SigmaWay Blog

No more will you hear about Chatbots being the next big thing. They’re already here and here to stay! Top domains where Chatbots are proving beneficial are:

1.      Ecommerce and Online Marketing: Messenger Chatbots have higher open rates and click through rates than Email, as a result of which many online marketers have begun using Chatbots as a way of getting website visitors’ information. Redirecting the customer to the correct sales channel, content gamification and relationship marketing are additional benefits it brings to this domain.

2.      Customer Service: The best use of technology right now is in automating the easy questions that get asked over and over again with a live agent takeover whenever the bot cannot answer a question. When the bot is stumped, it automatically sends the questions to a live agent, listens to the answer and then learn how to answer such questions in future.

3.      Travel, Tourism and Hospitality: Bots in this space are being successful on a number of critical fronts- they increase revenue, increase customer satisfaction, increase engagement and brand loyalty and lower costs via automation.

4.      Banking, Financial Services and Fintech: First and foremost, bots can help warn you about issues and dangers with your bank account. Bots can give you suggestions on what to do with your money- it can give you a cost breakdown of where you are spending or how can you move money around in order to save more money. Banks are also using chatbots internally to help automate tasks.

5.      HR and Recruiting: Chatbots can engage applicants and pre-screen them and make sure they’re qualified by asking a few questions. They also help in easing the process of on boarding new employees.

What other uses could be coming next? Read more at:

Retail stores has thousands of choices for fashion and the salesperson may influence you in your decision but with the help of AI and Machine learning your experience is going to more simpler and engaging.AI monitors the browsing patterns of any customer and give product recommendation according to that.AI powered chatbots can work more smarter and intuitively than humans. Machine learning in AI is improving product search capabilities on e-commerce sites.With the tremendous potential of AI, it can revolutionize the retail and e-commerce sector.Read more at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/296657

India’s retail market is predicted to double from $600 billion in 2015 to $1 trillion by 2020 as per IBEF. The growth in e-commerce influences development in the retail sector. Faster internet speed, reliable telecom operators, increased adoption of online services plays a key role in gaining that tremendous growth. In upcoming years, we will witness advanced technologies and innovations to revolutionize the customer’s shopping experience and collect more online sales.AI based chatbots will be the future of customer service. As consumers are gaining digital prominence mobile wallet will be crucial for cashless transaction. Read more at:https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/293462

The logistics industry in India is growing rapidly because of the growth in retail, e-commerce and manufacturing sectors. Though it has been underperforming over the years, it has received importance recently and is expected to reach a worth of $2 billion by 2019. Lack of facilities, technology and manpower have been reasons for the loss in the perishables sector. Better infrastructure, better storage, better network and warehouse facilities are the way forward. The sector is currently using IT solutions and the hub-and-spoke model for freight movement. It provides end-to-end supply chains to the consumers and being a key player in the economy, it is expected to grow by 10-15% annually in years to come.Read more at: http://www.iamwire.com/2017/04/indian-logistics-industry-scenario/151331  

Nowadays we can start an e-commerce online retail business a lot easier than ever. Thanks to the internet which helps us to start our business with very little overhead or fixed cost and if we go with the trend that is creating something that people want then we can make much out of it. Here are some tips for starting a successful online retail business: We should create a business plan that should clearly show the route to achieve goal or success.

• Choose a creative business structure which includes tax benefits, requirements and how to legalize with government.

• Start a self-storage which will lower your cost of rent.

• Make a catchy website and make sure it includes all the information like store name, location and contact information for the betterment of customers.

• You should provide a convenient price chart and description of all products.

• Make your ordering process easy.

• Last but not the least show your policies of return, refund and warranties so that customers don’t jump to some other site.

Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/ecommerce/7-tips-starting-successful-online-retail-business-01798247#OCvXfd1Det8hkZMy.97

There was a time when all the retail stores were taking their business online. But now the well- flourished online stores have begun to establish their brick and mortar stores. In addition to the online setup, they are now even working on traditional retail. An online presence has become crowded and expensive. According to a report, there are more than 800,000 online stores, all competing to attract customers through the gateway of Google. By opening the physical stores they aim to create awareness and attract more customers. They have seen that this creates awareness for their brands and drives a lot of traffic to our website, as well and accelerate the e-commerce sales. Read more at: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jan/30/future-of-e-commerce-bricks-and-mortar

This is the era of e-commerce. Everything you desire is just a click away. People can shop, read reviews, compare prices of the products and take better-informed decisions sitting in their homes. Sounds like online shopping is a blessing. But then why retailers like Disney, Under Armour and Nike have said that they don’t focus on online sales anymore? Today, retailers are focused on creating a friendly customer experience that crosses channel borders. Leading brands understand that they need to be leaders in both online and offline means. The changes in marketing trend are due to things like artificial intelligence, 3D printing and advance analytics. Merging the two modes is the solution. So to attract more and more customers, we need their engagement in both online and offline modes which will eventually result in better sales. Read more here: http://www.computerworld.com/article/3024262/retail-it/for-retailers-e-commerce-alone-wont-make-the-sale.html

E-Commerce firms very well understand that data is a wealth. The data can provide very crucial and meaningful insights, if used properly. Data Mining is one such way. It is a field of computer science that discovers the patterns in large data sets. This is done using the methods of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Statistics and Database Systems. Algorithms are made to act on the data set. This often reveals "game changing" results for the industry. Data Mining can be either done manually or can be automated. E-Commerce Firms use this to get to know more about customer's emotions, preferences, and other factors that impact their purchasing style. So they excel in offering a personalized experience through this. It doesn't stay limited to customers. Data Mining is done to keep an eye on the competitors. Read more about it in the article written by Arie Shpanya (contributor to Econsultancy)  at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/67360-why-data-mining-is-the-future-of-online-retailing/

Drop shipping refers to the direct delivery of the products from a manufacturer to the retailer or the customer. This is very convenient if you are going to start an ecommerce business. This decreases the overhead as the costs of purchasing inventory or managing warehouses is eliminated. The businesses using drop shipping find scaling easier. For example: if you receive four times as much offers, you'll usually need to do four times as much work. But with drop shipping most of the work to satisfy the additional orders is to be done by the suppliers. This makes businesses flexible. Most of the startups find difficulties in raising funds. So, it is easier to start with drop shipping. It even offers the largest variety for the customers. Being directly linked to the manufacturers selling the products, number of middlemen decreases. Fewer the middlemen, bigger the profits of a business. Read more at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/67406-what-is-dropshipping-and-is-it-right-for-your-business/

Unprecedented growth of e-commerce industry, has given marketers a hard time to acquire and retain shoppers. The retailers need to have the right insight in collecting analyzing data as well determining the actions that will resonate with consumers and deliver best experience. 1) Marketers need to have a long sighted approach towards consumer lifecycle and tactics within their acquisition. It helps in identifying the consumer goal from specific interaction and what this long term engagement will offer to shoppers. 2) The shoppers needs to develop the capability to anticipate shoppers actions and to do marketers must learns individuals likes and dislikes, their interests and most of all be able to discern individuals intent from collected rationalized data. 3) E-Commerce brand should use ensure that their data must be collected from each interaction and across every touch point to create one cohesive customer experience. Lack of persistent communication within various interaction units hurts the data aggregation and analysis. Read more at: http://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/keep-one-step-ahead-of-your-e-commerce-competition/

Retailers face hectic flurry for organizing and planning for big sales, poor inventory management system can sabotage your sales even with great customer services. Negligence may lead to small discrepancies such as colour, sizes which can destroy customer relationship and cost valuable revenue. Accurate and timely delivery requiring effective management of omni-channel system is crucial for customer satisfaction beyond friendly services. Small to medium business should focus on mobile access, real time access of disparate data, sales forecasting and product management for prior inventory. Delay in information and updates of innovated products and services will lead to disrupt business as it leads to unrealistic promises which can’t be completed in time window. Your need to empower your sales person with latest technologies and real time inventory information. Delivering products to customer on time is as sales, when investing in newer solution, its important to plan for short and mid-term growth. Changing inventory multiple times would cost resources, but will be necessary if you fail to take proper decision now. Read more at:- http://www.cmswire.com/customer-experience/dont-leave-customers-empty-handed/

This year's blockbuster Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw more than ever selling which implies that in future, marketing will be imperatively focused through internet transactions. International survey suggests that more than 151 people shop online. Buyers hit physical stores for available door busters. With online shopping, they get to browse around other brands and pick other things of interest. The Interactive Advertisement bureau reports that people still visit showrooms to double check prices of commodity before purchasing online. Soon special days like black Friday and Cyber Monday would loose their importance. Read more at:-http://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/what-you-need-to-know-about-new-retail-realities/

In recent years over the span of the last two decades, industries have been disrupted by internet competitors. People are becoming more and more interested in online or virtual shopping than to go outdoors. From newspapers to travel agencies, there are numerous sectors which have faced the heat due to e-business expansion of their counterparts. Despite this, it seemed that some business like telecom, television media etc.  were immune to this digital onslaught, but not anymore. A second wave of internet disruption threatens not only electronic and telecom business, but also industries like taxi services, banking and cosmetics. This leaves no other alternative for existing sellers other than to switch into online trading for survival. To know more read: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7688.html

Companies can use data scientists to prepare data sets, business analysts to develop models using both statistical and machine learning algorithms, application developers can be used to deploy and manage predictive analytics life-cycles, and tools. There are many vendors in the categories of customer analytics, cross-selling, smarter logistics, e-commerce etc. Open source software community is driving predictive analytics into the mainstream. Many Business Intelligence platforms also offer “some predictive analytics capabilities."  Rapid Miner’s predictive analytics platform can also be integrated into the cloud. Read more about this article at: http://www.cmswire.com/cms/big-data/3-vendors-lead-the-wave-for-big-data-predictive-analytics-028684.php?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRomrfCcI63Em2iQPJWpsrB0B/DC18kX3RUnJb6Wfkz6htBZF5s8TM3DVlJGXqlI4UEKTLE%3D 

With increasing use of smart phones in today's life, most of the viewers are using smart phones for research and buying online. This is the biggest opportunity to the companies. Mobile is not just an e-commerce channel, but it can be used for building relationship with your customers. Brian Rigney (CEO at Zmags) in his article “Maximize Marketing Reach: A Glance at the Customer Is All You Get” at marketingland.com, discussed about four simple steps to deliver rich and creative campaigns at the right place and says, “52 percent of Web traffic to retail websites globally currently comes via smartphones and tablet devices.”  Steps are:
• Think for omni-channel and use holistic approach.
• Develop sites, offers and experiences in different ways to serve different channels.
• Create, adjust and preview the sites.
• Tap the knowledge base to understand what works for your organization.
To know more about these steps, follow this link: http://marketingland.com/reach-glance-get-often-small-window-130011

Flipkart , an e-commerce co., has decided to focus on social media, mobile interface and data mining to boost its position in the online retail market.  Data mining and technology improvements are going to take up a major role in the coming days. Up gradation in infrastructures and data centres are essential to maintain its position in the market.  The company also expects to achieve $8 billion dollar sales thus utilizing every resource at its disposal.  To know more, please follow:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-04-13/news/61102918_1_mukesh-bansal-binny-bansal-billion-day

Mainstream retail companies are taking a heavy beating from their online counterparts. These companies are facing stiff competition due to discounts and lots of advertising from the e-commerce industry. Company reports indicate that the decline in sales for the brick and mortar firms are a steady affair, and sales do not increase even during the festive seasons. Revenue growth of these companies has slowed down impacting the distributors. Distributors are stocking less and there has been a significant decrease in inventory holding. With the number of offline firms growing day by day, these firms are looking for a change in their marketing strategies to counter online competition. To know more, please follow the link: http://info.shine.com/article/the-churn-in-the-retail-sector/8822.html

According to a survey, the Indian fashion industry is likely to touch $77 billion in a next five year. To understand the changing customer behavior and have a competitive advantage, e-commerce firms and retailers can use analytics. In a research from Technopak, the share of apparels and lifestyle in e-commerce is likely to increase by 30% and e-commerce will contribute about 6% of apparel sales. Fashion industry faces a challenge of understanding customers want and require quick access to market dynamics.  E-Commerce in retail is increasing, and all channels, firms are looking for advanced analytics to understand consumer behavior. Read more at: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/data-analytics-can-help-retailers-know-consumer-behaviour-115042000358_1.html

According to Saritha Rai (Contributor), e-commerce companies like Amazon, Snapdeal, ShopClues, Flipkart etc. find innovative solutions to timely delivery of their products by collaborating with Kirana stores, Dabbawallas in Mumbai, post office for reaching especially in rural areas and gas stations in Delhi and Mumbai. In a Morgan Stanley Report, Indian e-commerce market is expected to boom up to $100 billion in revenue by 2020. Timely delivery in the cities of India is a big challenge for e-commerce firms as roads are congested, streets are not numbered sequentially and customers many times don’t write zip codes or landmarks.  Finding these innovative solutions will not only benefit the e-commerce firms but it will also benefit local sources. To know more about these innovative solution read at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2015/04/15/from-dabbawallas-to-kirana-stores-five-unique-ecommerce-delivery-innovations-in-india/

The growth of e-commerce in present times has been a cause of worry for many analysts and they proclaim that traditional "bricks and mortar" shopping was going to extinct. But a new study shows the traditional shopping is still alive and well for many Americans. According to new study by global consulting firm A.T. Kearney, consumers continue to flock to physical retail locations and are actually crucial in generating online sales for retailers. According to the study, 90% of all U.S. retail sales conducted last year was done in a physical store versus only about 9% done online. Moreover, 95% of sales were accounted by retailers with bricks and mortar presence. Kearney noted that stores make a significant contribution to generating sales, even if the transaction is eventually done online. Through the five stages of a retail transaction - Discovery, Trial & Test, Purchase, Delivery or Pickup, and Returns - at some point along the chain, the majority of consumers will use a physical store. One could be in smaller mall operators. While Simon is the largest owner, smaller firms like CBL & Associates Properties Inc. (CBL), Macerich Co. (MAC) have all experienced faster funds-from-operations (FFO) growth than their bigger rival. The bottom line is Bricks and mortar stores aren't dead or even dying. Not by a long shot. For investors, that mean the owners of shopping malls, power centers and other retail real estate are in a prime position to continue paying strong dividends for years to come. Read more at: : http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/080614/why-bricks-and-mortar-retail-remains-solid-bet-spg-cbl-mac-amzn.aspx