Digitalization takes retail by storm

With new trends such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence (AI), smart beacons, AR, and VR surfacing the tech space, the retail sector is set to be rejuvenated with more sophistication.

The advent of online shopping saw a new steam of solutions and services incorporated into the digital marketing and retail industry. Machine learning algorithms allowed vendors to learn the preferences of users to cross-sell different products, thereby enhancing their marketing campaign. A user looking for mobile phone will be introduced with trending and highly rated products, allowing the user to have a comparative perspective of the available choices, benefitting not only the user but the company advertising the product as well.

Another recent adaptation of digitalization is with AR & VR. Until now, the only hands-on approach to a particular product for a customer was either to visit a retail store or to see an image of the product online. Not everybody was able to visit retail stores and the product that was delivered to them never really lived up to the expectations they had with the online description and image. AR & VR allows merchants to provide users with an augmented tour of the product, allowing users to see the product in person, without having to travel to the retail stores. A similar trend is followed across real estate and marketing industries where customers can latch on to their VR headsets and experience the product first-hand before making the purchase decision.

Although such innovations are fairly new and are in the beta stages of testing, they offer a promising endeavor for the retail industry, paving the way for newer job opportunities and conceptualization of the future of technology.