(3 minute read)
Never before what we bought in the past was so important to know what we will consume in the present. The path started at the end of the 1970s with the first studies on consumer habits, and today reaches an unimaginable development through the use of Artificial Intelligence to collect data on customer behavior.
AI applied to business has a development opportunity that has just begun, especially in the supermarket sector. These new technologies make a reading of the data that allows companies to know their customers better thanks to the purchases they have previously made. This information, conveniently managed through techniques such as product cross-selling or upselling, provides extremely valuable data to predict future buying habits.
The precision is such that behavior can be predicted individually and not over large groups as used to be done. This is how they do it in the Valencian company Bionline. Its CEO, José Manuel Narciso, explains that knowing the factors that influence the buying behavior of supermarkets’ customers “allows teams to make more accurate decisions and, thanks to the use of technologies like ours, to achieve up to 300% increases in the conversion rates of commercial actions”.
But it is not only acting in the increase of sales, since in the churn prevention field there has also been an important development of these technologies. In fact, the most advanced software, such as Bionline’s, identifies customers who have high levels of consumption, but also high probabilities of significantly reducing it, and they do so before this drop takes place, which allows companies to concentrate their commercial effort in the retention of these groups.
The Rise of the AI-Powered Company in the Postcrisis World report, developed by the Boston Consulting Group, already pointed out a reality that has been verified today: the health crisis has modified our consumption habits, returning us to our closest environment to our shopping time. Patterns that midsize supermarket chains don’t want to miss.
Narciso also points out that there are many stores that, in view of the new supply needs of the population, have made significant investments in improving their stores and now must use them. “That’s why they make an effort to get to know their customers as the old neighborhood grocers did, who used to recommend us what they knew we liked”. This is what is called customer experience, an issue that AI can also improve.
Advances in the predictive technologies field are happening at breakneck speed. This software integrates millions of data and the number is constantly increasing. It should be added that each time they allow more information to be crossed and, above all, to analyze more about the past. Curiously, the past will be the one that allows us to be more competitive in the future.
[Press release]