Artificial Intelligence, commonly called AI, is being used to improve sales processes by various businesses across the globe.
In fact, ‘35% of global companies use AI’ for a number of uses, which is expected to increase at a rapid rate as AI becomes more advanced.
Sales promotions have long been used by businesses as a way to raise brand awareness, increase sales, and encourage repeat business.
The integration of AI is revolutionising how businesses interact with their customers. The future of AI in sales promotion will undoubtedly be multifaceted as it continues to be used by businesses in partnership with an array of other tools to promote efficiency.
Some roles AI will play in sales promotion include, but are not limited to:
- Analysing and predicting customer behaviour
- Prioritising personalisation
- Demand forecasting
- Chat bots
- Customer segmentation
1. Analysing & Predicting Customer Behaviour
Many businesses will use AI in sales promotion to analyse and predict customer behaviour.
AI can bolster many sales promotion techniques, such as connected packaging.
Connected packaging is accelerating in popularity largely due to the amount of data it allows a business to gather about its customers.
AI can analyse historical data efficiently to determine the needs of the target customer and what products resonate with them to allow businesses to deliver more effective campaigns that produce higher conversion rates.
By analysing data gathered from connected packaging, for instance, AI can support businesses in creating targeted advertisements based on customer preferences and behaviour, allowing businesses to deliver products more likely to stand out.
These deep customer insights AI provides allow businesses to enhance their sales promotion strategy and make more informed and data-driven decisions.
As such, it’s likely that an increasing number of businesses will begin to rely on this use of AI to ensure they can not only compete but also continue to keep up with consumers’ spending habits.
To learn more about connected packaging and its benefits, be sure to read our blog.
2. Prioritising Personalisation
It’s no secret that AI is revolutionising marketing, particularly when it comes to personalisation, and this is showing no signs of slowing down.
The power of using AI in sales promotions is evident in that it can analyse a vast amount of data efficiently to personalise product recommendations and create personalised promotions.
Considering that a study found that ‘nearly 9 in 10 respondents are likely to enjoy receiving personalised offers based on their interests and browsing/purchase history’, the importance of personalisation cannot be overstated.
By showing customers relevant products based on consumer behaviour, AI allows businesses to target customers more effectively and enhance the customer experience.
The more relevant promotions are to consumers and their preferences, the easier it becomes to drive conversions.
Using AI to deliver hyper-personalised experiences will likely continue, as it allows businesses to prioritise the customer experience while allowing them to keep up with the competition.
3. Demand Forecasting
Businesses will also use AI for demand forecasting, as it provides an effective solution to a major challenge for businesses.
Sales promotions can have a huge impact on demand, and AI is able to use predictive analytics to forecast customer demand efficiently and accurately.
Successful promotions can put significant pressure on supply chains that can result in numerous issues, including spoilage and reduced availability, to name a few.
Through analysing market trends, historical data, and more, businesses can optimise their inventory management to ensure the right number of products are available at the correct times.
This not only results in less wastage but also reduces risk for businesses.
As AI becomes more advanced, businesses will likely rely on it to calculate promotion demand forecasts with a higher degree of accuracy.
We at Lime are a partnership and sales promotion agency, and our expert sales promotion team has years of experience in delivering strategic promotional campaigns in the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) category. Get in touch to see how we can help, today!
4. Chat Bots
AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants can engage with customers in real-time (around the clock 24/7), providing personalised recommendations, answering questions, and guiding them through the sales process.
These AI-powered assistants can enhance the customer experience and drive sales by offering timely promotions and incentives.
AI-driven chatbots also have the ability to analyse customer preferences, browsing history, and purchase behaviour to, as touched on above, offer personalised product recommendations and promotions. By understanding individual customer needs and preferences, chatbots can tailor promotional messages to resonate with each customer, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.
5. Customer Segmentation
AI will be used to analyse customer data to determine different segments when creating sales promotions.
By dividing customers into specific groups based on their behaviour, demographics, preferences and more, businesses can create targeted sales promotions that are more likely to resonate with customers.
That said, traditional customer segmentation can be time-consuming and rife with inefficiencies. This is where AI transforms the customer segmentation process.
AI can analyse data efficiently to find actionable insights, facilitate superior decision-making, and automate various tasks in the segmentation process, allowing sales promotion teams to focus on more pressing issues.
AI will thus ensure that the right offers and promotions reach the right customers, having a positive impact on engagement and subsequently on sales.
By leveraging the power and future of AI in sales, businesses can gain an advantage over competitors and deliver a superior service to their customers.
Looking towards the future, as AI technology becomes more sophisticated and more businesses adopt it into their processes, the demand for sales promotions to continuously evolve and shift for businesses to compete will become all the more apparent.
How We Can Help
If you’re looking to invest in your sales promotion strategy, Lime offers an end-to-end sales promotion service from idea generation to prize fulfilment.
Our experienced sales promotion team works with FMCG brands to create smart promotional campaigns.
Visit our website to view our case studies and learn more about our sales promotion service.
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We are Lime, an independent partnership and sales promotion agency based in London.
Our expert sales promotion team has years of experience delivering strategic promotional campaigns in the FMCG category.
If you’re interested in learning more about the work that we do, please get in touch with a member of our team today at 02073179280 or email Charlie@wearelime.co.uk.
And for more sales promotion updates and insights, check out our blog page, including articles such as ‘Top Promotions We Love Right Now‘ and ‘What Is Connected Packaging?‘.
