2019 is the year of grocery disruption and mainstream omnichannel shopping. In this landscape, tight margins, high perishability, and heavy reliance on promotions mean that forecast accuracy is paramount. Legacy players cannot keep up with the speed of change driven by modern tech giants.
Rubikloud CEO, Kerry Liu pairs with a top 50 retailers to discuss how AI and machine learning help retailers fight technology with technology and offer shoppers the convenience and personalization they crave.
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£ 5 . 8 7 T R I L L I O N
C A N A D A : https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv.action?pid=2010000801U S : https://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/timeseries.html
E U R O P E : https://www.emarketer.com/Report/Western-Europe-Retail-Ecommerce-Update-eMarketers-Estimates-Forecast-20162021/2002184
1.98%98.02%
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H O W C U S T O M E R S W A N T L O YA LT Y
Customer LifeCycle
Management
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> > O N L I N E B R O W S I N G
> > E M A I L O F F E R
> > M O B I L E O F F E R
> > O N L I N E O R D E R
> > I N - S T O R E
> > P U R C H A S E
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B U Y O N L I N E P I C K U P I N S T O R E
BOPIS
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B U Y O N L I N E S H I P F R O M S T O R E
BOLSFS
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R E S E R V E O N L I N E P I C K U P I N S T O R E
ROPIS
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B R O W S E A N Y W H E R E S H I P H O M E
BASH
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B U Y I N S T O R E F U L F I L L A N Y W H E R E
BISFA
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B U Y O R B R O W S E W H AT E V E R I W A N T W H E N E V E R I W A N T P I C K U P O R D E L I V E R Y H O W I C H O O S E
BOBWIWWIWPODHIC
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What is the Store of the Future?
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New Store Experiences
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Emerging Brands
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“
”
How We Think About AI @
Rubikloud
But much of what we do with machine learning happens beneath the surface. Machine
learning drives our algorithms for demand forecasting, product search ranking, product and
deals recommendations, merchandising placements, fraud detection, translations, and much
more. Though less visible, much of the impact of machine learning will be of this type –
quietly but meaningfully improving core operations.
— Jeff Bezos, 2016 Amazon shareholder letter
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The Promotion Planning Process
Easy right?
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What Happens When The Corner Store Became A National Chain?
1 500 250 125,0002 700 500 700,0005 1100 3000 16,500,00030 2400 52000 3,744,000,000150 4600 127,000 41,629,744,000,000375 7400 486,000 721,034,523,000,000,000
S T O R E S S K U S C U S T O M E R S P R O M O T I O N &
I N V E N T O R Y
V A R I A B L E S
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Output /
Document
Supply
Chain
Assistant
Buyer
Buyer
Category
Director
Supplier
JBP Top Sheet
Updated
Top Sheet
Promo in ODB
Update to JDA Updated
Forecast
ODB
Ordering
Planogram
CSV Export
Brands/
Promos
Review
Input
Refine
Details
Review
Input
Refine
Load ODB
Create
PPF
Input for
PPF
Create
Planogram
Load ODB
or PPF
Review
Forecast
Inform
Supplier
Finalize
Forecast
Review in
Tool
Purchase
Supply
Load Retek
New Promo
Use JPB
Top Sheet
Comm. Mtg
Changes?
If Yes
Load Bid
Sheet
Update
ODB
Status
Top Sheet
From PPF
FINALFORECASTREFRESH-1WEEK
PROMOTIONLAUNCH
Retailers End Up WithA Complicated 4 Month Promotion Planning Process
36. R U B I K L O U D . A I
LEARN +
OPTIMIZE
LEARN +
OPTIMIZE
ACTIVATE ACTIVATE
Output /
Document
Supply
Chain
Assistant
Buyer
Buyer
Category
Director
Supplier
JBP Top Sheet
Updated
Top Sheet
Promo in ODB
Update to JDA Updated
Forecast
ODB
Ordering
Planogram
CSV Export
Brands/
Promos
Review
Input
Refine
Details
Review
Input
Refine
Load ODB
Create
PPF
Input for
PPF
Create
Planogram
Load ODB
or PPF
Review
Forecast
Inform
Supplier
Finalize
Forecast
Review in
Tool
Purchase
Supply
Load Retek
New Promo
Use JPB
Top Sheet
Comm. Mtg
Changes?
If Yes
Load Bid
Sheet
Update
ODB
Status
Top Sheet
From PPF
FINALFORECASTREFRESH-1WEEK
PROMOTIONLAUNCH
Rubikloud
Forecast in
Rubikloud
With Machine Learning We Have Automated The Four Most
Manually Intensive Parts Of This Process
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Tapping into the Consumer
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Has the shopping experience
really gotten better?
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You’ve been sold a lie
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@jess
hardware vs cloud
Years vs months
$$$$$ vs $$
in this similar style?? 3 diagonal panes
42. W H I C H C A N M E A N B E I N G F A C E D W I T H M O R E T H A N
33,560,322,120
P O S S I B L I T I E S F O R T A R G E T I N G A C U S T O M E R I N D I V I D U A L L Y
8,493,625
LOYALTY
MEMBERS
13
COMMUNICATION
STRATEGIES
38,439
PRODUCTS
23
OFFER TYPES
365
DAYS/YEAR
8
MARKETING
CHANNELS
The magnitude of
customer – centric marketing
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Slide
No. 47
S N A P S H O T O F
Financial Impact of AI
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Slide
No. 48
U S E C A S E : P R O M O
+$7.5 to $9.5M
Less Stock-outs
+$12.5 to $15.5M
Less Excess Inventory Held in Store
+1200 – 1600 Days
Full-Time Employee Days Saved in a Year
Health And Beauty Retailer
$6B
European Mass
Beauty Retailer
31%
Reduction in
Stock Outs
50%
Reduction
in Time
30%
Increase in
Forecast Accuracy
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Speed
Impact
Skill+
$ How do you
Prioritize an
AI Project?
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Speed
Impact
Skill+
$
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VALUE
T I M E
Rubikloud
Everyone else
A C T I V A T E O P T I M I Z EL E A R N
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I ’ M C O N F I D E N T W E C A N H E L P
kerry@rubikloud.com
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Notas do Editor
loyalty is built at every touchpoint, social, web, add UK brands, tesco, boots, amazon prime loyalty,
kerry to re-name, any level of convience, omni channel is dead
WALMART PICKUP / CAR
uk lumber company, homebase.com.uk
FASHION/ELECTRONICS/APPLES STORE
Sonos/casper
Gymshark image
Picture your corner store in your neigbourhood. Put yourself in the shoes of that store owner.
You have decide how many skus to carry (300-500), which ones to discount, how much to discount them by, how often to discount it, how much inventory to carry per sku, and how often to restock the sku’s. What about the Milk? That’s going to go bad in 2 weeks where the chips will last 3 months.
Now that single store has become a regional, and ultimately national chain. It’s now Loblaws, or Rexall, or Staples, or Wal-Mart. Suddenly all of those questions we asked earlier are now impossible combinatoric problems for any person or current system to solve. This is why inventory, pricing, and promotion accuracy are dismal in retail and the consumer experience is getting worse.
You end up with a system like this, a 4 month promotion planning process, and 24 manual steps along the way.
With Promotion Manager, we have eliminated about 50-60% of the manual system steps, and automatically inserted the right inventory, pricing, allocation, and promotional mechanic to every stage along the process, and we can reforecast in hours.
You have all of the same products, prices promotional strategies, only now you also have the ability to customer a price, or offer for individual loyalty members. This is where your customers are comparing you to Amazon. Again, not a combinatoric problem a person or existing non AI system can solve.
It doesn’t stop us from trying
I forgot, we also have so many different methods of communicating with our customers.
Now the results are usually completely volatile and never consistent for each channel. This is what causes you to get an email offer for Shampoo a day after you bought a litre of Shampoo.
Again, we think this is something an AI system can do much more efficiently and effectively. Jeff Bezos said it best. Where we deploy machine learning, is behind the scenes. It’s used for the selection of dynamic pricing for each individual, products recommendations, and inventory allocation.
All of this is great, but let’s be very clear. AI still has to pass the same test of every piece of software that has ever survived in the cuthroat enterprise software market. It has to deliver a significant ROI. In fact, to the equity research analysts in the audience, I would challenge every one of you to ask your CFO’s and CEO’s two questions on their next earnings call.
What is your enterprise AI strategy? Give me the use cases
What is the financial impact on your bottom line and how long will it take to pay back?
I GUESS THAT WAS FOUR QUESTIONS, BUT YOU GET MY IDEA. So what are our results?