AUSTIN, TX / ACCESSWIRE / July 19, 2022 / Every retail business has one common goal: profitability. But, to achieve this, businesses must know how to run efficient operations. That's why so many companies are turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an assistant to help them save time, money, and resources.

Let's look at how fast-growing consumer brands identify the opportunities that AI brings to identify hybrid shoppers and personalise customer experience across their decision journey.

AI for personalized consumer experience

AI is changing the customer experience. It does this by allowing marketers to better understand consumer needs which, in turn, increases loyalty, customer engagement, and profitability.

In fact, reports have suggested that up to 80% of consumers are more likely to stay loyal to a brand that offers them a personalized experience. That percentage increases significantly when that same brand successfully provides its customers with relevant recommendations and offers.

Personalized ads are an example of this. We've all noticed them at one point or another. You're on your phone, and you come across an ad that shows a product you've been looking for. It's not a coincidence. Machine learning algorithms have analyzed your browsing habits and purchase history to provide you with a personalized ad experience.

While some may find this approach off-putting, studies have shown that most consumers prefer an ad tailored to their interests and needs. Even more, found personalized advertising to offer unique content that they're more likely to purchase.

An example of this is Modere, an omnichannel, global health and wellness brand. According to CEO Asma Ishaq, Modere utilizes AI to "master the art of conversion by reaching customers where they are." One of these experiences mentioned is Modere's use of AI to predict purchasing behavior. This is accomplished by making recommendations personalized to each online shopper based on previous buying behaviour. Creating messages that work through lots of testing and working backwards to make sure everything fits the company objectives are some of the processes that go behind it.

Restore Hyper Wellness, a retail-based health and wellness company, follows suit. According to CMO David Fossas, the company "plans to use AI and machine learning to develop a client's personalized recommendation." Restore is looking to incorporate AI into an app that utilizes fitness trackers' data to recommend the appropriate supporting services such as cryotherapy or mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The use of AI has so far helped the brand "convert leads into booked appointments," which was a challenge they had been facing prior.

"Due to the many advantages AI has begun to offer, it has become more commonplace," says Ishaq. "Partners in this space with AI, or data analytics even, are more accessible today than they used to be." In order to stay competitive in this environment, it's important to Modere that they consistently look for ways to simplify the customer journey and create meaningful experiences at each touch point. Investing in the latest AI technology to make consumers feel connected is an integral part of that.

AI for data analytics and dynamic pricing

AI can turn a mediocre user experience into an extraordinary one. Nouria Energy Corporation will be using AI to foster a community amongst customers. Nouria's Chief Operating Officer, Joseph Hamza, explains that with the help of AI, our team will be able to make sense of the immense amounts of data our systems generate in near real-time. We can then leverage those insights through our loyalty program or other means to engineer our marketing in a way that would positively impact customer behavior. Hamza added, "when you market the brand, you have to make whatever program you establish [..] very intuitive and simple to use."

In this case, by rewarding customers with targeted discounts and promotions, a positive impression of the company is created by applying AI algorithms.

Nouria is also creating a centralized data that looks at every aspect of a business within one context. This way, the company can understand the correlation of why some customers shop at certain locations for specific products. "To understand when a customer is standing and pumping gas into a car, what they are doing at that point? Are they looking at their phone, are they looking at the store, are they looking at the pump or the screen? And how can we best utilize those areas to communicate our offerings or to promote our products and our brand in that given moment." - discussed Joseph Hamza.

E-commerce retailer Overstock uses AI primarily for data analytics. CEO Jonathan Johnson of Overstock adds that they've "seen much success applying machine learning to areas where there's a lot of data." This ultimately helped the company understand which products to discount and how to price their products efficiently.

"We've developed technologies like what we call LiveRecs, short for live recommendations, which are driven on machine learning algorithms to form a platform that enables real-time personalization. A custom narrative is created for each customer that guides them to the exact product that they're looking for."

AI for identifying hybrid shoppers

With the spike in digital commerce, especially during the global pandemic, more and more consumer brands started facing the so-called "hybrid customer" effect. That brings shoppers who'd see a product on a store shelf but then buy it online after checking for discounts. Or the other way round, seeing a product online with an ad and then returning to buy it in store.

"A regional retailer that has both an online and offline presence recognized that their consumers were shopping at retail locations as well as online, as well as were frequent visitors at competitor stores" - shared Elise Wood, CMO at Refinition. "Giving them insight into the customer journey empowered them to build more cohesive audiences to improve loyalty, refine their acquisition efforts to focus on the shoppers that mattered, and improve overall marketing budget allocation."

If it's so great, why isn't everyone using AI for marketing?

We have had a front row seat to witness the tectonic shifts in the digital landscape. IDFA obfuscation, phasing out of the Cookie, algorithmic changes to digital platforms, the emergence of retail media networks, consolidation of services by lifestyle categories, and more, makes it a priority for us to empower ourselves and our clients to become data independent with the ability to convert that data into actionable, omni-channel addressable audiences and grow the first-party data.

When deciding to automate certain processes with AI and technology, some companies are facing the challenge of having ‘enough' data, while others - the talent that would come in to derive the insights from the analysis of that data.

This is where technology solutions like Growth Channel come in to support the marketing planning, advertising, and optimization processes by applying data-driven insights. From identifying hybrid customers to building persona profiles, channel strategy, and managing omni-channel advertising campaigns across the customer journey touch points, Growth Channel's automated marketing intelligence platform works with brands to deliver consumer insights and activate conversion-optimized campaigns.

About Growth Channel

Growth Channel is an automated marketing intelligence platform that helps businesses plan, launch and optimizes their digital campaigns across 150+ channels from a single dashboard.

With a dedicated marketing and technology professional team, Growth Channel ensures that each step of marketing, starting from identifying the ideal audience, is simple and easy. Thanks to powerful built-in integration and "marketing recipes," Growth Channel users maximize their ad ROI up to tenfold compared to traditional prospecting campaigns.

Follow Growth Channel's Success

Company Website: https://growthchannel.io
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/growthchannel
Founder LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mburushkina/
Company Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gr0wthChannel
Press Contact: Maryna Burushkina, maryna@growthchannel.io

SOURCE: Growth Channel