A.I. has been getting attention for changing the online-shopping experience as we know it. However, it is doing plenty to improve the brick-and-mortar realm as well. Specifically, by allowing us to use smart devices that can offer real-time info on products seen in the store.
The Five Most-Key Takeaways from This Blog Post
- Here is an example of this phenomenon: hold up your smartphone’s camera to a product, and Google Lens can offer you info on that product, as ABC News reports.
- Particularly helpful is price-comparison data that can let you know whether an item at a particular store is well-priced. Bargain hunters can rejoice at this feature.
- This technology, of course, has the potential to produce more effective consumer metrics for businesses looking for insightful consumer data. For a given individual, the choices about what items in a store get the hybrid-shopping treatment is useful in itself.
- Integration with the stores is a key feature of Google Lens, which allows users to learn about other in-store in-stock products.
- Having quick access to shopping reviews can also help sway the shopper to or away from a purchase.
Bringing Online Shopping In-store and In-person
Hypothesis: brick-and-mortar stores will not go away, at least not anytime in the somewhat distant future, so more and more online-shopping technology will integrate into the in-store experience.
Your customers will be able to learn about what other customers have to say about the products in your store.
Those customers will also be able to tell whether your markups of products are too high relative to other stores. Or, whether you are offering a bargain.
This could theoretically increase competition between brick-and-mortar stores because it will allow for customers to have access to more online information that is specific to your store. If a competitor offers better prices, you will need to adapt.
Brick-and-Mortar Stores: Here to Stay, But Changing Because of A.I.
Now, if online shopping were really a true juggernaut in our consumer culture, then it would have wiped out the vast majority of retail stores, right?
But nope, no matter how quick and convenient online shopping becomes, it seems there will always be an appeal to going to a brick-and-mortar store.
Why this is may just be a mystery, although there may be a certain soothing appeal to the very ritual of entering a calm bright-lit building erected for the purpose of browsing the aisles before departing with our currency in exchange for consumer goods.
As any business owner in retail can attest, people do seem to get a certain pleasure out of shopping in-person.
Of course, there are practical reasons having to do with convenience as well. The tradeoff for ordering online is that you need to wait for the delivery to arrive. Whereas shopping at a brick-and-mortar store offers the convenience of immediate ownership.
Whatever the reasons may be, hybrid shopping is the future, as bringing in aspects of the online shopping experience via smart devices (smartphones, then if we end up doing the V.R. thing down the line, then your smart glasses).
Hybrid Shopping: More Information for the Consumer
Ultimately for business owners, the thing to prepare for is having accurate product information ready, and selling quality products that earn good reviews, to account for the increase in information that customers will be perusing before purchasing.
Looking through information about a product, whether on the label of a physical product or on the product page of a web site, will always have an appeal to consumers.
That is because it flatters our sense of being conscientious consumers who can make informed purchases. For this reason, most of us will likely see the pop-up screens on Google Lens, for instance, as being purely informative rather than encouraging purchases.
Because think of it: why would a tech company make a product for improving the in-store shopping experience if it would only anger the brick-and-mortar businesses by driving away buisness?
These tech companies have a vested interest in keeping business owners happy, while also keeping trust between consumers and the tech company.
The Last (But Not Least) Key Takeaway
To benefit from hybrid shopping, business owners must uphold their part of the bargain by offering good deals and accurate product information, and the A.I. will work to offer the information that could help lead to more purchases.
Other Great GO AI Blog Posts
GO AI the blog offers a combination of information about, analysis of, and editorializing on A.I. technologies of interest to business owners, with especial focus on the impact this tech will have on commerce as a whole.
On a usual week, there are multiple GO AI blog posts going out. Here are some notable recent articles:
- For Businesses and Other Organizations, What Makes a Successful Chatbot?
- IBM Watson vs. ChatGPT vs. Gemini: How Will Each Affect Search Engines?
- Using A.I. to Find Resources for Business Owners
- How Would Restricting Open-Source A.I. Affect Business Owners?
- The EU’s A.I. Act Has Become Law: The Implications for Business Owners (Especially American)
In addition to our GO AI blog, we also have a blog that offers important updates in the world of search engine optimization (SEO), with blog posts like “Google Ends Its Plan to End Third-Party Cookies”.
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