AI and Computer Vision: The New Frontline in Retail Loss Prevention and Customer Experience

Fredrik Carlegren, VP and Head of Marketing and Communication
Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions

The future of immersive in-store experiences hinges on seamless omnichannel customer journeys and A.I.-driven personalization. Today's consumers demand a shopping experience effortlessly transitioning between online and offline interactions. Gaining an individualized understanding of each customer plays a crucial role in overall success. Achieving this necessitates intricate back-end systems synchronizing inventory, customer data, and promotions across all platforms. For example, customers should be able to easily check product availability online, receive tailored recommendations, and choose between in-store pickup or same-day delivery.

A.I. has proven to be instrumental in enhancing these omnichannel experiences. Analyzing extensive customer data enables personalized recommendations, predicts future buying behaviors, and helps optimize inventory. This level of personalization builds customer loyalty and boosts sales. For instance, A.I. can suggest products based on past in-store and online purchases , which in turn fosters customer relationships and loyalty. However, A.I.'s capabilities extend beyond these limits—it can also recommend items you've viewed, placed in your cart without purchasing, and offer personalized insights across various stages of the shopper's journey.

Incorporating a modern and adaptable platform with existing systems poses a challenge but is essential. Retailers must ensure compatibility between legacy systems and modern solutions like A.I. , A.R., and mobile integration. This often requires investments in scalable, flexible solutions adaptable to consistent technological advancements.

Once a retailer’s systems are optimized, they need to shift their attention to convenience and speed with appropriate training for store associates and adequate customer support to enable a successful launch, which should be part of the overarching strategy. Customers expect quick service, whether through mobile payments or their checkout processes. By prioritizing these aspects, retailers can craft engaging and efficient shopping experiences meeting modern consumer expectations. The future of retail depends on strategically advanced technologies to deliver personalized, convenient, and unified shopping experiences.

This study was conducted in Fall 2023 as the fourth annual installment of a grocery ecommerce study that Ipsos has conducted since 2020. This study was designed to differentiate between three different fulfillment methods of obtaining grocery orders: In-Store Pick-up, Curbside Pickup and Delivery.

The approach was 2-pronged:

Step 1: Ipsos conducted a 7-minute survey of 1,200 Americans to understand which elements of grocery pick-up and delivery are most important to consumers. The survey was conducted October 25, 2023. A Key Drivers Analysis was conducted to identify the top drivers of “Likelihood to Use Brand Again for grocery ecommerce” using Ipsos’ proprietary Ipsos Bayes Net (IBN) modelling technique.
Step 2: Ipsos then deployed their panel of trained mystery shoppers to measure brand performance across a specific set of elements related to grocery pick-up and delivery. Roughly 33 mystery shops per method (In-store Pick-up, Curbside Pick-up, Home Delivery) were conducted for each qualifying retailer. Retailers were only shopped for methods they offered, so in some cases sample was redistributed appropriately across offered methods. Geographic representation was ensured across 4 regions (West, Midwest, Northeast, South). Mystery shops were fielded between October 23 – November 17, 2023. The relative importance of each service element ascertained from Step 1 was applied as a weighting factor to the Mystery Shopping results.

For a full copy of the results or to participate in Ipsos’ next ecommerce study (coming Fall 2024), contact Silvana Daehn at silvana.daehn@ipsos.com.

At Ipsos Channel Performance, we partner with our clients to understand their shoppers and how they shop. We measure the execution of brand promises. We drive compliance and sales conversion. We improve performance across all sales and service channels – physical, contact center, and digital – and help deliver profitable growth. Learn more.

Contact: Silvana Daehn

Email: silvana.daehn@ipsos.com.

07/14/2024 20:58:06

Optimizing Retail Workforces for Operational Excellence

If there is one constant in retail–it’s that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Despite daily headlines, retailers have long battled high turnover, fluctuating demand and the need for a more versatile workforce.

The challenge, however, is creating a workforce environment that’s more responsive and "on-demand.” It’s about getting closer to that one moment of truth: when a customer is standing at the shelf. It’s about leveraging the right tools–ensuring that the right product is in the right place at the right time.

With better access to technology than ever before, it’s becoming easier for retailers to improve overall on-shelf availability. Combining new tools with a growing gig workforce seeking flexibility and control, retailers now have the means to optimize execution at that critical moment. But how? It requires retailers to operate smarter by optimizing their workforce at the execution level.

To attain this, retailers must have a clear understanding of their workforce needs. They need insight into the state of staffing and the ability to pivot—whether ramping up or down for seasonal needs or responding to demand. By integrating gig workers into the retail workforce–retailers can reduce costs, streamline staffing and improve responsiveness. This approach allows retailers to meet and exceed customer expectations, ensuring shelves are stocked and service levels are maintained at all times.

In the end, it's about achieving operational excellence by aligning workforce management with the dynamic needs of the retail environment, ensuring competitiveness and responsiveness in an ever-changing market.

David Dempsey

Chief Executive Officer
Hyer

07/14/2024 20:58:06

Preserving the Essence of In-Store Shopping: Balancing Security and Customer Experience

Considering a “reinventing of the in-store experience”, I think it’s important to consider the fundamentals. Retailers need to create an enticing in-store experience that can draw customers into the store and make them feel good about the time they spent there. Customers need to feel valued, trusted, and safe. With the increased deployment of friction additive loss prevention solutions in brick-and-mortar stores, retailers run the risk of upsetting these basic feelings of value, trust and safety and inciting consumer backlash with an inadvertent drive to prevalent online retailers.

Many consumers opting to purchase in a brick-and-mortar store want to have the option to touch and feel a product before and while purchasing it. Requiring consumers to take actions to request and retrieve a product from behind a locked case and possibly even waiting until they are at a checkout stand to be reunited with it certainly takes a toll on the patience of shoppers (not to mention adds labor and other costs to the operation).

As a loss prevention solution provider, we encourage retailers to challenge vendors like us to innovate and deliver solutions that preserve these elements of the traditional shopping experience. At Gatekeeper Systems, we strive to develop loss prevention solutions that do not require adjustments in the shopper’s experience to accommodate the behavior of bad actors. Not disrupting the flow of a shopping cart that has met all the criteria of a paid shopping trip is a primary feature of our Purchek® Pushout Theft Prevention Solution. Advancement in technology enables the development of even better solutions for loss prevention and as a community of solution providers and retailers we need to strive to protect the retail environment.

Robert Harling

President & CEO
Gatekeeper Systems

07/14/2024 20:58:06

Optimizing Retail Workforces for Operational Excellence

David Dempsey

Chief Executive OfficerHyer

Chief Executive Officer
Hyer