Loss Prevention Research Council Weekly Series Episode 128 - Black Friday Record Turnout and Chatbots for Retail Loneliness
With Dr. Read Hayes, Tony D'Onofrio, and Tom Meehan
Shopper turnout hit record high over Black Friday weekend, retail group says
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/29/shopper-turnout-hit-record-over-black-friday-weekend-trade-group-says.html
Let’s start this post Thanksgiving week with some great news published in CNBC on Black Friday retail sales.
A record number of holiday shoppers of nearly 200 million people flocked back to stores and hunted for deals from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation, which tracks the figure for in-person and online shopping.
The trade group did not estimate spending over the weekend, but said Tuesday that sales for the overall holiday shopping season are on track to meet its forecast. It anticipates that holiday sales will rise by 6% to 8% from last year to between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion. Some of that increase will come from nearly four-decade high inflation.
The National Retail Federation defines the holiday season as November 1 through December 31. The sales forecast excludes spending at automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants.
Shoppers spent an average of about $325 on holiday-related purchases over the weekend. That’s higher than last year’s average of $301.
NRF CEO Matt Shay said the weekend’s biggest takeaways are that Americans are eager to shop in-person again and that they’re hungry for big bargains. More than 122.7 million people visited brick-and-mortar stores over the weekend, a jump of 17% from 2021.
Figures from Adobe Analytics showed that online spending hit record highs on key days during the holiday shopping weekend. Black Friday sales rose 2.3% to hit $9.12 billion and Cyber Monday sales rose 5.8% to $11.3 billion, according to the company, which tracks sales on retailers’ websites.
Haute-Comfort: Consumers Choose Comfort Over Style Says New Research
https://www.forbes.com/sites/katehardcastle/2022/11/29/haute-comfort-consumers-choose-comfort-over-style-says-new-research/?sh=30747d4720c4
Switching topics from interesting research from Forbes which should comfort the apparel industry.
Over eight in ten (81%) make comfort their top priority, ahead of cost or style.
Just one in eight (13%) regards following the latest trend as essential; displaying a status symbol logo trails at the bottom of a league table of what people now want in their wardrobes.
Looking good is still rated by over half of those questioned (52%) and people haven’t stopped wanting to be stylish (27%) but gone are the days when you had to suffer to be fashionable.
Good news for apparel retailers that sell comfortable clothes.
What does the future of shopping with artificial intelligence look like?
https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/06/13/what-does-the-future-of-shopping-with-artificial-intelligence-look-like
As I am in Europe again this week, some interesting reading this week on Euronews.com on what the future of shopping might look like with artificial intelligence.
The retail experience is evolving with artificial intelligence (AI) changing how items can be bought and sold.
Inventory robots can automatically restock shelves and sensors can track customer traffic patterns to identify optimum store layout. Opportunities for cross-selling and digital signage can be edited for specific audiences, providing up-to-the-minute information to motivate consumers, such as alerting them to when stocks are running low.
Augmented reality (AR) is also enhancing the retail experience. In homeware, a consumer can upload an image of their room and redecorate it using AR to view different colour schemes and choose suitable accessories, suggested by computers. Similarly, in apparel, a consumer can upload their image to "try on" clothes and AI can match co-ordinating accessories with the outfit, not only cross-selling but also providing the customer with a styling service.
The pandemic accelerated the integration of AI into retail as it facilitates contactless shopping. With AI "computer vision" it's possible to accurately "see" items in a customer’s basket and calculate their cost, removing the need for check-out staff to manually handle each item to scan its barcode.
French retail giant Carrefour launched an AI-powered store in Paris in November 2021, called Flash 10/10, because it takes “10 seconds to shop and 10 seconds to pay”, and customers have access to “900 items in a flash”.
Customers are tracked anonymously as a virtual avatar, allocated to them as soon as they enter the store, which is equipped with 2,000 integrated AiFi sensors built into the shelves and 60 AI-powered cameras in the ceiling, all registering item selection.
When the customer picks up a product, it’s automatically added to a virtual shopping cart. When the customer is finished shopping, they validate the purchase by passing a checkout terminal and making a contactless payments.
In September, the Middle East’s first AI-powered store, Carrefour City+, opened in Mall of the Emirates, Dubai, in the UAE.
Here, the check-out process has been eliminated. Customers use their phones to access the store, which registers them upon entry. Once inside, AI cameras detect and add selected items to the customer’s digital shopping basket, and the purchase is completed simply by exiting the store.
UAE-based retail and leisure giant Majid Al Futtaim is behind this cutting-edge retail experience, designed to “facilitate fast and contactless shopping” using AI technology.
Supermarkets roll out chat friendly tills to battle COVID loneliness
https://www.euronews.com/2022/02/11/supermarkets-roll-out-chat-friendly-tills-to-battle-covid-loneliness
Finally also from Euronews, an interesting application being deployed by a retailer in France.
In stores all over the country, chat-friendly tills known as "blabla caisses" are being created, to allow customers to take a little more time to talk to staff. The French word "blabla" usually means "waffle", "prattle", or to describe someone "rabbiting on".
The idea behind the move is to recreate links between people, particularly after two years of the pandemic, that have left supermarkets concerned for the welfare of staff and shoppers alike.
A conversation could look like this:
"Your hair looks good."
"I thought you were telling me my hair looked bad."
"Oh no, not at all."
"You look lovely."
"That's nice, thank you."
That’s it for my chatty conversation this week. Over to you Tom.
