Effective communication with customers is the prior objective for every retailer. There are plenty of ideas and tools to understand analyze, and forecast clients’ behavior. Some of them will certainly hit the headlines considering huge demand.
Coded Couture – “Virtual Stylist” App
Ivyrevel is a popular Swedish team of developers that currently works on promoting its Coded Couture application. The mobile app makes it easy to create designer clothes with just several taps. Moreover, it offers design ideas base on your personal activity as well as reasons you need a particular outfit.
It takes the application about a week to collect necessary data and analyze user’s behavior. It identifies your interests, lifestyle, and clothes preferences. Then a user needs to indicate the purpose of getting a particular outfit. For instance, all you need is to type in “party style” while the app will choose the best offer on the market considering your sizes and budget. Certainly a great idea as a personalized design solution with award-winning implementation.
The verdict: obviously a hit. Moreover, it is yet one of the best ideas I came across during my reviews.
Askourt – Purchase Advisor
Askourt is an Israel-based platform that lets customers conduct surveys while purchasing particular goods. The idea is to involve customer’s friends or relatives to rank a product via SMS, WhatsApp messenger or Facebook.
The key benefit if the fact the platform is able to deliver an on-site experience. You do not have to leave the digital store while your friends are able to vote in real time. The message is sent via a special link placed in the retailer website’s footer. It means users do not have to download a separate app.
The verdict: nothing but a flop. Despite its interesting idea and approach, the platform will hardly have global recognition.
Suzu – Personalized Website Browsing Experience
Suzu is a startup that has recently introduced its AI-based platform. IT is said to be able to track and analyze customer’s behavior letting retailers understand their customers and influence their process of decision-making. The system helps websites to establish an individual approach to every user enabling customized website browsing experience.
Every time a user access retailer’s site, the system analyzes his or her profile based on the track record previous visits. Then Artificial Intelligence examines customers’ routes and pages they visit. When the data is collected and processed, the platform comes with personalized offers to boost sales.
While being a B2B startup, it might be f great interest for retailers. Supported by Entrepreneur First, the startup has managed to raise enough investments for its further development.
The verdict: while customer journey is turning into a new trend, it might work out in case of enough investments in the AI-based solutions.
Boldmind – Comprehensive IoT for Entertainment and Sales
The project refers to the Internet of Things. Its main idea is to develop advanced applications and strategies to collect and store data generated by connected devices. In other words, a company will benefit from an all-in-one solution that combines IoT functionality, data analytic tools, and advanced media content instruments.
Every day people come across numerous screens that deliver some info. Retailers are supposed to take the fullest from them. For example, a man walks in a c-store and instantly gets a push notification or advertising video with a personalized product offer on his smartphone. Using LED displays in the c-store interior is also a great idea. Special sensors identify a person walking in as well as his or her age, gender, and other essential data. The system makes a decision on what communication channel is the most effective for each and every particular occasion. Moreover, it defines the best offer for each customer. Apart from products, users might learn more about IoT features used in the retail and entertainment industry.
Hailing from London, the project has raised £650,000 of investments starting from 2017.
The verdict: flop. The idea is pretty cool although extremely complicated to bring to life. Developers should take care of the endless components necessary for a successful implementation. We should also take into account already existing competitors with their platforms of the same type.
Sprucebot – Friendly Chatbot
With so many AI-based assistants with voice interaction and tons of other features, it might be a challenge to come up with something new in the field. Sprucebot managed to stand out with the launch of its friendly chatbot to link both consumers and sellers. The idea is to seamlessly run various automated processes that encourage a more effective interaction between clients and retailers.
The platform works fine for both physical stores and digital shops. Moreover, it is capable to create integrated communication environment. Once you have signed in, the bot will remember you and will take into account all your website and physical store visits, order history, purchases, and more to come up with personally-tailored offers, products, etc.
The main idea is not just to boost sales and help retailers generate higher revenues. The goal is to build strong and long-lasting relations with customers. The bot was developed using AI-technologies and has already grown into a promising and pretty big technological project acquired by Techstars Retail Accelerato.
The verdict: obviously a hit.