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Shoppers can go to most any store, online, mobile or brick-and-mortar, find what they need, check out, and end their shopping journey. But it's the responsibility of the brand or retailer to turn this one-time experience into a long-term customer relationship.
However, with so many unique shopping journeys to consider, retailers often struggle to find the best touch point for engaging with each customer. Some shoppers might devote loyalty to the retailer that has the easiest website to navigate. Other shoppers might prefer an in-store experience that's supported by a mobile app with personalized coupons. Finally, some shoppers might focus their favoritism on retailers that create the quickest checkout experience.
Regardless of where, when and how a shopper interacts with their favorite brand or retailer, it's important that their preferences are met. For retailers, this requires investing in exceptional experiences across every touch point – before, during and after the purchase.
Here are a few ways that retailers can make every touch point count.
On average, consumers spend 55 seconds viewing a webpage and just four minutes on the website throughout the entire session. If the shopper doesn't find what they're looking for in that time, they'll likely take their business elsewhere. This is true for in-store shopping too. If a shopper can't find an item quickly, they may be tempted to search online for the product, an action that might bring them to an entirely different store.
This is where strategic personalization comes in. Personalization can guide shoppers through a store, ensuring they find the items they need every time, whether they are shopping online, via mobile or in person.
With artificial intelligence tools like GK AIR Personalization, the items shown on the front page of a website or in-store app can be determined automatically based on the customer's preferences and past behaviors. This can go a long way when it comes to grabbing a shopper's attention early in their journey and earning more of their loyalty.
In fact, Sanicare, a pharmaceutical retailer, improved conversion rates by 2% and recommendation turnover rates by 5% thanks to GK AIR Personalization.
Now, imagine the shopper found what they were looking for and made their way to the online or in-store checkout. Eleven percent of the shoppers who made it this far will abandon their cart if their preferred payment method was not accepted by the brand or retailer. And, 51% of shoppers will leave a store without making a purchase if the checkout line is too long.
These situations are easy to avoid when retailers invest in diverse payment and point-of-sale (POS) capabilities. With TransAction+ by GK, retailers and shoppers can rest assured that any type of payment is accepted and processed securely.
Additionally, of the global top 50 retailers, 24% rely on GK's OmniPOS solution. This technology breaks down shopping barriers by giving customers the opportunity to check out across a wide variety of touch points.
The OmniPOS solution stores all purchasing data in one location, empowering retailers to strengthen their data to power other customer experience initiatives such as personalization, retail media and loyalty programs.
Similarly, GK also enables retailers to incorporate MobilePOS into their payment strategy. With this tool in place, shoppers can make a payment in the aisle, in the checkout line or on the go. What's more, shoppers can opt for a completely scanless experience with GK GO. By simplifying the payment and check out experience, retailers can impress shoppers mid-sale.
Once the sale has been made, the retailer's job has just begun. Fostering a post-purchase relationship is key to improving customer lifetime value. This can begin immediately after a purchase.
In fact, GK partners with TruRating to provide retailer customers the opportunity to ask their shoppers one experience evaluation question at the point of sale. This allows the retailer to earn useful feedback that can strengthen customer experiences moving forward.
Another way to promote ongoing connectivity is through a loyalty program. With GK Engage, retailers can showcase highly contextualized and personalized rewards, encouraging shoppers to make shopping with them a habit. GK Engage empowers retailers to build long-lasting relationships and optimizes key customer KPIs.
Managing each touch point for each shopper can be time-consuming and expensive. But by choosing one technology partner that can optimize across every touch point, retailers can ensure exceptional experiences before, during and after the sale.
GK is the single technology partner with the capabilities and expertise to take every retailer interaction to the next level. Contact us today to learn how we can help you make the most out of every shopper's experience.
GK today announced its latest solution, GK Engage, a modern, comprehensive and AI-powered loyalty program for every omnichannel retail touch point. This solution empowers retailers to create highly contextualized and personalized outreach including messaging, discounts and rewards that improve customer lifetime value and enrich a retailer’s competitive differentiation. GK Engage was announced at GK’s first-ever Retail Innovation Summit for the Americas, which is taking place Sept. 25-26 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Attendees can view GK Engage, alongside other GK solutions, at the newly unveiled GK Customer Experience Center.
GK is a world leader in point-of-sale (POS) technology and, as a result, its product team has talked with retailers who wanted more out of their loyalty systems. To fill this gap, GK developed GK Engage, a modern take on loyalty. The solution draws inspiration from two successful GK solutions, MCA, GK’s mobile loyalty program, and T+ Loyalty. These predecessor technologies have serviced more than one billion transactions per year for over six million registered users. Now, GK Engage customers will reap these benefits at scale using one comprehensive platform that works across a diverse range of online and in-store retail touch points.
GK Engage provides retailers with real-time, AI-driven, personalized loyalty offers that surprise and delight customers. The complete solution creates loyalty tiers that automatically track all customer interactions and generate relevant campaigns to safeguard long-term retailer relationships and customer lifetime value. GK Engage can be integrated with merchandise master data and customer data to ensure all recommendations, promotions, coupons and more are beneficial to the individual customer, as well as the retailer’s current inventory availability and financial goals.
What’s more, GK Engage is already integrated into GK’s OmniPOS solution across all touch points including traditional POS, self-checkout kiosks, mobile, and frictionless store technology like GK GO.
“GK Engage was created for any retailer, regardless of where they are in their loyalty journey,” said Michael Jaszczyk, chief digital transformation officer, GK and CEO, GK Americas. “The solution is extremely flexible. For some retailers, GK Engage will serve as a complete solution, while others may integrate the solution into a CRM or an existing customer offer system. I look forward to presenting GK Engage alongside our other innovative solutions at the now unveiled GK Customer Experience Center.”
Today and tomorrow, GK customers and partners from across the U.S., Latin America and Canada are gathering at GK’s US headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina to take part in the 2023 GK Retail Innovation Summit. In addition to hearing from renowned retail experts like Greg Buzek, founder and president, IHL Group, attendees can visit GK’s new Customer Experience Center.
The center showcases GK technology and allows viewers to envision a modern, efficient, and exceptional shopper experience across various key touch points including the point-of-sale, the fuel pump and the e-commerce site. At the Customer Experience Center, prospective retail customers can hear from solution experts who will help them to design the best solution deployment for their end-customers. The technology featured in the center includes GK Engage, GK OmniPOS, self check-out, GK Drive, GK GO, GK AIR (artificial intelligence for retail) and fraud prevention solutions from Fujitsu, which invested in GK as a strategic investor earlier this year.
GK customers and partners can view GK Engage and other innovative GK solutions at the Customer Experience Center by invitation. Prospective retail customers can request to visit the Center through their designated sales representative. Media can contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to schedule a visit.
To learn more about GK Engage visit https://www.gk-software.com/us/solutions/gk-engage.
Today, shoppers can get any product they want almost as soon as they want it. In fact, Amazon reported that it achieved its fastest Prime speeds in Q2 2023, with over half of Prime members in major U.S. cities receiving orders the same day or next day. According to the report, these delivery times are four times faster than they were in 2019.
As e-commerce delivery times continue to improve, the value of brick-and-mortar retail becomes even more critical., Even with same-day delivery, visiting a local store can still result in quicker fulfillment, but only if the store has exactly what the shopper wants.
Therefore, it's essential that brick-and-mortar retailers have the products their customers need, when and where they need them. This involves an advanced understanding of a store's inventory and the connectivity of nearby warehouses and fulfillment centers, which in many cases are the retailer's stores.
Let's dive into the best practices for meeting local fulfillment demands and how store inventory management technology helps physical retailers keep up with ever-improving online delivery options.
Recently, IHL Group studied out-of-stocks from the customer and retailer perspective. They measured how frequently customers visit local stores in their communities looking for something but were unable to find it, as well as how often retailers were using discounts to reduce excess inventory, avoid spoilage and sell-through off-season products. IHL Group referred to this crossroads of negative customer and retailer inventory experiences as "inventory distortion."
The firm's research report, Retail Inventory Distortion Study, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, stated that, "In 2023, the total cost of inventory distortion is projected at $1.77 trillion, with out-of-stocks accounting for $1.2 trillion and overstocks totaling $562 billion." The report cited vendor issues and theft from employees and consumers, and bad inventory data systems as major drivers of this growing inventory shrink. In fact, poor internal processes and internal data system issues were attributed as the cause of $412 billion in inventory distortion.
One way to combat inventory distortion and improve the availability of stock at local stores is to take a holistic, data-driven approach to inventory management. This involves both advanced data-driven technology and employee training.
Oftentimes, inventory management is conducted in silos with store managers reviewing inventory at their location, and headquarters reviewing ERP systems at a high-level. This leads to inventory management errors and a disjointed view of overall inventory across the organization.
Additionally, many inventory disruptions are caused by human error when an employee is not trained properly on using the right systems to manage and report stock status to corporate. For example, imagine a store in Chicago is running low on a jacket that a Minneapolis store has in excess. Headquarters may not have a comprehensive view of where products need to be and when because an employee in either store might be unsure how to respond to the situation. This could result in shoppers in Chicago leaving empty-handed while the Minneapolis location might have to discount the jackets to move through the extra inventory, decreasing margins.
To avoid this problem, retailers should strive to implement an in-store system with an integrated and easy-to-use inventory management platform that allows for real-time data exchanges at both the corporate and store levels. This technology ensures that the central system effectively represents what employees and shoppers see on the shelf, while eliminating the risk of conflicting data entries.
Achieving a full view of inventory includes a lot of moving parts like stock transfers, returns management and more. With GK's Store Inventory Management solution, retailers can track all movement within their stock with ease.
The solution offers a detailed inventory intake that stores all reference documents for products, receipts and returns. Better yet, since it is integrated to GK OmniPOS, inventory activity can come from any in-store touchpoint including mobile devices, increasing the efficiency in which store employees update inventory information. The solution also manages unexpected inventory issues like recalls, last-minute reallocations, emergency orders and defective product support.
With this enhanced level of accuracy in real-time inventory reporting, retailers can also begin to rely more heavily on AI-based forecasting and replenishment technology. These tools base their decisions off of data, and the more accurate the data is, the more the technology can positively impact the customer experience. Finally, with mobile reporting capabilities, response times improve, leading to fewer last-minute inventory challenges.
In addition, if a disruption in the supply chain or a sudden change in regional demand does occur, GK's platform helps retailers make quick adjustments to the inventory strategy that limit the impacts of the disruption.
By unlocking store-level process support, retailers can rest-assured that each store is appropriately stocked based on the supply and demand needs of the regional customer base. In addition, if a disruption in the supply chain or a sudden change in regional demand does occur, GK's platform helps retailers make quick adjustments to the inventory strategy that limit the impacts of the disruption.
Are you ready to take your store inventory management to the next level and compete with the rapid fulfillment timelines of needed to win over shoppers today?
Reach out to us today to learn more about GK's Store Inventory Management solution.
The Management Board remains the ultimate authority on company operations and will continue to comprise Michael Scheibner as Chief Executive Officer, André Hergert as Chief Financial Officer, and Michael Jaszczyk as Chief Digital Transformation Officer and CEO of GK Americas. Oversight of the Management Board will be conducted by the Supervisory Board, led by Chairman Nicholas Fraser, Deputy Chairman Dr. Anke Nestler, and member John Pink.
Serving in an advisory capacity, the newly formed Executive Board will assist the Management Board in crucial decision-making processes and oversee the implementation of key strategic initiatives.
Key Appointments
A Global Head of People & Culture will be appointed soon to lead the Human Resources department and further cultivate corporate culture; the selection process is ongoing.
This restructuring aims to streamline GK Software’s operations, bolstering efficiency, transparency, and accountability. This shift is designed to propel us toward continued sales success, profitable growth, and sustained leadership in the industry.
It is estimated that there were more than 570 million credit cards in use in the U.S., averaging 1.7 credit cards per citizen. Worldwide, the volume of cashless transactions in 2022 totaled around $1.157 billion USD, and the trend is rising. This means that the number of fraud attempts on cashless payments is also increasing. According to the 2022 Nilson Report, losses due to card fraud amounted to $32.34 billion USD in 2021. This makes it all the more important to develop and constantly monitor the hardware and software used in payment transactions.
There are also impressive facts on cybercrime: in 2022, the damage caused by cybercrime worldwide and in all sectors was estimated at $8 trillion USD. For example, 310 million internet users suffered a breach of their accounts in 2022. Of particular importance to retailers, 24% of cyberattacks targeted retailers, which is more than any other industry. Yet 99% of retail cyberattacks are financially motivated.
As a result of these troubling statistics, commercial businesses are required to regulate the personal data of their shoppers. This requirement can be challenging as retailers often work with many partners that use data to enhance customer service, like solution providers that work to improve fraud protection, personalization and more.
Let’s discuss how data privacy impacts the retail industry and how GK helps protect its retailer partners.
While the above facts demonstrate the urgent need to minimize the risk of attack and potential damage, it is also a legal requirement for commercial enterprises. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union ("EU 2016/679"), regulates the processing of personal data of individuals, companies or organizations in the EU. In addition, the NIS2 - Directive is newly significant, which ensures a high common level of cybersecurity in the European Union (2023). Companies designated by Member States as operators of essential services in the above-mentioned sectors must take appropriate security measures and inform the competent national authorities of serious incidents.
Fines of up to €10 million or 2% of global revenue are possible for data protection violations. Between 2018 and 2022, GDPR fines in Europe cumulatively amounted to over €2.381 billion. Additionally, retailers and retail technology vendors must maintain compliance with ever-changing privacy laws across the U.S. states in which they conduct business. In fact, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported that, “at least 25 states and Puerto Rico introduced or considered almost 140 consumer privacy bills in 2023.” These laws are in reaction to the landmark California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA), which regulates how businesses collect, maintain and sell personal information of consumers within the state.
In the future, in addition to the high penalties due to data breaches (GDPR), there will also be high penalties for non-compliance with security measures (NIS2). Merchants and service providers must therefore prove that they apply the highest possible security standards; in the case of GK OmniPOS, this is done via the PCI Software Lifecycle Standard.
Every day, around four million transactions take place with GK OmniPOS at more than 120,000 systems worldwide, and a large number are paid for with cards. This is reason enough to rely on the highest security standards in our software. These range from a standardized security training system for our employees to detailed software security documentation.
The Payment Card Industry (PCI)Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard is a set of rules in payment transactions that relates to the processing of credit card transactions and is supported by all major credit card organizations. The protection of payment data is a top priority for payment software providers; with certifications according to the Software Security Framework (SSF), they prove that both the payment software and its development processes meet the highest, comprehensive security requirements.
The overall PCI Security Framework comprises two standards: The Secure Software Standard (SSS), which includes core requirements related to payment applications, and the Secure Software Life Cycle Standard (PCI SLC). Both programs focus on different aspects of software security validation. Payment software validation under SSS ensures secure application development in accordance with industry best standards and practices. Accordingly, SSS validates the overall effectiveness of the software to protect the integrity of the software and the confidentiality of the sensitive data it stores, processes and transmits. PCI Secure Software Life Cycle starts elsewhere, as this validation ensures that the software development process, methodology and practices of the software provider are secure and integrated into the complete software life cycle.
GK OmniPOS has carried the PCI SLC since April 2023 after an extensive testing process; GK OmniPOS had already passed the PCI SSS the previous year. The PCI Secure Software Life Cycle Version 1.1. security certificate confirms that the GK OmniPOS standard product is secure for payment transactions, while reducing risk or vulnerabilities by building strong defenses against attacks. The technology and the design and maintenance of the software solution is secure throughout the software lifecycle.
In addition, GK’s TransAction+ (T+) payment solution, sold in both the United States and Canada, has also previously received the PCI SSF certification. This recognition demonstrates that TransAction+ is a safe payment solution that prevents data vulnerabilities and protects all sensitive information related to a transaction. The presence of this certification and the PCI SSS framework certified to OmniPOS highlight GK’s ongoing commitment to offering secure, best-in-class solutions for its customers.
The validation process was supported by the accredited auditor usd AG, which accompanied the audit over the last two and a half years and went through the development work with adjustments to the source code, the documentation and revisions as well as the final audit by the PCI Council with GK. With the PCI Secure Software Life Cycle certification, GK ensures the continuous maintenance of the validation of its software, and it is proven that GK can offer "SSF-compliant" new software versions.
Benefits of PCI compliance with GK OmniPOS:
Would you like to learn more? Please feel free to contact us.
The one word to best describe retail is, change. The transformation of retail industry is constantly taking place with the rise of department stores to the birth of Retail 4.0: Omnichannel, ubiquitous retailing, and the players in this industry continuously face new challenges to keep abreast of competitors. The pandemic, global events and other unforeseen events have even accelerated these obstacles at a great speed. New opportunities have been created for retailers and consumers due to the dramatic shift in consumer behavior, however, not all retailers experience the same adversity. The strive to adapt to ever-changing needs and macroeconomic uncertainties add to the complexity of the challenge.
Many studies have notably mentioned that understanding consumer buying behavior remains the toughest retail obstacle. According to a survey by ShopperTrak of nearly 200 retailers, executives, financial analysts, industry analysts and university academics, 44% of attendees reported that understanding consumer behavior in-store is currently their biggest challenge faced by retailers, followed by using big data to make business decisions, omnichannel pressure, keeping up with technology and so on.
What makes consumer buying behavior such a difficult yet an important hurdle to tackle? The reason being, understanding customer behavior is a complex process as it is not simply a study on how people make decisions when buying a product or service as there is so much more to it. Other related factors such as customers’ decisions to select, purchase, consume and dispose of goods or services over time shall also be taken into consideration in a comprehensive approach. Everyone has a buying persona. We go through our own unique ways to arrive at final buying decisions which are influenced by countless small and large consumer behaviors, and this consumer insight is what makes it valuable and crucial to be understood, defined and leveraged upon. Of course, it is not something that is impossible to achieve.
In coping with the swift changing consumer behavior and demands, another new normal in retail industry is the urge for retailers to keep up with advancing technology. Conversely, innovation is also the drive to evolving consumer behavior and expectation. A study conducted by RSR mentioned that 63% of retailers with sales outperforming the average have major redesigns on the way, while 52% of retailers are planning to replace existing stores with new formats. Well, that’s quite a “bit” of innovation that is taking over. Truly, there is no one-size-fits-all solution at present. Not every innovation suits the retailer’s needs and taking the wrong turn could cost a heap amount of business loss, energy, and time.
It is essential that retailers leverage the challenges of unpredictability, digitalization and volatility and turn them into business advantages to successfully operate in a highly competitive and dynamic customer-driven market with the right technology, or risk failing behind the competition. As quoted by Michael Jaszczyk, Chief Digital Transformation Officer of GK Software SE, CEO of GK Software USA, Inc. in RetailToday, “In 2023, retailers need to take a leap of faith and turn their customer data into action with new technology. The retailers that prioritize strategic pricing, organizational efficiency and great customer experiences will reach new heights in 2023 and position themselves well for the future”.
Here’s how, there is no crystal ball to predict the future, but GK is here to provide the most comprehensive retail software to address your business needs.
In a nutshell, GK offers GK CLOUD4RETAIL, a unified cloud platform that is customer-centric and powered by AI for omnichannel retailing. It offers maximum flexibility for optimized and seamless omnichannel processes to engage with customers at every touchpoint and in every sales channel. GK CLOUD4RETAIL as an open platform enabling it to be integrated cost-efficiently into any IT landscape. The benefit of scalability makes it easy for deployment by retailers of all size and is also a completely internationalized solution.
Interested? Talk to us today and learn more about GK CLOUD4RETAIL platform.
Loyalty programs have been a long-standing part of the shopping experience. From physical tokens and coupons to keychain loyalty tags and emails – everyone has taken part in a loyalty program of some kind. As the industry advanced, these programs shifted to reflect the latest customer trends and preferences.
Today, retail loyalty programs are more sophisticated than ever. With personalized promotions that come directly to a consumer's chosen digital touchpoints, we're rounding the corner into a new era of loyalty.
Let's dive into how far loyalty programs have come and where they're headed next.
According to a New York Times article, the first reported loyalty program came about in New Hampshire in 1793, when a merchant gave out "copper tokens" that could be collected and used in future visits. This bare bones approach is similar to modern loyalty programs in that its sole purpose was to encourage repeat visits from shoppers.
Fast forward to 1921. Betty Crocker implemented a rewards program in which consumers could find coupons for silverware in the bottom of their cereal boxes. The program incentivized consumers to buy enough cereal to collect the coupons for an entire matching set of silverware.
And finally, in 1981, American Airlines launched the first ever frequent flyer program, which provided loyal customers with free or discounted flights in exchange for accrued miles flown. Other hospitality brands followed suit. Hyatt, Marriott, Southwest Airlines and more developed their own loyalty programs soon after.
While we've come a long way from copper tokens, these loyalty program examples set the foundation for the experiences we know and love today.
Loyalty programs are even more important than ever. In fact, Mintel found that 90% of U.S. adults belong to at least one loyalty program. Meanwhile, Bond reported that the average consumer has 14.8 loyalty cards.
Loyalty programs create a lot of value for shoppers – especially during difficult economic periods. These programs are designed to help strengthen the customer's relationship with their favorite brands and retailers, but they also increase a shopper's number of visits and basket sizes.
In recent years, personalization has begun to play a role in loyalty programs. This helps ensure relevancy on promotions and discounts that improve redemption rates. But this "introduction" to personalization in loyalty is just the beginning.
The loyalty programs of the future will focus more on true loyalty, as opposed to financial loyalty. The key difference here is that true loyalty is derived by a real connection to the brand or retailer whereas financial loyalty is driven by the extrinsic rewards.
AI-driven personalization, available in GK's latest solution, GK Engage, is the key to taking loyalty programs to the next level. This technology can automatically analyze customer behavior and determine the right coupons, recommendations and outreach to connect with each shopper.
For example, one shopper might respond well to a buy-one-get-one deal. Another might be more pleased by a reminder notification that they forgot to buy jelly to go with the peanut butter in their cart. In the first example, the shopper's loyalty cost the retailer a portion of their margins. In the second, the value was purely relationship-building. Both types of outreach were delivered instantly by AI, meaning that marketers can spend time strategically improving their shopper relationships instead of managing individual transactions.
By incorporating personalization, retailers and brands can develop true loyalty. And, as retailers and brands explore the vast amounts customer and transaction data and robust analytics they now have, loyalty programs can grow to become more relevant for shoppers and more profitable for the business.
With GK, retailers and brands can use their data to create relevant loyalty programs based on highly contextualized and personalized connections, which enable the business to increase customer lifetime value.
Click here to learn more about GK Engage and contact us if you're ready to personalize your loyalty program with GK.
By staying on top of the current and future market trends only can retailers address them to thrive successfully in the retail business and to strategically differentiate themselves from competitors. One of the 10 important retail trends not to be missed out in 2023 is self-service checkout or cashierless checkout, as some call it.
Self-checkout systems work in basically two alternatives, via stationary self-checkout terminal or mobile self-checkout.
There is no doubt self-checkout is gaining popularity and on a rise from the global perspective as indicated by Gitnux in the blog: “The global market for self-checkout terminals is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.6% between 2021 and 2026”. This suggested that many shoppers are opting for self-checkout as their preferred method of checkout over traditional cashier-assisted checkout when the option is available. Some of the contributing factors to this are customer satisfaction, autonomy, privacy, convenience and speed. Self-checkout system is common in various industrial domains especially supermarkets and hypermarkets as reported by KBV research.
Nevertheless, every coin has two sides. Self-checkout can be an easy target to fraud and theft, in fact quite easily. In our previous blog, we mentioned that 58% of consumers said theft was easy or very easy in self-checkout lines. Another statistic reported in Gitnux blog has mentioned “self-checkout theft is 5 times more likely to happen than theft via traditional cashier checkout”. Why is it so? This crime of opportunity, can happen due to missed scans or deliberate theft which varies depending on the motivation or simply by luck. However, no solution is perfect, and the advantages of self-checkout far outweigh the risk. Importantly, retailers need to heighten their awareness of the potential risk of fraud when using this system and be prepared for possible scenarios.
With advanced technology driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI), fraud detection processes can be improved and here comes GK into the picture. AI allows retailers to collect data to predict patterns, identify frictions in checkout, and better understand how theft occurs. A probability of fraud can be determined and lead to issuance of recommendation for a rescan or a staff assistance when necessary. In fact, there are many possible ways that advanced fraud detection in self-checkout system can identify potential fraud, fundamentally is to reduce unnecessary rescans for shoppers at the same time.
Interested? Visit our website and contact us to learn more about GK AIR Fraud Detection solution.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is all the rage today, but many businesses are missing the mark when it comes to integrating the right technologies to maximize their unique KPIs.
The key to integrating any type of AI into a business is an in-depth understanding of the problems the technology is being asked to solve. This understanding will greatly help business leaders sift through the "noise" of the latest and greatest technologies and determine which solutions will improve key performance indicators (KPIs). In retail, two of the AI use cases that have proven to be impactful are personalized recommendations and price optimization.
GK understands the needs of businesses in the retail, grocery, hospitality and convenience store markets. After years of collaboration with these businesses, GK has developed a set of AI-driven solutions, called AIR (Artificial Intelligence for Retail), and personalization and dynamic pricing are seen as two of the key steps to driving enhanced business metrics.
Let's discuss how GK's AI-driven price optimization (also known as dynamic pricing) and personalization tools improve common retail KPIs.
A major factor in the long-term success of a retail business is customer loyalty. In fact, retention efforts can cost anywhere from five to 25 times less than acquisition strategies.
A popular way to bolster retention and foster loyalty is to integrate personalization tactics that ensure the shopper's needs are always met. And the more intelligent, or AI-driven and data-backed, the personalized recommendation engine is, the more effective these tactics can be.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence can bring retailers closer to their customers. GK AIR Personalization reviews all customer data including clicks, basket sizes, purchases, searches, in-store transactions and more, to learn about the customer's typical shopping journey. From there, the solution will recommend products, promotions and experiences that will enhance their experience.
What's more, these recommendations automatically adjust as a customer's behavior and preferences change. If a personalized recommendation for the shopper's frequently purchased shampoo is ignored, the engine will learn from this and suggest alternative engagement strategies for that shopper throughout the online or in-store journey.
By increasing the value your brand can provide to loyal shoppers, personalization can greatly improve top KPIs. In fact, GK AIR Personalization has improved retail KPIs such as revenue, click and purchase rates, conversions, customer turnover, customer lifetime value and more.
Another way to retain loyal customers is by offering the best prices. Fortunately, the "best" price doesn't always mean the lowest. With GK AIR Dynamic Pricing, retailers can determine the elasticity of prices for every SKU across their assortment.
The prices at which consumers will purchase vary greatly depending on supply and demand, prices of complementary and substitute products, competitors' prices, channel and more. AI replaces the manual trial and error of price setting by automatically considering all relevant factors and determining the best price for every item in the retailer's assortment. What's more, when used in-store and paired with electronic shelf labels, prices can be optimized across the entire retail store in seconds based on live, real-time pricing parameters.
GK AIR Dynamic Pricing enables retailers to protect their margins while still selling their products at prices the shoppers are comfortable with. In a grocery environment, dynamic pricing can even improve sell-through rates for products with upcoming expiration dates by lowering the price point of specific items. In fashion, this same concept is applied to optimizing the markdown process. Overall, GK AIR Dynamic Pricing improves sales, gross margin and shopping frequency.
There may be many places to start when it comes to adding AI into a retail strategy, but dynamic pricing and personalization are two effective use cases that any retail business can incorporate to see real results today.
GK makes the whole AI process quick and easy while maximizing the benefits these solutions can bring. If you're interested in GK AIR Personalization or GK AIR Dynamic Pricing, reach out to us for a demo today.
If there is one thing retailers can do to improve the customer experience, it's remove friction. This mission is especially important at the brick-and-mortar point-of-sale (POS) where a sale can be easily won or lost. A shopping journey can be disrupted by a kiosk that doesn't work or a checkout touchpoint that doesn't accept the shopper's current ideal form of payment.
Fortunately, technology has accelerated to remove friction and improve flexibility for shoppers. Retailers have several opportunities, including shortening lines with checkout options, accepting more payment alternatives and connecting omnichannel checkout experiences. Let's dive in.
It's no surprise that one of the biggest pet peeves for shoppers is a lengthy checkout line. In a 2022 survey, 74% of shoppers reported leaving a physical checkout line before it was their turn due to the unpleasant experience and long wait.
To avoid losing sales to drawn-out in-store visits, retailers can implement diverse checkout options. For some stores, advanced self-checkout kiosks or mobile POS touchpoints might be the best choice, while others may extend the innovation into fully scanless options like GK GO. Whichever method the retailer chooses, customers will benefit from shorter wait times and a more flexible checkout experience that complements GK's standard OmniPOS and is intuitive for shoppers.
Shoppers are becoming increasingly interested in alternative payment methods like mobile wallets, cryptocurrencies and buy now, pay later services. In fact, 38 million Americans now regularly use Apple Pay for in-store and online purchases and 45 million Americans have invested in cryptocurrency. In addition, 50% of U.S. consumers have used buy now, pay later options like Klarna. This percentage is likely to increase as recessionary concerns, decrease buying, confidence, and discretionary funds.
Retailers that accept alternative payment methods and help customers check out without ever needing to pull a card from their wallets will see a decrease in point-of-sale friction. Yet, despite the long list of benefits associated with accepting alternative payments, it can be challenging for retailers to integrate these up-and-coming forms of payment. Luckily, GK retail customers can easily integrate today's, and tomorrow's, alternative payments into their point-of-sale solutions with the tools and support needed to simplify the process. In fact, GK recently partnered with Flexa to seamlessly enable digital payments for its customers.
When a shopper visits a brick-and-mortar store, they expect a similar experience as the one they have on the retailer's ecommerce site. This expectation extends to item availability, branding and of course, the checkout. The POS touchpoint in-store should offer e-receipts, payment and loyalty information, just like an ecommerce purchase would, based on a customer's preferences.
GK empowers retailers to streamline online, in-store and mobile payments with TransAction+. This solution is trusted by leading retailers and restaurants for its ability to integrate traditional and new payment types into one easy, secure and highly flexible system with enhanced payment optimization capabilities.
Customers always appreciate the freedom and flexibility to control their own shopping experience. When retailers invest in checkout options that allow for alternative payment methods while staying true to their brand, they will form valuable bonds with customers. These initiatives are not always easy to deploy, but with GK, retailers can rest-assured that they have an expert partner on their side every step of the way... now and into the future.
To learn more about how GK can enable frictionless checkout options for retailers of all sizes and digital maturities, contact us today.
The Retail Innovators