The amount of devices that people use for interacting with retailers and service providers is estimated to grow to five or six devices per person on average. While the amount of devices and channels increases, the hours of the day are, however, staying the same. Consumers are time poor, and they want to use every minute of their limited hours as efficiently as possible. As every second counts, it becomes more important than ever to find out what is your customer’s intent, and be prepared to respond to it.
When someone tells Alexa they would like to buy a carton of milk, or washing powder, both of those products will mean different things to different people. With the help of AI, every item can be personalized to match the user preferences, and the customer’s previous choices. Knowing what brand and what kind of milk and washing powder your customer prefers, needs to be a top priority, because every second saved in the checkout process is important for the convenience of the customer.
Equally important is to make sure that your different channels interplay with each other, and learn how the different channels are used by the customers. Instagram, with its 300+ million active users, is quickly becoming an important shopping channel especially among the generation Z. Last year, the platform added Instagram Shopping that allows brands to add links within photos to send customers to specific landing pages. The average customer time span for an Instagram user is merely seconds. When they see something they like, the probability of that intent turning into a purchase depends on how easily the product makes its way through the check-out. The customer has already done their browsing and made a purchase decision, so they will not want to wonder around your webstore: the landing page needs to guide them to the product details – possibly with some carefully thought product recommendations, followed by a smooth check-out.