By the year 2025, 90% of enterprise applications will use artificial intelligence to become more progressive and dynamic.
FMCG, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, is key to the world’s economic growth. It is known to generate revenue and employment opportunities. To stay relevant and keep feeding the economy, it is extremely crucial for FMCG to stay up-to-date and play by the ever-changing consumer needs. To achieve a competitive edge, businesses need to understand the key aspects in the FMCG industry, which can easily be retrieved with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives.
Benefits of AI for FMCG Sector
NLP and AI Revolutionizing the FMCG Industry
Natural Learning Process (NLP) in the retail industry can identify and analyze customer behavior. By understanding consumer psychology, valuable insights into products and services can be gathered. This helps in making better decisions and enhancing experience.
The use of AI can help bridge the gap between the business and the customer. Through the use of advanced technologies like virtual assistants, the FMCG industry can provide an unparalleled customer experience. Some of the companies that have been a part of the AI bandwagon are Dabur, Reliance, and Hindustan Unilever. Using such AI efforts not only helps boost efficiency but also allures potential customers with innovative solutions and products. AI can enhance data-driven prioritization, better decisions, and allocate resources smartly. These efforts boost new sales frameworks that result in on-ground agility. Other FMCG companies are also leveraging AI and proffering virtual try-ons, like an AI skin analyzer that analyzes the quality of your skin and tailors the perfect skincare solution.
AI has revolutionized the FMCG industry in a variety of ways. Creating databases for the FMCG market, it can provide insight into consumer behavior. AI has the ability to enhance customer experience. Based on what’s on trend and attracts customers the most, companies can now fashion services that offer a customized experience and satisfy all. This helps in retention as well as building a new customer base.
Why Businesses are Leaning Toward AI
Digital transformation technologies like machine learning (ML), AI, and deep learning have bestowed the FMCG industry with a bunch of perks, which help in the enhancement of the supply chain, produce accurate demand forecasting, and improve inventory management.
Supply Chain Management
A thriving supply chain is the beating heart of the FMCG sector that ensures profits, proper fulfillment of demand, and overall business growth. This makes it easier to monitor efficiency, productivity, costs, and service levels. Through AI-driven automation services, companies can get a better glimpse at operational inefficiencies and take adequate measures to curb them. This further helps in optimizing operations as well as detecting fraudulent activities, leading to better results.
Inventory Management
Deep learning algorithms are the main ingredient that helps companies with demand forecasting strategies. With the help of AI-driven initiatives, companies can manage their inventories better and build a map to meet the demands from every nook and corner. Managing an inventory begins with studying key data points of customers. By learning about the customer demographics, these points can then be analyzed through ML, which can open new doors of opportunities for companies, thereby yielding better results and simplifying workflow. It reduces instances of human error, enhances accuracy, increases speed, reduces cost, and increases punctual deliveries without compromising on quality.
Customer Experience Enhancement
AI has a strong impact on marketing analytics. To offer the most memorable and proactive customer experience, FMCG can take advantage of ML and predictive analysis to gain insights into customer data. This helps in providing assistance to customers in making purchasing decisions as well as improving product design. Marketing analytics can lead to the creation of advertisements that cater to customer needs, behavior-based customer segmentation, and tracking of evolving marketing trends. Through the use of AI tools, companies can analyze vast pools of customer data, and personalize recommendations, further influencing up-selling or cross-selling. This initiative also promotes brand appeal. By learning about the products in the market, the FMCG sector can discover unique designs and appeal to the masses. It can also deep dive into past design failures and avoid such malfunctions while creating new ones.
Sentiment Analysis
As the name suggests, sentiment analysis analyzes the sentiment behind a body of text. It is a window to the customer mindset. The implementation of NLP-based software can help in product evaluation, social media information, and customer content. The software can recognize positive and negative tone words, and take measures to curb the latter. These measures can include effective campaigns. The FMCG companies can also forecast consumer demands for specific products.
Chatbots
Chatbots have definitely stolen the spotlight for boosting engagement between businesses and consumers. Its conversational approach makes chatbots useful for solving straightforward problems as well as enhancing conversions. Advancements in chatbots saw better versions of chatbots, making the tool 24*7 available and replacing voice instructions.
Use of Computer Vision in FMCG
In the field of AI, Computer Vision has played a huge role in FMCG. It has helped in elevating FMCG sales, creating heightened productivity. By integrating it into the video surveillance system, computer vision can track customer’s buying choices and segregate it with respect to age, gender and other factors. Computer Vision can also track employee performance, like how well they were able to resolve a customer’s plea and lead to a purchase.
A blend of computer vision with AI algorithms can streamline many processes. For instance, it can notify manufacturers to stock up a particular shelf when it requires replenishment. Therefore, computer vision can help FMCG sales rise by handling SKUs (stock-keeping units) and managing displays of goods. The absence of SKUs can result in a lack of sales.
FMCG in an App-driven World
In the digital world, people depend on their smartphones for everything. For FMCG shopping, people prefer buying products online without going through the hassle of standing in a queue. This trend has led to the ordering of any merchandise (from clothes to food) from any location with the option of versatile payment solutions. Development of a mobile app requires less capital investment irrespective of market size. It bridges the gap between consumers and the brand through regular feedback and communication. This helps retain customers and offers products based on customers’ buying habits.
Given its paramount perks, it is the ideal time to invest in web and mobile app development services.
Some FMCG Giants Benefiting from AI
Amazon
To monitor the position and movement of products, Amazon installed AI-powered cameras in its warehouses. This helps in identifying any potential life hazards and curbing them before it occurs.
Walmart
Walmart, the number one retail company in the world, stays ahead in the game, and AI is one factor that keeps it agile. Through the implementation of AI-powered robots in its warehouses, it can scan and restock shelves, and manage inventories. This helped in automating manual tasks, which gave workers more time to deal with the complex ones, thereby reducing extra cost and boosting productivity.
Sephora
Sephora has come out victorious with its iconic Color IQ. The technology can detect your skin tone and advise the ideal foundation shade and products that complement your skin color for you. This is also a great step for Sephora to build a community supporting diversity, thereby, enticing more and more customers.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s has come up with AI-powered digital kiosks where customers can personalize their food and pay quickly. This resulted in fewer wait times, increasing brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. The kiosks also showcase special menus that stay limited to a particular season or festival.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that AI is transforming the FMCG sector for good. It helps in better understanding of customer demand, optimizing distribution processes, and curating effective marketing campaigns. At Josh, we offer staff augmentation services to FMCG businesses that can help them use these emerging technologies to their fullest to achieve success. Companies can fall back on our digital transformation services that can provide a strategic edge, building customer-centric applications for optimum satisfaction.
