Intelligent Retail Business Applications are enterprise applications with embedded AI technologies, such as intelligent automation, data-driven insights, and guided recommendations, designed to help retailers to get a holistic view of their end-to-end business operations. The data generated from business operations encompasses customer, sales, and production activities. Using this data, retailers can improve customer experience, optimize inventory, and make more informed decisions about their marketing and sales strategies. Additionally, reporting and dashboard capabilities present the data to the retailers in easy-to-understand interactive visuals to analyze and monitor the overall performance of their business.
Intelligent virtual store design uses new processes, greater data availability and digital technologies to augment traditional macrospace and microspace planning and in-store POG execution. This includes recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of the assignment of fixtures, services, customer pathways, categories, and merchandise shelf placement across every physical store. Visualization created by augmented/virtual/mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) provides the ability to experience the plan from a customer perspective before any physical construction, renovation or seasonal realignment takes place.
Retail assortment management applications (RAMAs) are a foundational component of modern category management solutions for long life cycle products. Using data & analytics and AI technology, RAMAs can curate targeted assortments to create compelling customer experiences, leading to an increase in sales conversion. Long life cycle products in retail include categories such as grocery, consumables and hard goods. The long life cycle retailers’ traditionally broad approach to assortments is not satisfying customers’ demands for more curated assortments to match their lifestyles. Local trends mean that even more granular store-specific assortments are necessary. Advanced analytics, algorithms, AI and automation will play pivotal roles in driving this transformation through better customer understanding and alignment.
Gartner defines supply chain planning (SCP) solutions as platforms that provide technological support to enable a company to manage, link, align, collaborate and share its planning data across an extended supply chain. An SCP solution supports planning, ranging from demand planning through detailed supply-side response planning and from strategic planning through execution-level planning. It is the planning decision repository for a defined end-to-end supply chain. It is also the environment in which end-to-end-integrated supply chain decisions are managed. It establishes a single version of the truth for planning data and decisions, regardless of the underlying execution technology environment. Organizations use SCP solutions to improve their supply chain planning decisions and reach higher levels of maturity.