DIY & manufacturing

To make the customer experience central to their marketing strategy, retailers must thrive in offline (print) and online digital channels. The retail customer experience is not an easily definable event – or even a series of events. It’s a complex relationship, not a checklist of dos and don’ts.

E-commerce brands need a way to manage consistent, high-quality product information across print and digital channels. PIM systems can provide that single source of truth. Digital e-commerce (conducting business via the Internet) is nothing new. The first such transaction involved the sale of cannabis via ARPANET in the early 1970s. But ever since the recovery from the dot-com bust of the early 2000s, and especially since the emergence of smartphones, buying online is the new normal.

Last month, we discovered that artificial intelligence, far from being a threat to retail marketing teams, is, in fact, an essential team player. The early results of using DecaSIM’s AI tools in conjunction with Comosoft LAGO showed that the two systems complement one another, each providing unique benefits for retail advertising and marketing directors.

A mere eleven months ago, OpenAI launched the public version of its AI-based, large language model, ChatGPT. In that short time, the noise surrounding AI has dominated the media, boardroom conversations, and almost every social gathering on the planet. Retail advertising and marketing directors everywhere are inundated with questions. “What are we doing about artificial intelligence – and how will we survive without it?”

Without a doubt, Artificial Intelligence is the number one story of 2023, with breaking news and hyperbolic predictions popping up daily. Retailers and their partners are justifiably concerned. Retail marketing and advertising directors are asking what AI will mean for their current operations and the future of retail marketing in general.

Retail marketing has never been as complex to manage as it is now. Creative services and production managers must cope with the daily demands of promotional campaigns covering multiple locations on various print and digital channels. All this leaves little time to innovate and swiftly respond to emergencies and ad hoc requests.

These days, you cannot turn on the news or read a publication without seeing something scary and fascinating about Artificial Intelligence or AI. Nearly as often, you see ads by Amazon or IBM promoting cloud computing and “big data.” What you see or read far less often is a down-to-earth explanation of ordinary business data and how that data can make marketing a truly efficient process.

Life without e-commerce is inconceivable today. Even in a retail store or shopping mall, it’s common to reach for our phones to compare prices or check on the availability of something in a different color or size. Brick-and-mortar store managers may resent it, but mobile e-commerce is here to stay.