Hey Marketers! ✨✨

Step into the future of retail in 2024! 🚀 Uncover the magic of AI in marketing and how CRMs are using it to simplify things. Imagine personalized shopping experiences and clever marketing strategies that predict what you want! 🌟 In this newsletter, we'll share 5 smart ways CRMs are using AI to make marketing a breeze. 🧐 It's not just tech talk; it's about making your shopping journey better. 🌐✨ Dive into the trends shaping retail's tomorrow. 

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Navigating the Retail Revolution: Exciting Trends for 2024! 🌐✨🛍️

AI in Marketing Platforms and CRMs 🧐

5 ways CRMs are leveraging AI to automate marketing today

Brand of the Week 🔥

Top Reads - Real-time news right for you. 📚

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Navigating the Retail Revolution: Exciting Trends for 2024! 🌐✨🛍️

🌐✨ As always, with a new year around the corner comes new trends in the world of retail and e-commerce. In 2023, we saw massive growth in social commerce, influencer marketing, and even advancements in augmented-reality shopping experiences. In 2024, we’ll still see those themes as a focus, but with a greater emphasis on AI, omnichannel marketing, experiential marketing, and so much more.

🚀 From technological advancements in the retail industry to surprising new partnerships, here are the top innovative trends in retail to keep an eye on in 2024. 🛍️💡

1. The Convergence of Physical and Digital Retail

The fusion of physical and digital retail is a dynamic challenge, demanding a harmonious blend of emerging technologies. 🌐 To thrive in 2024, prioritize modern shopping methods, emphasizing mobile checkout, VR/AR integration, and QR codes. Bridging the gap, Uniqlo's virtual fitting tool showcases technology seamlessly merging online and offline realms. 📱 Personalization's power shines through influencer marketing and live streams, enriching the digital retail experience. 

Retail media networks burgeon, with giants like Amazon and Walmart capitalizing on ad spaces across platforms. 📺 In-store experiences persist, as digital-born brands like Bonobos and Glossier expand their physical footprint, recognizing the enduring allure of hands-on product interaction. 

2. GPT & AI Tools Will Advance Personalization and Operations

GPT and AI tools revolutionize retail, bringing a wave of personalization and efficiency. With the advanced GPT-4 and diverse plugins, exciting changes are on the horizon. Imagine tailored shopping advice and tutorials, finely tuned to your preferences. For instance, frequent basic tee purchases yield outfit suggestions and completion recommendations in personalized emails. This level of personalization boosts satisfaction, fostering brand loyalty—anticipate widespread adoption in 2024.

AI-powered chatbots, like those at Lego, redefine customer interaction. With rapid responses and 24/7 availability, these bots elevate engagement. Digital shopping assistants provide personalized gift recommendations based on user input. As AI transforms retail, it offers unmatched convenience for customers and strengthens relationships for companies. 🌐🛍️🤖

3. Increased Adoption of Social Commerce

Online shopping's enduring surge is undeniable! Recent data reveals 34% bought via PC, 38% via tablet, and 44% via smartphone in the past year 📱💻 Social commerce in the U.S. is set to hit $145.2 billion by 2028, and 50% plan increased online spending in the next six months 📈🛍️ 

Smartphone shopping is rapidly rising, surpassing in-store by 2% since March 2021 and doubling since 2018 📲💨 Social commerce integrates seamlessly into social media, with platforms like Instagram and Facebook introducing custom storefronts and TikTok launching its own Shops feature in September 🛒🤳 Get ready for social commerce to dominate the e-commerce scene in 2024 and beyond! 🚀

4. Successful Retailers Become Experiential

Companies with physical stores must stand out from online retailers through experiential marketing, creating unique in-store experiences. Despite lower sales, brick-and-mortar stores can enhance brand relationships through immersive "retailtainment." Marvel's 

Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N. exhibit exemplifies this, captivating global audiences with interactive displays. Amazon's "Just Walk Out" store, launched in 2018, revolutionized checkout-free shopping and expanded to various venues. Experiential activations extend beyond physical spaces to online realms, leveraging the growing interest in online events, especially among Gen Z. Despite the metaverse's evolving success, engaging online experiences drive consumer participation and potential purchases, reflecting a shift in marketing dynamics. 🌐🛍️

5. Even More AR-Powered Shopping Experiences

Augmented reality (AR), machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) are now indispensable in retail, transforming from optional to essential. As online shopping gains prominence, retailers harness AR to bridge the digital-physical gap. 

Giants like IKEA use proprietary AR, but Shopify democratizes it with Shopify AR, boasting a 94% higher conversion rate for products with AR content. In 2024, expect a surge in brands adopting AR capabilities, offering immersive shopping experiences. Shoppers increasingly seek AR interactions, revolutionizing how they make purchase decisions. The future of retail lies in these cutting-edge technologies. 🛍️✨ 

6.  Brands Will Compete on Values with Sustainability & Social Trends

In an age of economic uncertainty, brands are shifting focus from price to values. 🌐 Sustainability and social consciousness forge strong brand identities, fostering engagement and long-term value despite sales challenges. As we step into 2024, emphasis on repair, recycling, and thrifting will surge. Aligning authentically with sustainable values distinguishes your brand in a crowded market. 

Supporting social causes provides a unique edge beyond price competition. Initiatives like Patagonia's cost-effective repairs and REI's pre-owned items elevate brands in this values-driven landscape. 🛠️🔄 Embrace these trends to stand out, contribute to a better world, and thrive in the evolving marketplace.

7. The Rise of Buy Now Pay Later

The Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) trend is transforming retail, offering more than just payment convenience. It's a lifeline for brands navigating dynamic markets. No longer limited to low-priced items, BNPL, led by providers like Klarna, empowers businesses of all sizes. This trend is shaping in-store experiences, with 41% of Gen Z retailers embracing BNPL in their payment options. 

Whether for impulse buys or splitting payments on big-ticket items, BNPL grants consumers control and flexibility. Enhance your business in 2024 by adopting BNPL—catering to evolving consumer preferences and staying ahead in the retail revolution! 🛍️💳 

8. Optimizing Fulfillment and Delivery

Brands prioritize optimizing fulfillment and delivery 🚚 to meet the surging demand for same-day and next-day options. In-store pickup gains traction as a strategy, offering convenience and potential for additional purchases. It's a clever choice for customers near free shipping thresholds. Return management takes center stage, with retailers transforming returns into engagement opportunities. 

Creative solutions like offering coupons or free gifts during in-store returns enhance customer experience. Providing varied options is crucial, as hassle-free returns remain a top selling point in the competitive retail landscape. Brands embracing speed and flexibility are poised to stay ahead in the evolving market. 🛍️ 

9. Partnership Expansion

Strategic alliances between retail media networks and media giants are revolutionizing off-site advertising, propelling brands beyond traditional channels. 🚀 Embedded in major ecommerce platforms, these networks leverage rich customer data for precise targeting. Partnering with media companies amplifies their impact across social media, content platforms, and search engines. Recent collaborations, such as Kroger Precision Marketing teaming up with Disney Advertising, showcase the trend. 🛒 Kroger and Disney's beta test on Hulu allows CPG marketers to target audiences using shopper data. Dollar General's DGMN joined forces with Meta, offering advertisers access to 90 million customer profiles across platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 🤝 More such game-changing partnerships are expected in 2024 and beyond.

10. Exclusive Brand Assortments and Collections With Retailers

Target, a trendsetter in retail, is reshaping the shopping experience by partnering with brands like Kendra Scott to offer exclusive, limited-edition collections. 🛍️ This strategic move caters to the rising demand for unique, premium products at affordable prices. 🌟 By curating stylish and quality assortments, retailers create a blend of exclusivity and accessibility, fostering brand loyalty and transforming into coveted fashion destinations. 👗 

The Kendra Scott collaboration exemplifies this trend, showcasing how retailers can make high-quality designs accessible to a broader customer base. 🌐 As consumer interest in exclusive collections grows, other retailers are likely to follow Target's lead, revolutionizing our approach to shopping.

5 Ways CRMs are Leveraging AI to Automate Marketing Today 🔥

🚀 Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing marketing operations at lightning speed! 🌐 Top-notch customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing platforms are now seamlessly incorporating advanced AI features. These futuristic capabilities aren't just promises; they're here to help with crucial tasks like assessing customer sentiment, training your team, suggesting products, enhancing data quality, and even autonomously creating precisely targeted campaigns.

🌈 Salesforce took a leap into the AI realm with its Einstein capabilities in 2016, and the journey has only gotten more exciting since then. 🎉 Join us on a journey to uncover the latest and greatest applications of AI in CRMs, and discover how you can strategically position your teams to ride the wave of this groundbreaking innovation. 🏄‍♂️✨

AI in Marketing Platforms and CRMs 🧐

The use of generative AI is on the rise, tripling in organizations over the past year, according to a recent Gartner survey of 1,400 executive leaders. 📊

When it comes to AI applications, customer-facing operations take the lead. Almost half of organizations (47%) are incorporating AI into sales, marketing, and customer service, particularly emphasising marketing operations. 🤖

Frances Karamouzis, a Gartner analyst, notes that organizations are not merely discussing generative AI but actively investing time, money, and resources to advance it and drive business outcomes.

Major customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing platforms are already integrating AI functionality into their products, with further releases anticipated in 2024. Marketing leaders are encouraged to leverage this disruptive technology in key areas. 🚀

1. Sentiment Analysis

AI can comprehend speech and text, enabling your marketing team to assess the sentiment of prospects and customers in phone calls, chats, notes, calendars, and email conversations. AI features can identify positive or negative sentiments, offering real-time monitoring and reporting. This information can be used to engage happy customers for testimonials or referrals and address issues with unsatisfied customers before they turn to competitors. 📞📧

1. Training Enhancement

CRM and marketing platforms are now being trained to closely observe and analyze the performance of sales and marketing professionals. These systems track activities such as calls, emails, and texts, providing real-time suggestions and generating reports with recommendations for team members and managers. 📈🤖

1. Product Recommendations

AI utilizes customer data to suggest additional services and products based on prior purchases, industry, or demographic information in the CRM database. Even when a customer declines a pitch, AI can provide alternative suggestions, mimicking the role of a competent salesperson in a retail store. 🛍️💡

1. Enriched Data

AI is transforming the accuracy and completeness of prospect data by automatically updating contact and company records. This enriched data, obtained through partnerships with database firms, ensures marketing teams work with reliable, regularly updated information. 🔄📊

1. Auto-creation of Campaigns with Personalization

The future may see the evolution of AI towards artificial general intelligence (AGI), allowing for more natural language interactions. This could enable the auto-creation of campaigns with deeper personalization, where AI acts as a fully-fledged marketing team member, executing tasks based on voice commands. 🗣️📧

🔥 Brand of the Week ✨

Boba X Ice Cream

Two families, united by a love for vibrant flavors, found a common language in food. 🌏 Asian-American heritage meant celebrating diverse traditions, with boba emerging as a cherished symbol of connection. 🍵 Boba x Ice Cream was born from this shared love, on a mission to inspire inclusivity and pride in every American. 🍦

Their frozen treats, a fusion of boba and ice cream, deliver happiness and cultural stories with each scoop. 🌈 A simple yet profound goal: to create a future where everyone feels included, one delicious flavor at a time. 🎉 Indulge in Boba x Ice Cream – a celebration of unity through taste.

Top Reads📚

Springdale Ventures Closes $40M Fund II to Invest in Transformative Early-Stage Consumer Brands ~ 20 December 2023, Retail Dive

Why 2023 was the year of the retail fire sale ~ 27  December 2023, Modern Retail

’Tis the season for a retail tech-stack rethink  ~ 26 December 2023, Retail Dive

Downturn or Not? At Year’s End, Wall St. Is Split on What’s Ahead. ~ 27 December 2023, New York Times

Alcohol-free ‘spirit’ Seedlip has released an agave-flavoured expression in the US ~ 20 December 2023, The Spirit Business 

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