Are you lost in the grocery store?
No worries, A.I. can help you find what you are looking for.
Artificial intelligence has many grocery chains around the world bringing their operations to a new level of technological sophistication.
One example of this is offering smart shopping carts that integrate A.I. technology to improve the customer experience
Whether you run a mom and pop store or a large-scale supermarket chain, there is something you can earn from integrating A.I. into your operations.
If you are a grocer not using A.I. yet, then consider that A.I.’s use in groceries is expected to rise by 400% by 2025.
Why does this matter to a grocer who still likes the old ways of doing things? Because that important stat signifies that your competitors will be using A.I.
If that still doesn’t impress you, then maybe you should consider the many ways that A.I. can improve a grocery store’s operations.
Improving the Customer Experience with Smart Shopping Carts
Smart shopping carts can help guide users through the store, even knowing where they are in the store.
A.I. cameras and barcode scanners make it possible for shoppers to start scanning their groceries as they shop, helping them skip the lines and have a receipt ready upon check-out.
Stocking and Inventory
Something that many grocery store managers have been leveraging is inventory management A.I. that takes out the “guesstimating” from product ordering.
A.I. can analyze your company’s historical data and market trends along with contemporary market research to offer you a forecast for how much of a product you ought to order.
Depending on the amount and quality of data that the A.I. shelf-stocker analyzes, these predictions can be more accurate than even the guesses of even the most seasoned floor manager.
This accuracy can be an amazing help in helping your business save money down the line. The expenses from having an overstock or understock may seem minor in the short-run, but the savings can be huge if you consider how much money you can save on a yearly basis if you do not need to discount or throw out products.
Chatbots and The Importance of The Internet in Grocery Shopping
In the old days of supermarkets, customers would find out what is there only after arrival.
In this day and age of widespread digital transformation, many shoppers use the Internet. Not only are they looking for the hours of operation and location of groceries in their area, but they are also looking for products.
One solution here is by implementing a chatbot on your site that can field customer questions.
Something that searchers are increasingly doing is checking websites to make sure a grocery store even carries the item needed. Whether it is a particular brand of cereal or a type of cleaning product, customers now have the power to look ahead of time to see what is working and what is not.
The chatbot can offer answers specific to your business to these and other relevant questions.
Tracking Shipping of Items
Awaiting the truck to come so that you can unload it and restock your shelves is an essential part of business.
It is paramount to know roughly when the trucks will be arriving throughout the day (most grocery stores, as you may already know, receive multiple deliveries a day).
Tracking software can make it easier to stay up-to-date on the arrival times for deliveries. If there is a delay in delivery, then you can work around it.
In some grocery stores still, workers still only have a vague idea of when a truck will show up. A shrug and “in the morning” tends to be the truest guess. A.I. that provides real-time updates to deliveries can eliminate the guessing and give you a more accurate ETA for your delivery.
Likewise, A.I. can analyze predicted traffic and weather patterns to map out routes in advance. This can further cut down on delivery time, and even help your shipping department or partner(s) with scheduling deliveries at optimal times.
This is a solution that can be quite helpful when you have a smaller staff that needs to be on-hand to help customers at any moment.
Summary
There are several ways that grocery stores can benefit from using A.I. to improve the experience for shoppers and workers alike.
Smart shopping carts personalize the shopping experience by guiding shoppers.
Tracking software helps workers know when delivery trucks will arrive.
Inventory management platforms can help you avoid understocking and overstocking.
Chatbots on your store’s website can help Internet searchers know whether you have the items they are looking for or not.
This is just the beginning of A.I. in the supermarket.
What have been your experiences with A.I. in the grocery store, as a shopper or a worker?
GO AI Articles
Guardian Owl Digital is dedicated to helping businesses everywhere learn about and implement A.I.
For continuing your AI education and keeping up with the latest in the world of AI, check out our AI blog:
New Year, New AI: Here Are the Biggest Trends in AI Coming in 2023
How AI Could Have Helped Southwest Avoid Its Holiday Disaster
IBM Watson vs. Microsoft’s ChatGPT: The AI Chat Matchup of the Century
AI on the Stand: Explaining the Lawsuit Against the Microsoft Automated Coder
AI and You: What Determines Your AI Recommendations in 2023?
How AI Could Have Foreseen the Crypto Crash—(It Already Analyzes Exchange Markets)
Google’s Response to ChatGPT: What the Tech Giant Is Doing to Improve Its Own AI Efforts
Recent Comments