What does Agentforce mean for the retail industry?
Retail is one of the largest and most energetic industries in the world. Creating that seamless customer journey is essential to keep a retail business thriving. Today's consumer expects a personalised experience that can meet their expectations. However, keeping the ‘expectations met’ means evolving in new trends and technology. Agentforce has been integrated and tailored to help the retail industry thrive. Companies can gain a full understanding of their customer base, which allows for a more personalised, efficient, and future-ready user journey.
How can integrating data help a retailer?
To fully understand your targets and approaching trends, Salesforce has become an essential integration for many leading retail businesses. Its key functions are to manage interactions, improve relationships, and drive business growth. This allows brands to align with customer data, which is a vital component for driving sales and delivering that exceptional service in the retail space.
Implementing this system not only enhances the customer experience but also empowers brands to deliver more personalised interactions. With access to customer data, businesses can tailor experiences to individual need, from styling advice to cross-selling opportunities and personalised product suggestions. This drives measurable ROI by increasing productivity, unlocking more sales opportunities, and enabling a streamlined process.
What are AI agents doing for retail?
It is a priority to keep the customer coming back, hence the famous loyalty scheme. Integrating the engagement of Agentforce within your loyalty scheme, again, pushes that personalised experience for every customer. This could involve providing discounts or reminders that suit customer needs, understanding specific behaviours, or offering different responses that comply with their mood, which overall increases consumer satisfaction.
Not only does Agentforce understand your customer, but it also help your business. A system that can generate content, target consumer groups, and create campaign briefs will significantly speed up progress for your company and its teams. Its continuous operations allow for strategic timings for promotions, allowing company teams to gain a further understanding of which deals and offers are most effective. This means they can invest in the correct marketing strategies that have the most engagement, and always focus on the right things.
The AI-enhanced POS
A new program called the AI-enhanced POS (point of sale) system has now been launched. The program merges your online and in-store history together. With today’s consumers wanting more out of their path to purchase, the AI POS system can help analyse history and browser patterns. This is an extremely useful system, as it gives retailers a deeper understanding of their consumer behaviour, creating a unique shopping experience, that 80% of consumers say they are more likely to purchase from.
A huge step in a successful business is being able to understand your consumer trends. Well-known retailers like Gymshark and SKIMS are already using the POS system to help track their stock levels, predict demand for garments and maximise shelf efficiency. This type of data also allows the system to predict customer trends, you are always one step ahead and constantly at a faster reach of revenue.
How can this help a business?
Not only does Agentforce benefit the customer, but it also benefits the company.
By using Salesforce and its ever-evolving AI functions, it allows businesses to focus on their most important jobs. Programs that collect, analyse, and use customer data mean you're able to get a faster response whilst gaining a deeper understanding of your customers' behaviours and preferences.
Limitations?
Like any new technology and software, it also has its negatives. It's commonly known that a lot of society enjoys the real-life personal touch when it comes to shopping or making a large investment. It can seem more of a luxury to the consumer to have that “personal shopper” or assistant, in person, to help with their experience. Taking away that unique journey and replacing it with an AI bot could seem like a budget-conscious option which then removes the premium feeling that a high-paying customer expects.
Also, some customers may not want to be understood by a “robot”, or may not even have the technology to even facilitate it. This could lead to a huge loss for companies that take part in this new era of software and don't think about who they're trying to reach. Businesses must be careful that AI doesn't isolate certain audiences, and instead is used as an inclusive tool.
For a business, they must be aware of what they are selling and who they are selling to in general, but also what this means when tools like Agentforce are bought in. For a company like Gymshark it works perfectly, as they mainly reach a younger audience and are predominantly an online store with limited in-store shops. This means Agentforce fits into the model they already had, and can only enhance the customer experience. However, companies with a more senior market, which are associated with the 'in-person' experience, may not find Agentforce as useful, as it's preferred to go into stores and speak with a sales associate.
Conclusion
The integration of Salesforce and AI is significantly accelerating the growth of the retail industry.
To continue advancing as a company, prioritising the customer journey and embracing new tech to better ‘the experience’ is essential. A deep understanding of your market is the base layer for effective selling, and with the support of emerging technologies, gaining these insights has never been more valuable. Whilst for some businesses, AI may not always be the answer, it is clear that if used correctly and in alignment with your target audience, it is a very powerful tool for a lot of retail companies.
Steadman Brown are the UK's leading Salesforce recruitment company. We help many retail businesses hire in-house, Salesforce talent to drive the use of their platform. Thinking about making a Salesforce hire, or expanding your team? Speak to one of us today!
