Consumers will use AI to do their shopping by 2020

CAPE TOWN – Research firm Gartner in its latest report focused on how the latest technologies such 5G, machine learning, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality will change the retail experience over the next two years.

According to the firm, augmented reality will play a large role in the retail sector to a point where 100 million consumers will use augmented reality in some capacity for their shopping experience either online or in-store.

Hanna Karki, principal research analyst at Gartner said in a statement: “Retailers are under increasing pressure to explain the purpose of physical stores, and take control of the fulfilment and return process for cross-channel execution.” 

“At the same time, consumers are progressively defining the value provided by the experiences they receive from retailers. As a result of these pressures, retailers are turning to AR and VR to offer customers a unified retail experience inside and outside retail stores.”

In 2018, Gartner conducted a survey which stated that 46 percent of retailers planned to deploy AR and VR solutions in order to meet new customer expectations around experience.

Sylvain Fabre, senior research director at Gartner said: “Gartner expects that the implementation of 5G and AR or VR in stores will transform not only customer engagement but also the entire product management cycle of brands."

“5G can optimise warehouse resources, enhance store traffic analytics and enable beacons that communicate with shoppers’ smartphones,” he said.

Written by: Gabriella Steyn.

Guzzle Media