Physical retail is failing to meet customers’ demands for real-time responsiveness as their expectations for “more reactive retail experiences” are accelerated by ecommerce and AI, according to the latest data from a survey just carried out by AI experts SAI.
In SAI’s original research of over 1,000 shoppers, over a third (35%) said they believed bricks and mortar stores are falling behind because they can’t keep pace with the speed of AI, or respond to data with the same agility as ecommerce channels.
This view is even more acutely felt among younger customers, rising to 51% of Millennials and 48% of Gen Z.
As AI adoption grows, consumers increasingly expect the immediate responses they’ve become used to receiving in digital buying journeys.
Such immediacy is bleeding into in-store expectations, with three quarters (75%) saying stores should adapt in real-time, whether through queue management, optimising stock allocation or matching labour to pressure points in stores.
A further two thirds of respondents (65%) said they now expect in-store frictions to be resolved as quickly as ecommerce can react to any issues they experience online.
Black holes
However, even as stores become more digital and connected, shoppers still aren’t seeing the benefits of physical retailers using the insights generated from their estates to improve shopping experiences, with many suggesting stores remain digital black holes.
Despite greater visibility being available to retailers through AI and store monitoring systems, six in ten (60%) of customers say retailers still suffer from “blind spots” and are unaware of what’s happening on the shop floor.
A further 56% feel retailers currently aren’t effectively - or actively - managing store operations and a similar proportion (55%) believe physical retail is too slow to respond when issues occur.
Som Sinha, co-founder and CEO of SAI, said: “With stores becoming more connected, retailers have never had more opportunities to gain visibility across their estates. Yet too often those opportunities aren’t being translated into meaningful operational insight.
“By shining a light on what’s happening across every location, retailers can elevate all stores to the standard of their best-performing stores, reducing operational drag and delivering the responsive experiences customers increasingly expect.”
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