THE adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Philippine retail industry is still in a nascent stage, according to a leading official of Southeast Asia’s leading fashion and lifestyle e-commerce player.
Nevertheless, Achint Setia, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer of Zalora, told the BusinessMirror in an email interview that the company has seen a growing adoption and interest over the last year. “Following the e-commerce boom in the Philippines during the Covid-19 pandemic, more local retailers are looking at ways to sustain this growth and stand out from the increasingly competitive e-commerce landscape,” Setia explained.
Setia pointed out that current retailers have started to leverage AI to provide a personalized shopping experience through data analytics and targeted marketing. He also observed the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) into supply chains, which allows for more efficient supply chain management and product deliveries to meet customer’s growing demands for quick deliveries.
“At Zalora, we’ve also made use of AI to enhance operational efficiencies. One of the features powered by TITAN includes automated attribute tagging, which encompasses a wide range of attributes, such as colour, style and occasion—all derived from product images. As a result, stock keeping units (SKUs) are automatically generated along with detailed product descriptions. This automation not only enhances search accuracy and eliminates hours of manual entry but also elevates the quality assurance of our product offerings,” Setia explained.
Zalora, he added, has also implemented AI-powered chatbots, which engage across digital touchpoints. He stressed that the AI’s ability to interpret and automatically respond to conversational prompts not only improves customer service but also increases employee productivity internally. Setia said this is achieved by eliminating the task of addressing frequently-asked questions repeatedly, thus enabling employees to focus on more critical and important matters.
“By implementing these across various layers of the ZALORA ecosystem, spanning production processes—such as manual tasks currently undertaken by teams at the SKU level—to post-purchase journeys, such as the automation of customer support, we are on our way to achieving comprehensive optimization and efficiency in our operations,” he said.
Since the pandemic ended and as reported in their 2022 TRENDER report, Setia said Zalora had observed that consumers in the region are increasingly shifting between reality and virtual landscapes. While they rely on the Internet for inspiration and to shape their opinions, he said they still seek immersive experiences offline. Even as e-commerce surged in the Philippines during the pandemic, Setia said in-store shopping experiences continue to remain popular in the Philippines, as customers frequent these for immediate purchases and quality assurance.
“It is therefore important for brick-and-mortar establishments to create an integrated experience for customers across traditional and online stores, maintaining the efficiency of the customer shopping journey and the quality of products on both fronts. To stand out from competitors, it would help to create a unique and memorable experience for shoppers at the brick-and-mortar, especially as most of these shoppers spend the majority of their time online,” Setia pointed out.