Salesforce announced new generative AI tools to improve retail operations for consumers, merchandisers, marketers, and more.
The new tools are built into Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud and supported by the Einstein 1 platform. Einstein 1 connects to retail and shopper data and integrates with large-scale language models (LLMs) to provide real-time context, brand voice consistency, data governance and security, the company said.
The tool includes Einstein Copilot for Shoppers, a generative AI assistant built for more personalized interactions with consumers that lead to faster product discovery and purchases.
For retailers, there's Page Designer, which uses natural language prompts to create e-commerce websites, and Return in Order Management, which evaluates the behavior of return transactions and suggests changes to product display details to reduce returns. There are Insights.
For marketers, Salesforce debuted Global Promotion Management to integrate marketing data and predictive insights to better estimate future prices and create more successful rewards programs. Salesforce also announced Referral Marketing, which provides pre-built templates and AI-supported “likely to refer” tools for brand referral programs.
Salesforce announced new tools at the National Retail Federation's NRF 2024, the annual global conference on retail innovation.
Shopping with AI
Opus Research analyst Dan Miller said the new retail tools fit well into Salesforce's AI portfolio and will help CRM vendors further their mission to incorporate generative AI to improve customer experiences and business outcomes. It is said that it shows how it is constructed.
“We hope to see more happen to prove that GenAI and LLM are not static, but constantly evolving resources,” Miller said.
Einstein Copilot for Shoppers is a good addition that shows how companies are getting used to using generative AI to interact with their customers. He said a related voice assistant would be a good idea.
“This shows that retailers and other businesses are less concerned that LLMs will go out of their way and provide bad information or illusions in response to customer inquiries,” Miller said. Ta.
Research consumer preferences for better automation
Einstein Copilot for Shoppers also brings added convenience to consumers. As a “high-touch concierge” that can connect both remote and in-store digital experiences to gather customer preferences and train them on “taste, style and trends,” according to Constellation Research analyst Liz Miller. It is said to work. In this way, Einstein Copilot can guide shoppers to highly relevant products they may not have noticed before.
“This is where we've been fantasizing about AI,” Liz Miller said.
Using this technology, brands can ultimately automate predictions of customer behavior by using AI models to analyze interactions between consumers and Einstein Copilot and create triggered actions. I can. These automated “next-best brand experience actions should be performed across marketing, sales, and even proactive service opportunities,” said Liz Miller.
“This shopper copilot is generating a new trove of data that needs to be captured, analyzed, and acted upon,” she added.
Inventory management
According to Opus Research's Dan Miller, order management tools Page Designer and Return Insights are also good examples of how generative AI can create and present data insights in a way that's more intuitive for humans.
“The offer for merchandisers also shows the power of enterprise search's conversational user interface as an alternative to traditional reporting,” he adds, adding that Return Insights and Order Management are great additions for the hectic post-holiday situation. I said that there is.
This is where we have been fantasizing about AI.
liz millerConstellation Research Analyst
A well-organized and up-to-date inventory report helps retailers make product display and promotion decisions, helping them avoid accidentally pushing out-of-stock products or giving incorrect descriptions. In this way, Salesforce “brings a clear view of inventory into the data corpus, empowering teams and retailers to address inventory and business realities,” Miller said.
“Salesforce does a great job of identifying use cases where data, analytics, and AI can be quickly applied to produce documentable results,” she said.
There will be more to come as retailers implement new tools powered by AI.
“These use cases are just a few of the many discoveries that will soon become widespread,” said Dan Miller.
Einstein Copilot for Shoppers is in the pilot phase and is expected to be generally available in summer 2024. Page Designer is currently in pilot stage. Return Insights for Order Management is generally available. Global Promotion Management is in pilot and is expected to be generally available in Spring 2024. Referral marketing is generally available.
Mary Reines is a news writer covering customer experience and unified communications for TechTarget Editorial. Prior to TechTarget, Reines served as arts editor at the Marblehead Reporter.
