The Inevitability of Proper Balance between Technology and Personalization

By: Retail CIO Outlook | Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Technology has completely transformed the face of the retail industry. The likes of artificial intelligence, automation, and robots are transforming the retail industry and the best example of it is the cashier-less stores

FREMONT, CA: Technology has completely transformed the face of the retail industry. Be it be the in-store experience, payment process, advent of e-commerce, and omnichannel retailers, everything has undergone a sea change under the technological influence. With this, technology has also affected jobs in the retail sector.

In the year 2016, Deloitte predicted that in the next 20 years, 60 percent of the retail jobs would be automated. Some experts agreed with the reports and believed that these jobs would not necessarily be lost but evolve with time. The likes of artificial intelligence, automation, and robots are transforming the retail industry, and the best example of it is the cashier-less stores.

Less Human Interaction, More Convenience

The first cashier-less store was launched by Amazon back in 2018, where customers can walk in, shop, and pay via app and check out of the store without even having any interaction with store members. The human instinct has completely been removed from the Amazon Go stores. No one wants to stand in a long queue, wasting their time to pay the bills. It has made the customer experience more convenient and fast. This could be the next obsolete in the list according to a report, which says that, Tesco has partnered with a startup that uses artificial intelligence to deliver checkout-free stores. Yes, you heard that right!

Technology or Personalization

Though these cashier-less stores have eased the customer's shopping experience, customers still find missing the human touch in the stores. While retailers are removing human interaction, marketers feel that personalization marketing makes it easier to know customer's preferences, needs, and behavior. So, marketers are finding ways to overcome this issue.

Inevitability of Balance

Technology never fails to resolve any issue born out of it. The solution to the above-mentioned issue is 'data.' To pay via app, customers have to download an app where they have to register with a username and the store preference. While checking out, it gets updated as what all things have the customer purchased and how often the customer visits the store. This gives all the answers to the marketer's queries.

Future of Retail

There is hardly any doubt that technology will continue to change the retail space. While the customer will always demand both speed and convenience for a better experience, the need for human interaction will also remain the same. Hence maintaining the balance between technology and personalization is the key to success for both retailers and marketers.