The digitalization that occurred in the last few decades has disrupted every phase of our lives.
You cannot deny the fact that, along with our lives, digitalization has rapidly transformed the way business does.
I think everyone has gone to traditional brick & mortar shops and experienced real-world shopping experience.
But, the digital revolution has altered how we buy and sell goods/products, even though the internet revolution has not much damaged the traditional store-in experience.
According to the punchbowl, only 31% of customers are showing interest in online shopping, and 61% are opting for brick and mortar stores.
Along with it, customer expectations & preferences have changed the ways brands reach their addresses, and the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods industry is no exemption.
The boom of e-commerce bought FMCG industries into the online marketplace.
And the rise of emerging technologies like Conversational AI and artificial intelligence has further boosted this transformation.
“According to the Accenture report, Artificial intelligence in FMCG will increase productivity by 40% and profitability by 38% by 2035.”
With the use of Conversational AI, retailers & FMCG industries can fetch more in-depth insights by which they can make precise predictions; that help in target millions of consumers at a single instant.
It radically reinforces capabilities beyond that of traditional brick and mortar methods.
More ever, it is not enough!
We are very much sentient of the contest in the FMCG industry. To stand out in this competition, the companies need to have advanced bandwidth and need to offer only one of its kind consumer experience.
It is where Conversational AI will play a vital role by acting as virtual brand personalities.
In this fastidious article, we are going to depict you about how Conversational AI is going to impact the FMCG industry.
Before we shift our focus to the core point, let’s see what FMCG is?
What is FMCG?
Fast-Moving Consumer Goods also called consumer packaged goods (CPG).
The Fast-Moving Consumer Goods refer to the products which sold very quickly at affordable prices (low-cost), and they are highly in-demand too.
Examples: Non-durable household goods and other consumables
They called them fast-moving because they exist from stores very quickly. After all, the customer requires them regularly.
Sales of FMCG firms are affected by discounts offered by the stores based on holidays & seasonal periods.
“In India, 60% of FMCG sales can be influenced at the store level” [Source: Nielsen.com]
How is Conversational AI impacting the FMCG industry?
The FMCG sector has regularly been challenged with one of the below two things:
- Coming up with new products.
- Coming up with new-fangled customs to sell and market its products.
The main motive behind the above both cases is to enhance market share & revenue.
We need to involve the invariable customer and his opinion. However, comprehensive sampling is handled via supporters, which requires a massive amount of labor.
After that, there will be feedback and dealer management activities that will lead to shifting focus from the primary task.
The Conversational AI can bring all these activities on a single platform that is called Chatbot, which reduces human power and increases sales.
Now, let us view in detail how Conversational AI is going to impact the FMCG industry.
Product placement
Product placement is very crucial in the FMCG and retail industry, and finding the right location for a product is one of the toughest challenges.
The factors such as what the target demographics are purchasing, what products are going well together, and what they are buying; All need to be taken into deliberation to make the right product successful in a store.
The conversational AI is going to help the FMCG firms to come out of this problem.
The Conversational AI can do complete data analysis based on that they recommend the FMCG firms as to where each product should be placed, how much stock is left on a particular product, and what ideally the price should be.
It helps the companies to save time, human resources, and it maximizes the profit.
Improving efficiency
Day to day, consumers are empowered with the power of advanced technologies. Among all, FMCG markets are witnessing a persistent change in consumer preferences and behavior.
With that, FMCG companies are unable to find areas where operational efficiency is requisite in the supply chain.
With Conversational AI, all these gaps can be filled up. The most advanced algorithms can now analyze every production line, and they can provide where the inefficiencies are taking place.
This technology also performs various actions such as identify new avenues to target, enhance sales forecasting, and provides real-time visibility into the workflow system.
Data-analysis for actionable insights
The FMCG industry has the ability to produce an enormous chunk of data every second from every inquiry, service request, purchase, and many more.
The information gathered will provide valuable information to the FMCG enterprises about how the consumer is behaving.
Doing the above work with human resources is time taking and costly.
Conversational AI acts as a highly influential and effective data detective for FMCG companies and analyzes all the customer information to get actionable insights.
Due to the competition, niche consumer building and micro-targeting going to priorities for the FMCG & retail sector and Conversational AI will play a vital role in developing strategies for the FMCG enterprises.
The Consumer journey
The consumer journey also highly benefits with AI and robotics.
Currently, customer relationships & journeys have completely shifted to the web. So, FMCG enterprises must consider how they can provide service to every individual customer and can create a truly engaging customer journey.
By using Conversational AI in retail & FMCG, companies are encouraging the discovery of new products and delivering the product, which can understand their customer needs.
Final words
The future of the FMCG industry is immeasurably exhilarating with Conversational AI and robotics.
As time is progressing, Conversational AI is genuinely becoming a must-have technology for FMCG enterprises because of the benefits such as 24/7 support, personalized content for customers, and data-analysis for actionable insights.
Are you a retail or FMCG enterprise and looking out to grasp the opportunities of the Conversational AI by integrating it?
If so, contact us.
We help you in integrating Conversational artificial intelligence solutions to your platform.
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