How communications automation with GenAI solutions is revolutionizing the retail customer experience

Communications automation with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is transforming the retail industry at a searing pace. According to statistics, deploying AI has become the top priority for 84%¹ of e-commerce businesses. One critical driver behind this trend is improving the retail customer experience by meeting the needs of more demanding consumers, who require streamlined interactions and high personalization in their communications.

Today’s consumers expect retailers to deliver personalized experiences online through tailored product recommendations and an omnichannel purchase experience—that allows them to engage with online marketplaces, social media, mobile apps, and AI agents. An AWS survey found that 84%² of shoppers are more likely to buy more from brands that let them choose their preferred channel, while 74%³ are more likely to buy more from retailers that help them avoid contacting a live agent.   

In this outlook, deploying retail automation via a communications automation with GenAI solution has become essential to improving retail customer experience. Retail automation gives e-commerce businesses access to large volumes of real-time and historical data, allowing them to better understand consumer preferences and behaviors, before triggering personalized, omnichannel communications to increase sales and improve customer satisfaction. Analytics help them predict sales and solve problems, transforming data into knowledge that retailers can use to make decisions for better business results.

See more ways that artificial Intelligence in retail is transforming the relationship between retailers and consumers.

Personalization at scale

Retail automation via communications automation with GenAI solutions allows retailers to personalize the shopping experience for increasingly demanding consumers. By leveraging GenAI algorithms and real-time and historical data—browsing history, past purchases, and demographics—retailers can tailor services, interactions, and product recommendations that match customer preferences and behavior. The higher relevance increases conversion rates and Average Order Value (AOV) while offering an improved retail customer experience.

Retail automation also allows companies to customize content during the shopping process. Based on data, retailers can personalize banners, product descriptions, and offers to provide individual customers with the information that best helps them find the products they are looking for.

Predictive analytics and the shopping cart

Retail automation positively impacts e-commerce shopping carts. By leveraging critical data, retailers can encourage customers to add complementary products through suggestions like “customers also bought” or “you might also like,” increasing the likelihood of a higher order value.

Artificial Intelligence in retail also helps mitigate shopping cart abandonment. Automation technology can dynamically adjust pricing based on demand, availability, and shopper behavior, before offering communications and discounts at the shopping cart stage to encourage customers to complete the purchase. It can also identify patterns and triggers that lead to cart abandonment and automatically send personalized, omnichannel reminders and discounts encouraging shoppers complete to the transaction.

Improving customer service

Customer service is essential to building customer loyalty and increasing sales. It is critical to provide quality service, solve problems effectively, and offer tailored promotions and discounts for an improved retail customer experience. In this context, automation streamlines customer support by personalizing omnichannel interactions, offering faster response times, delivering proactive support, and speeding up efficient issue resolution.

Artificial intelligence in retail unlocks a new, more efficient service model. AI agents provide tailored, humanized interactions for order tracking, product information, return processes, and more. This agentic AI support team can offer immediate responses 24/7/365 without the need for human intervention.

Automation empowers customers to solve issues on their own by enabling self-service automation. The technology allows consumers to place orders, see billing updates, track shipping, request returns and refunds, access FAQs, and more without the help of a human agent.

Enriched omnichannel experiences

The retail customer experience has evolved, and the shopping process takes place across several digital touchpoints. Today’s consumers are looking for consistency and efficiency when they are switching between brick-and-mortar stores, browsing online, interacting with mobile apps, or engaging through social media.

Retailers can overcome this challenge by deploying communications automation with GenAI solutions that offer personalized omnichannel capabilities. Consumers can start on one channel and complete their interaction on another, without restarting the process on every new channel.

Overall value in retail

Retail automation is significantly improving the operational efficiency of the retail industry. As they integrate with inventory management systems, communications automation with GenAI solutions can trigger inventory reports, order status, and shipping updates, significantly streamlining and reducing the manual effort of inventory management and delivery logistics.

Similarly, the elevated level of automation allows retailers to scale their operations during peak shopping seasons, by tackling a higher volume of orders and customer inquiries without the need for increased staff or resources.

Communications automation with GenAI solutions can greatly enhance the retail customer experience. The technology can identify and analyze customer preferences and behaviors, enabling personalized interactions and customized solutions that increase satisfaction and enhance brand loyalty. According to statistics, 65%⁴ of e-commerce companies see an improvement in customer satisfaction after deploying AI-powered solutions.

Automated platforms allow retailers to achieve faster ROI. The sheer efficiency, reduced staffing costs, the ability to scale on demand, and the resulting improved customer experience allow retailers to achieve sustainable growth faster and continually thrive in a fiercely competitive market.

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1. https://www.bloomreach.com/en/blog/why-ai-is-the-future-of-e-commerce ↩︎
2. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/what-do-consumers-really-think-of-automated-customer-service/ ↩︎
3. https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/apn/what-do-consumers-really-think-of-automated-customer-service/ ↩︎
4. https://zipdo.co/ai-in-e-commerce-statistics/ ↩︎