At the Retailers Association of India’s Visakhapatnam Retail Summit, speaking for OptCulture, I gave store owners a 90-day plan for using digital tools and AI in three places: reaching customers, selling to them in the store, and bringing them back.
Know and reach your customer
Mass marketing is expensive, dilutes the brand and does not build loyalty. The alternative starts with the sales data a retailer already has: AI can find customer groups hidden in it, and it can work as an early warning system for customers who are about to stop coming. Location helps too. With real-time geofencing, you can reach a customer when they are 500 meters from the store rather than five hours later.
Engage and profit in the store
The store’s staff can become trusted advisors if they have the right information in front of them. A tablet that shows a customer’s purchase history and AI recommendations lets a salesperson say “I know you’ll love this” and mean it. At billing, AI can suggest the best cross-sell to the cashier. And instead of flat discounts, offers can be personalized so they protect margins.
Bring them back
The sale is the beginning of the next conversation. One WhatsApp message can carry the receipt, a short survey and a personalized catalog of recommendations. Loyalty can be more than points: personalized missions make it a game, and gamification gives customers a reason to choose you. And an AI customer service copilot, working inside WhatsApp, can resolve issues faster.
The 90-day challenge
I closed by asking every retailer in the room to pick one of these ideas before the festive season and prove its return on investment on a single metric within 90 days.
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