In the last few years, AI(Artificial Intelligence) has become the most popular technology in industrial innovation. AI technology enhances the development of data analysis, AI robotics, language processing, computer vision, etc. And they are widely used in various area, like unmanned driving, aerospace, health care, manufacture, education, finance, etc. Today, we will talk about how retail industry benefits from AI technology, which enable retailers to explore what the customers are interested in to customize recommendation and improve customer experience greatly.
AI Online Store – Knows better what you are looking for
Based on data mining and deep learning, AI make the isolated massive data connected and much more valuable for easier customer analysis and better service. As mentioned in my other article “How Powerful Big Data Can Be to Retailers” , as long as retailers can use the big data well, they would also be able to predict sales and optimize their supply chains.
For example, when you search “Red Skirt” on Amazon, different log in account may have different search results based on the previous purchases. With the help of AI, amazons would recommend Red Skirts that are in fashion style and using fabric material you like while fitting your shape. This way, customer will be able to find what they need much quicker, while enjoying the individuation of the Red Skirt.
The AI search engine can do more than that. Have you ever seen something interested in buying but don’t know the name of it or even you know the name but still can’t find the exact same one online? No worries, with AI, now you can just take a picture and upload it to the shopping website like Ebay to find out the exact products you want!
Taking advantage of AI technology, online stores are also able to push products that you would most likely buy based on your previous purchase, not just random recommendation as before. In a word, AI knows you better, and help to find what you need faster!
AI Speaker – The entrance to a smart home
Since the Amazon Echo(Alexa) get into homes, they have been playing an important role in the interactive scenario to endow people easy access to the internet and different appliances at home. Now there are more and more AI Speakers in the market, like Google Home, Home Pod from Apple, Invoke from Microsoft etc. It is so magical about them that they will answer whatever questions you ask and execute commands. Just say out what you need and free your hands!
What is a day like with an AI Speaker? Waking up by the AI Speaker that is set to alarm at 6:00am, you ask it to open the curtain to enjoy the sunshine and your favorite music from AI Speaker. After some morning exercise, you ask AI speaker to turn down the AC and feel like to have a coke, but find out there’s no more in the fridge, so you ask AI Speaker to order some more drinks and fruits online to your fridge. AI Speaker can do much more than you can imagine, like call Uber to go out, ask it to turn on lights when get back home, to turn on the TV and choose your favorite TV show, to dim or turn off the light when you are ready to sleep and even play some white noise to helps with your sleep and have a sweet dream.
Now many AI Speaker suppliers are lowering the price a lot, even lower than the manufacturing cost. Why? Because they see a bright future for the huge smart appliances markets that they could probably take over simply by one small AI Speaker, which is playing an important role to control the smart home. Imagine that when people become addicted to control everything at home by speak to the AI Speaker, aren’t they going to buy more and more appliances that work with the AI Speaker? Amazon is acting quick to lead their way to take over the big smart retail market. And obviously other retailers are catching up to fight for the huge markets for smart appliances.
Magic Mirror – Help to tell what fits you better
For ladies, trying different colors of lipsticks can be very frustrated as they only have one month but therer are so many different brands and colors to try on. Even they try to clean the previous trial, there is still leftover that would affect the next trial. However, with the help of magic mirror, they will be able test different colors on their lips without actually trying it on. They only need to take out different lipsticks in front of the magic mirror, which will show different results accordingly.
Apparel stores also have been utilizing magic mirrors to help customers with choosing clothes of different styles and sizes and to try on various of combinations simply through a touch screen. This way, customers don’t need to wait to use the fitting room and put different clothes on and off any more. The magic mirror is also able to tell you what size and colors are available in stock and even receive your order to ask staffs to bring the clothes you need.
So how does magic mirror work to make this happen? First of all, in order to detect the apparels, retailers usually put RFID tags on apparels and RFID reader inside the Magic Mirror. This way, each apparel has their own identification that can be read in front of the magic mirror. After it is shown on the magic mirror, it will also help you to try on the apparel with different sizes and colors and recommend different combination with other apparels. Needless to say, AI technology contributes a lot to above customize process in selecting the satisfying apparels and complete a pleasant purchase.
Self-Checkout – No more lines
Since Amazon came up with the idea of Amazon Go in December, 2016, and started to roll out to the public in January, 2018, Self-Checkout has been highly touted in the retail industry. As the pioneer in Self-Checkout, Amazon Go’s grab-and-go shopping experience is made possible by the same types of technologies used in self-driving cars: computer vision, sensor fusion, and AI deep learning in the entire store.
However, because of the various complicated high-tech applied in Amazon Go stores, it would cost too much to build just a grocery store like that, so it is not practical to roll out stores like that in large scale for most retailers at the stage. Therefore, more and more Self-Checkout solutions are popping up with cheaper solutions and larger scale to take another step closer to consumers.
TrustTag is partnered on the Self-Checkout solution with QueueHop, one of world’s leading technology providers of autonomous retail checkout. For us, we have come up with two Self-Checkout solutions currently.
One is Smart Shopping Cart Solution for supermarkets or grocery stores. The cart is equipped with cameras, weighing system, touch screen and POS system that are enabled by technologies like deep learning, image recognition, neural network, sensor fusion, in-store navigation etc. to provide tailored recommendations and improve customer experience. With the AI technology, the cart is able to keep learning on identifying all products in stores to fulfill the scan-less image recognition tech. So customer only need to take and put whatever they want into the cart and checkout on the touch screen and POS on the smart cart. This is not as convenient as Amazon Go, but it cost 60% less, which is more practical to roll out in large scale for retailers.
TrustTag’s the other Self-Checkout Solution is designed for apparel stores, which is even cheaper, only 5% of the Amazon Go’s cost. Because retailers only need to equip the store with Self-Checkout Kiosks and tags that are based on EAS and RFID technology. For more details about this solution, please click here.
If you are interested in learning more about retails in the new era, please stay tuned for upcoming articles in our series of “New Retail, New Ideas”, which will explore details of specific technologies in new retail.
