The Apps Have It

Retailers pursue mobile innovation

By Dan Berthiaume

Retailers are leveraging mobile apps to enable a variety of leading-edge features and functions.

As smartphones become a ubiquitous part of daily consumer life, retailers are developing more sophisticated apps that perform tasks across the enterprise. Here’s a look at how Amazon, Home Depot and Pottery Barn are delivering next-generation capabilities via mobile app.

Amazon gets ‘inspired’ by TikTok Amazon is adding a Tik Tok-inspired feature to its shopping app. The e-tail giant began rolling out the feature, called Inspire, to select customers in the U.S. in early December, with availability expanding to all U.S. customers in the coming months.

The in-app shopping experience is designed to provide customers with a new way to discover ideas, explore products and seamlessly shop from content created by other customers, influencers and brands. When customers see an item in Inspire, they can shop for it in real time on Amazon.

In a few clicks, customers can tap on a video or photo to see product details including average star rating and reviews, color and style options, and price — and then add it to their cart.

Inspire is designed to learn more about a customer’s preferences through their interests and engagement to continue tailoring their feed of shoppable content. As it rolls out, Amazon plans to add more shoppable features, in-app functionality and content, with the goal of building a more immersive shopping experience for customers.

The company is also positioning Inspire as a way for brands and influencers to grow their businesses on the Amazon mobile shopping platform. Especially as TikTok faces intense government scrutiny and even a possible U.S. ban, Inspire may present an appealing alternative to many online sellers.

Home Depot provides app, device to employees

Store associates at The Home Depot have a new, machine learning (ML)-based mobile “sidekick” developed to help them prioritize tasks more effectively. The home improvement giant’s new proprietary app, called Sidekick, is an addition to mobile devices it recently provided to associates called hdPhones.

Home Depot’s hdPhones are equipped with Wi-Fi 6 capabilities, a long-range scanner and all-day battery strength, allowing employees to locate products quickly and assist customers both inside the store and in exterior areas such as the parking lot. The phones are designed to help employees remove friction from customers’ in-store shopping experiences.

Leveraging a cloud-enabled ML algorithm, the app guides associates to prioritize the highest-demand products. Sidekick also utilizes machine vision to identify which shelves associates should restock, as well as the location of excess product on overhead shelves.

In addition, the app alerts specific employees which tasks need to be completed first via a common tasking engine, and showcases where and how to complete a task in a dashboard with associate and manager views. Sidekick also integrates with other platforms to ensure all data and task prioritization is up-to-date and aligned with the retailer’s broader business needs.

Pottery Barn Kids, Pottery Barn Teen play with new shopping apps

New mobile apps from Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen include innovative features such as 3-D augmented reality (AR) shopping. The children’s and teen furniture and accessories banners of home goods retailer Williams-Sonoma Inc. are launching new native shopping apps for iPhone users.

The new apps are designed to offer enhanced functionality and an easy-to-use interface. Features of the new Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen mobile apps include the ability for customers to share favorite items with contacts and on social media directly through the apps.

Shoppers can explore and shop virtual 3-D rooms using augmented reality (AR) technology to design a space in their home directly from the apps, as well as track, manage and add items to a Pottery Barn Kids registry through the new app platform.

The apps also provide seamless browsing of both customer favorite and best-selling products, with customized recommendations by age. An Apple Pay checkout option provides a seamless, secure checkout experience. Customers can use the app to request an appointment with a design expert for a free in-store, in-home or virtual appointment.

ChatGPT: What it means for retail companies

A new artificial intelligence (AI) platform holds the potential to transform retail.

By now, you have most likely heard of ChatGPT, a new AI model from research and deployment company Open AI. Using 570 GB of publicly available data on the internet, ChatGPT interacts with users in a conversational style that mimics human interaction and uses machine learning (ML) to continually refine and improve its responses.

Other companies, including retailers, are already launching efforts to develop their own AI engines with ChatGPT functionality. These include Chinese e-commerce giant JD, as well as Microsoft and Google.

ChatGPT is clearly coming to U.S. retail — and sooner rather than later. Here are three key areas the technology is likely to have a significant impact.

• Customer service/help desk

The most obvious retail application for ChatGPT technology is customer service, especially the help desk function. AI-based chatbots are nothing new in the retail help desk space. Retailers have been using them for years to automatically handle lower-level inquiries and filter higher-level requests for human intervention.

However, many consumers are not sold on the chatbot model of customer service. According to data from a recent Ipsos poll, 77% of respondents who have used a customer service chatbot prefer interacting with a human for customer service needs. In addition, 77% of these respondents report that customer service chatbots are frustrating.

ChatGPT holds the promise to enable next-generation chatbots that can truly mimic human understanding and interaction during a customer help desk session, resulting in more satisfying resolutions and fewer follow-up inquiries.

Chatbots using ChatGPT technology will also be able to handle much higher-level customer service requests, giving human agents more time to focus on truly complex issues that are beyond the scope of AI (at least for now).

• Marketing

The conversational nature of ChatGPT also makes it an ideal marketing and promotional tool. A ChatGPT-based marketing solution could generate much of a retailer’s more broadly targeted promotional content, with the input of some basic information and proofreading by a human.

In addition, a ChatGPT-enabled promotional engine could streamline the process of segmenting promotional messages and offers by specific customer demographic. Marketers could feed granular customer data into the solution to receive detailed suggestions on the structure and wording for promotions aimed at different consumer segments.

Also, ChatGPT analysis could assist marketers in maximizing the effectiveness of cross-sell and upsell prompts, as well as aid the development of longer-form “storytelling” efforts.

•HR/Workforce management

ChatGPT functionality holds tremendous promise as an enabler of HR/workforce management activities. Many retailers screen job applications with AI-based solutions; leveraging ChatGPT they could also automate virtual interviewing and onboarding tasks.

In addition, ChatGPT offers the potential for retailers to offer highly personalized training at scale. Retailers are already streamlining training efforts with tools such as mobile apps and video. ChatGPT could allow employees to ask specific, individual questions in response to virtual training sessions that could be instantly answered via AI or screened and forwarded to a human for rapid response.

In the store, associates with ChatGPT apps could obtain instant support to ensure they are properly answering customer questions and providing correct information on topics such as product specifications.

Every Tuesday

The premier newsletter showcasing technology and multi-channel, seamless retailing.

From

Dan Berthiaume dberthiaume@chainstoreage.com