AI in Retail Market to reach $8bn by 2024 Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Retail Market | Page 2

Understanding the customer’s path to purchase and ability to observe their buying
behavior has long since been considered a key factor to generate profits. E-commerce
magnates have been using AI to maximize online selling and bombard customers with
substantial options to make them browse longer than they intend. The strategy is to
ultimately enable the customer to make a purchase that they might not have made in
a physical retail environment. Retail chains in their struggle to match up to the
competition are now using sensors and cameras to understand how customers are
interacting with their store – a move that has majorly stimulated artificial intelligence
(AI) in retail market share. Given that AI is being used to track how many times an item
was picked up from the shelf, kept back on the shelf or purchased, a better
understanding of the shopper’s mentality is being discerned, further augmenting
artificial intelligence (AI) in retail industry outlook.
It is essential to mention in this context, that the aforesaid instance has been put to
use in an impressive fashion by Amazon, the e-commerce giant, in its Amazon Go
grocery store. The store that opened in Seattle in 2018 is based on futuristic design
where customers use an Amazon Go app connected to their Amazon account to make
payments. There are no physical cashiers or even self-checkout counters, instead,
cameras and sensors keep track of all the items picked off shelves, put into shopping
carts or are put back on shelves. The items are charged to the Amazon account of the
customers automatically when they leave. The retail behemoth has thus successfully
leveraged AI in its operations, justifying why it is one of the top-notch contenders in
artificial intelligence (AI) in retail market.
Amazon has used its advantage of owning the world’s largest cloud computing
platform and applied it in building a store that not only delivers quality customer
experience but also uses AI in figuring out what products customers buy the most and
which hours are meant for peak customer purchases. It also keeps track of inventory
about when to reorder and restock, how to present merchandise to make the most
sales and how to optimize traffic flow around the store. That apart, it is virtually
impossible to shoplift from the Amazon Go store. With others set to follow the example
set by Amazon, artificial intelligence (AI) in retail market is bound to pick up a
commendable pace very soon.
Similar to how Amazon has taken shopping to a cutting-edge level with its store where
checking out is a thing of the past, Japan’s SoftBank and Aldebaran robot
manufacturers of France developed Pepper, the humanoid robot, in 2010. The bot has
now become one of the most remarkable additions to artificial intelligence (AI) in retail
industry, as it perceives human emotions and has already been employed in 140
SoftBank mobile stores in Japan as customer service greeter.
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