Author Archives: Nikunj Sanghvi

Nikunj Sanghvi
Nikunj leads our Sales and Business Development efforts in the US, out of our San Francisco office. He is a business advisor at heart, given his extensive background in IT consulting across domains. An avid reader, he is up-to-date with tech trends which have an impact on digital experiences.
Mobile Technologies

How Artificial Intelligence can lead to smarter and more efficient business processes

Oct 29,2018 / By / No Comments

From IBM Watson winning Jeopardy less than a decade ago to Artificial Intelligence becoming a part of our daily lives through voice assistants like Siri, Google Home or Alexa, this technology has come a long way.

Recently in an interview, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai stated –

‘’AI is one of the most important things humanity is working on. It is more profound than, I dunno, electricity or fire.’’

While it might take some time for AI to become as ubiquitous as electricity in our lives, we are heading towards that direction. And, enterprises are betting high on the technology. According to a report, the AI market will grow at a rate of 52% by 2025. As enterprises boost their investments in AI, the reign of AI is just beginning to reshape and push innovations across industries like healthcare, manufacturing, retail, etc.

Artificial Intelligence Growth

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AI innovations across industries:

Here are some interesting innovations that we have seen in recent years revolutionizing various industries:

Healthcare

The AI healthcare market is expected to reach $6.6 Billion by 2020. The healthcare industry seems to be bullish about the technology and is using it in multiple ways.

Precision medicine is one discipline of healthcare where AI has proven to be extremely useful. Here a patient’s DNA is scanned through deep genomics algorithms, to identify anomalies that could be linked to genetic disorders and mutations linked to diseases like cancer.

Another prominent example of how AI is accelerating healthcare’s efforts in saving lives is Atomwise’s AI, which was able to predict two drugs that could put a stop to the Ebola virus epidemic. In less than one day, their virtual search was able to find two safe, already existing medicines that could be repurposed to fight the deadly virus.

Retail

Japan’s SoftBank telecom operations created a humanoid robot ‘Pepper’ that could interact with customers and ‘’perceive human emotions’’. According to Softbank Robotics America, a pilot of the Pepper in stores in both Palo Alto yielded a 70% increase in foot traffic in Palo Alto. Nestle used ‘Pepper’ to serve coffee at its stores in China and Japan. A visitor chooses the type, size and strength of coffee using the tablet held by Pepper. Once the selection is made, the humanoid passes the order to a dual-arm robot, which makes coffee with a Nestle coffee machine and places the beverage on the serving tray. The entire process takes exactly three minutes.

North Face an apparel brand has also adopted IBM Watson’s cognitive computing technology to help consumers with purchase decisions.

Artificial intelligence in retail

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Manufacturing

General Electric’s (GE) has created  Predix Manufacturing Execution Software, which is designed to make the entire manufacturing process—from design to distribution and services—more efficient and hence save costs. This suite of solutions powered by data integration, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), machine learning, and predictive analytics, provides manufacturers with plant-floor and plant-wide collaborative visibility of all work in process.

Banking and Financial sector

AI in the Banking and Financial sector can provide zero-lag customer service, improve efficiency and accuracy.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) launched its in-house bot Ceba to more than a million customers. Swiss bank UBS last year launched its AI systems on the trading floor, which analyses the sea of market data to identify trading patterns and formulate new strategies for trading volatility for the bank’s clients.

AI is also helping in the compliance and security aspects of banking. HSBC partnered with big data startup Quantexa to utilise AI software to counter money laundering. According to Quantexa’s press release, “the technology will allow HSBC to spot potential money laundering activity by analysing internal, publicly available, and transactional data within a customer’s wider network”.

AI boosting efficiency in business operations

While AI has accelerated the pace of innovation across industries it has also permeated the foundations of business operations and is set to change the day to day work lives impacting the ROI of enterprises. A report from Accenture states that, by 2035, AI has the power to increase productivity by 40 percent or more, for enterprises.

Here is how enterprises are using AI and Machine learning in various functions for higher efficiency and boosting ROI

Marketing

AI can find multiple applications in the marketing function from search to customer engagement.

Here are few examples of how marketing is leveraging AI

  • Improved search functions – technologies like Elastisearch are becoming mainstream in e-commerce by populating the best possible results for a search query. The distributed nature of Elasticsearch enables it to process large volumes of data in parallel, quickly finding the best matches for consumers’ queries.
  • Recommendation engines – Building a robust recommendation engine is the key aspect of creating a personalized user experience. Netflix is one of the best examples of how a recommendation engine works. More than 80 per cent of the TV shows people watch on Netflix are discovered through the platform’s recommendation system.
  • Customer segmentation is another aspect where AI is improving efficiency for marketing by learning from customer behaviour for e.g. Companies such as AgilOne are helping marketers to improve and optimize email and website communications, by analyzing, continually learning from user behavior.
  • Recently IBM launched its new IBM Watson AI Marketing Suite that improves the marketing efforts by personalized targeting, improved programmatic buying insightful campaign analytics. The suite contains three AI-based solutions – IBM Watson Ads Omni, IBM Media Optimizer, and Predictive Audiences.

At Robosoft, we were a part of a project aimed at helping a leading US retailer based in Illinois, draw maximum ROI out of their marketing spends. The company relied on senior managers’ making marketing investment decisions based on past experiences with traditional marketing channels such as billboard and newspaper advertising. Even though there were massive amounts of data available for analysis, no data was utilized in determining the best channels to spend marketing dollars for maximum return on investment.

As a solution, a large scale machine learning system was developed to maximize Marketing Return on Investment (MROI) across all digital marketing channels. The system helped in

  • Enhancing the company’s customer touch points’ data collection capabilities across all web & digital assets.
  • Determining customers’ purchase behavior across digital channels.
  • Recommending optimal allocation of marketing budget across all digital channels.

The company saw improved EROI across all digital channels, prediction model empowered marketing managers to make data-driven decisions and also helped in defining the in-depth content strategy to rank highly for the most relevant keywords.

HR and Recruitment functions

AI can help in various aspects of HR like scheduling meeting, filtering candidates, reducing attrition, enabling a faster recruitment process, etc.

  • HiringSolved is an AI-powered recruitment tool that enables diversity during selection.
  • Mya, an AI recruitment tool expedite the process of recruitment by providing quick responses to applicants about their application and other information related to it
  • IBM Watson is working towards building such a predictive model for companies, that can predict attrition patterns amongst employees.

A US-based recruitment startup wanted to revolutionize how recruiters hire using artificial intelligence. Through their proprietary machine learning algorithm, they wanted to reduce the time and effort required to fill a job position for companies. We were a part of a project for the client aimed at developing a robust machine learning algorithm to best match candidates to a job opening.

The matching algorithm that was created achieved high rate in matching candidates according to the job openings, making the recruitment process highly efficient.

Customer service and customer engagement

Artificial Intelligence is currently being deployed in customer service. According to Gartner, by 2020, 55% of all large enterprises will have deployed at least one bot or Chatbot.

Since chatbots can lead to faster but at times inefficient and machine-like customer responses, enterprises are using bots which can work in tandem with their human counterparts. One company that provides AI-augmented messaging is LivePerson, where simple questions can be handled directly by a bot, but as soon as the conversation becomes too complicated the bot can hand the conversation off to a human.

AI can also help in creating models to boost engagement with customers by improving internal processes. One of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Asia that conducts clinical trials based on various types of drugs that belong to Therapeutic Areas like Gastroenterology, Neurology, etc. wanted to ensure patients have access to a simplified explanation of the documentation given to patients during clinical trials. We were a part of a project for the client which was aimed at optimizing the process & time required in translation from Scientific to Simplified documents.

An AI based model was used to translate the documents to the desired language of choice. Additionally, a mobile app was built for the patients as an engagement platform for clinical trials which consisted of an AI-Chat bot that provides answers to user’s text/voice-based questions on-the-go. Resulting in patients being more willing to participate in the trial as they felt more in control of the clinical trial experience.

Supply Chain Management

One of the most challenging aspects of managing a supply chain is predicting future demands for production. Machine learning algorithms can find new patterns in supply chain data daily, without needing manual intervention or the definition of taxonomy to guide the analysis. Lennox International Inc. is an intercontinental provider of climate control products for the heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration markets use machine learning for their demand forecasting.

AI can also help in automating the inspection process for the manufacturing enterprises for e.g. The machine learning algorithms in IBM’s Watson platform can determine if a shipping container and/or product were damaged, classify it by damage time, and recommend the best corrective action to repair the assets.

Finance and Accounting

According to Bernard Marr, a futurist and a business strategist, –

‘’The key to the digital transformation of accounting and financing is pairing people and machines together allowing each one to contribute in areas they are best skilled at. Machines can efficiently and accurately analyze a tremendous amount of data, they can spot patterns in the data and learn how to treat various kinds of data.’’.

Some organizations are using AI to simplify their finance and accounting process simple like-

  • At Deloitte, auditors access AI tools with natural language processing capabilities to interpret thousands of contracts or deeds.
  • At Crowe Horwath, data scientists have harnessed technology to tackle complex billing problems in the healthcare industry. The team used machine-based learning to sift through enormous but disparate billing systems of its healthcare clients to flag accounts with discrepancies.

Challenges in deploying AI to business process

Like with many emerging technologies, there are challenges, with deploying AI to enterprise processes. According to a new MIT-Boston Consulting Group survey, 85% of executives believe AI will change business, but only 20% of companies are using it in some way, and just 5% make extensive use of it. Some of the challenges that may impede the process are –

  • Access to data –  companies need to invest in creating the infrastructure to collect and store the data they generate and to recruit talent capable of making use of it.
  • Ever changing markets – businesses do not work on a static model,  which means AI models will decrease significantly in efficacy, so smart companies will need to keep deploying resources and investments in keeping up with the market dynamics.
  • Specialists –  AI still being a niche domain, the lack of AI know-how in management is hindering its adoption in most cases.
    Cost – AI technologies are an expensive deal to an organization. While big names have separate budget allocations for AI implementation, it is the small and mid-size enterprises that struggle to implement AI solutions to their business processes.
  • Computation Speed – Technologies like AI, machine learning and deep learning solution, require a huge number of calculations to be computed at hypersonic speed. This requires processors that have advanced processing power much higher than what is in general adoption today.

In Conclusion

As rightly stated by IBM’s Dr. Kelly –

“In the end, all technology revolutions are propelled not just by discovery, but also by business and societal need. We pursue these new possibilities not because we can, but because we must.”

The bigger technology players are paving the way for having automated and AI enabled processes. The industry as a whole has to evolve in terms of technology, trained resources etc., the costs of deployment will need to go down for smaller players to be a part of the AI revolution and finally infrastructure at an optimal cost will need to be created.

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Mobile Technologies

Is Voice Assistant Technology the Future of Banking?

Oct 24,2018 / By / No Comments

Ask anyone you know: what’s the longest you’ve had to stand in line at your bank? Chances are high that you’ll hear a number of stories detailing long, frustrating experiences at their bank that left them feeling irked and ignored the longer they stood there.

Banks and financial institutions have a unique opportunity to use technology to create a tailored approach using empathy and automation for the delicate and sensitive nature of finance. And this begins with how users search for information to meet their specific needs.

Over 50 percent of users do at least one voice search online per day. Experts estimate that the current market share of virtual digital assistant/voice assistants will triple by 2021. Our world is becoming ever-increasingly connected and automated. Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa have shifted the way we view our daily list of to-dos by enabling us to manage our time and tasks more efficiently. Over one-third of people say that digital assistants are part of their daily lives.

Voice Assistant Technology

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Currently, much of VA technology is being used for devices that manage mundane and simple tasks, such as:

  • Finding restaurant reservations and maintaining our home’s temperature
  • Using home assistants to include items on our shopping lists while our hands are full
  • Setting a timer while we cook
  • Making basic search queries for the weather forecast

However, can the emergence of VA technology be the bright future that banking needs? How will this technology enable banks and financial institutions to better serve their clients in the short and long term, without creating unnecessary barriers to our personal, human interactions?

From then Until Now: AI and Finance

Robots assisting customers with their banking needs is not a recent innovation. Indeed, anyone who has had to repeat themselves on the phone in order to be understood through a series of voice commands, or those who have been denied a bank loan because of a restrictive computer program, can attest to the fact that AI and automatic technology have been around for years.

The Banking Technology Vision 2017 report from Accenture states that not only do 80 percent of all bankers believe that voice-assistant technology will revolutionize their industry, but they believe it will do so within three years. While that timeline may seem short, the reality for many banking leaders is that they’re already starting to see the benefits of using VA tech for both customer interactions and data management.

We’ve seen tremendous advances in the field of natural language processing (NLP, for short). Users have gone from the example above, where customers would find themselves frustrated and despondent at the near-fruitless interactions with their banks, to the natural and organic conversations that we carry on with Alexa and Siri, experiencing moments of ease and delight.

When implemented well, voice-assistant technology brings customers and banks closer together. Here are a few examples of companies creating meaningful transactions and interactions with VA technology while considering the needs and wants of both their company and their customers.

Leading by Example

As a leader in the financial and banking industry, you need to meet your users where they are. And for the vast majority, that means reaching them through their mobile devices. It’s not difficult to find apps that are already making strides in tailoring their customers’ experiences while managing their financial portfolios.

Apps such as Mint (budgeting app from Intuit), Venmo (digital wallet to send payments), and Stash (investment and savings app) offer something that has been missing from much of banking: personality. Users can have a more organic interaction with these apps, empowering them to make smarter financial decisions, becoming better customers.

Tomorrow’s AI-Enabled Banking, a recent report from IPSoft highlights the fact that “73% of millennials would rather trust their finances to tech companies like Google, Amazon or PayPal than to their own bank.” That’s no small matter, and banks should be paying attention to numbers such as these.

Leading by Example

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Financial institution Cap One recently partnered with Amazon to allow users to access their bank accounts and account info with their voice. In addition, Santander enables their customers to make payments and authorize transfers using their voice within their SmartBank app.

Products, services and customer care interactions are increasingly being injected with a sense of humanness, regardless of the level of automation involved. These interpersonal relationships between you and your customers may be the difference between winning or losing to your competitors, both to existing competitors and to new market players.

People and Data: What to Prioritize in VA Technology

Voice-assisted tech is growing in popularity simply because it is easier to use. With that advantage, your company can focus on three key areas to consider when implementing (or enhancing your current) VA technology platform and mobile app: security, accuracy, and platform.

Security

Security (and privacy), while ubiquitous for banking institutions, is an ever-present concern when new technology (or any technology) is involved. Be forward-thinking in your approach to speech recognition software (and updates), password requirements, and situational consideration of privacy (for example, the option to simply display, rather than recite, confidential financial information on the screen when in a public place).

Accuracy

Despite all the advancements and innovations, VA will never be 100% correct all the time. Put safeguards in place for those times when things break down to ensure customers aren’t feeling lost or frustrated. Create a plan to handle misunderstandings when someone’s voice commands aren’t understood clearly by a bot, to prevent would-be disastrous mistakes that could cost both you and your customers significant losses.

Platform

While customers can move from app to app with ease depending on their needs, large enterprises require a strategic, considered approach to choosing the right platform for their users. For many, Facebook chatbots are the simplest and fastest form of reaching their clients, but that avenue is often too informal for most banks and financial institutions. In this regard, consider a customized yet manageable approach to your back-end technology. If you plan well, your users will continue to grow with you and your technology without you being limited in the future to the popular platforms in today’s market.

You can effectively harness VA technology in your banking app to leverage not only the existing knowledge base and familiarity with technology that consumers possess, but also to maintain a formidable competitive edge, establishing your company as a leader in the marketplace. AI and VA technology offer you the flexibility to meet customer needs with fewer resources in less time.

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Mobile Technologies

How Retail Apps Are Using Augmented Reality to Provide a Better User Experience

Sep 18,2018 / By / No Comments

Imagine being able to experiment with different outfits that you want to buy from the comfort of your sofa, or being able to “try on” multiple shades of lipstick with a click of a button without the mess of color strips lining the back of your hand as you test them out in the store. Imagine being able to customize your food delivery so that your favourite items are available at the click of a button or two and having a feature that allows you to pre-order a day or two in advance.

You don’t have to imagine that with too much difficulty these features and functionalities have been available for a number of years by several large retailers, providing their customers the ability to tailor their purchasing power and subsequently giving retailers insights into their customers’ preferences and habits.

Research indicates that by 2020, augmented reality technology will claim a market share worth over $120 Billion. And while consumers have witnessed significant advancements that help them simplify their decision-making process, many retailers may have been slow to adopt this burgeoning industry tool while it was still in its early stages. The good news for consumers is that many are slowly joining the ranks of these larger companies that have been using the technology for years, with the hopes of making this technology ubiquitous in our shopping habits.

Let’s examine a number of key ways that augmented reality technology is helping retailers create a more delightful customer experience from beginning to end.

Virtual Reality vs Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality vs Augmented RealityImage source

Let’s begin with a quick definition review, and a differentiation in two closely related technologies. Virtual Reality (VR) portrays a world completely generated by computers and entirely immerses the user in this constructed world; Augmented Reality (AR), however, sits at the crossroads between the real world and the “enhanced” reality that is projected from digital devices in order to increase (augment) our senses and perceptions. Essentially, VR requires the user to enter an entirely fictional world, whereas AR is real life with “upgrades” or add-ons.

Because of its usefulness in a range of applications, AR has become widely used in the retail world. This technology, once innovative and new, is now offering a reliable and effective UX tool for retailers. Marci Troutman, CEO of SiteMinis, states this well:

“Like any other marketing effort, if [AR is] deployed thoughtfully and with planned momentum, it could give any brand a great lift in sales no matter what the competition is doing. If other brands aren’t already deploying consumer-friendly additions that help their customers shop better and easier, then they should take note at successes surrounding those who do and consider a change.”

The rise of the viral sensation Pokémon GO saw this on a global scale, with an almost manic adoption of augmented reality in the mainstream media. Users found themselves immersed in half-reality, half-fiction as they scoured their neighbourhoods and communities for signs of hidden Pokemon to catch and other players to connect with, often to the detriment of their own health and safety. Despite these negative effects, Pokémon GO showed people that AR is a formidable and easy-to-use tool to generate mass adoption if designed properly.

Pokémon GO

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Augmented Reality is a More Powerful Tool

There’s a popular saying that, in essence, states that the most powerful tool is the one most often used by its owner. The same can be said for augmented reality. Once on the fringe, it has become commonplace in our devices and applications and a staple in how we interact daily, both with technology and with people. AR is a simpler technology to implement than VR technology, in as much as it can often be cumbersome and expensive to create a different reality for users using VR.

Consider the medical field: doctors, nurses, and medical practitioners would greatly benefit from immersion or support in a critical scenario that had real-life, real-time consequences, but that can also allow them to learn more effectively in a constructed or semi-constructed reality.

Augmented Reality is a More Powerful Tool

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AR can be especially useful in this arena by reducing errors, offering real-time assistance for difficult cases, and providing beneficial shortcuts for both patients and doctors. For example, nurses and other medical professionals report that 40 percent of the time they can’t find a patient’s vein on the first try, with those numbers being even higher when drawing blood from children or seniors. AccuVein, a product that accurately scans for and locates a patient’s veins, is helping to significantly reduce the “miss rate”, in some cases as close to zero misses.

In the world of retail and consumers, however, customers need to only understand and experiment with the products they’d like to buy in order to learn how those products will serve to enhance their daily lives. From this perspective, AR makes an effective and powerful tool.

Take QR codes, digitally rendered square blocks of even smaller blocks of black and white, which have been around since 1994. These codes contain useful data, such as a direct link to a company’s website, an online promotion, or an action to email someone, simply from scanning the QR image. We still use QR codes (in blockchain transactions) but have graduated far beyond these simple QR codes from a decade ago, and can now access tools that recognize data from a picture of a sign in a store or the facial recognition software that helps you pick the best shade of lipstick for your skin tone.

Enhancing the User Experience with AR

In effective marketing campaigns, retailers have to walk a fine line between showing customers their current reality (life without this product) while attempting to show how things will improve or redirect that reality once their products are in the hands of the customer all without making the customer feel belittled or attacked. This messaging is subtle, but so important for the relationship between retailer and consumer, as it implies that reality needs improvement and what better way to convey that than by actually enhancing reality in real time?

Retailers are incorporating AR technology into many aspects of the customer experience, both online and in person at the store. For retailers selling physical products and goods, AR tech offers customers an easy way to see products in “real life” without ever stepping foot in a store. Zara, McDonalds, and Sephora are well-known examples of companies that have integrated AR technology into their platform to reduce frustrations that consumers may feel when searching for just the right products, as well as providing comprehensive information about those products to build trust between consumers and retailers, which creates a longer-lasting relationship that benefits both parties.

Almost 75% of consumers think that retailers should be utilizing augmented reality technology in some way, and over half of customers feel that if companies are already using AR technology, they aren’t using that technology to its full potential to make the customer journey streamlined and customized. Although AR technology can drastically increase sales, if the technology isn’t designed properly for users, then sales will stagnate.

We examine several of these companies below that have implemented AR well, and how this technology has not only increased the enjoyment their customers feel when shopping for their products but also helped customers make better purchases that match their needs.

Companies Effectively Using AR Technology

From Cart to Consumer ─ Simplifying Decision Making for Customers

Sephora introduced AR into their platform in early 2017 by way of their Virtual Artist platform, which shows customers a realistic “mockup” of how certain skin care and makeup products would look with their face shape, skin colour, and other distinguishing features. With the addition of more efficient 3D facial recognition software, Sephora gave customers the power not simply to upload a self portrait, or “selfie”, to the app but now offered real-time rendering of their face using Sephora’s app, giving them a more realistic impression of the Sephora products they were hoping to purchase.

From Cart to Consumer ─ Simplifying Decision Making for Customers

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Try Before You Buy: Using AR to Create Your Dream Home

A recent survey showed that furniture is the most popular item that customers shop for using augmented reality technology. AR offers retailers the opportunity to create comprehensive and immersive product catalogues for customers; if they never look at it, it’s no inconvenience, but these product listings are available at a moment’s notice and greatly reduce the time spent researching the various options available to customers.

Retailers like Wayfair and IKEA have created apps that allow users to select products from the catalogue and use their smartphones or tablets to show in real time how those products would actually look in their homes and offices. This reduces the stress involved with picking something that doesn’t fit, and it reduces the time spent searching, buying, shipping, and building a product that eventually doesn’t work well for their space. Retailers know that this workflow significantly lightens the burden on the customer and allows them to research these options all before clicking “Buy now”. The team at IKEA is anticipating that this technology will show a triple increase in sales by 2020.

Mouthwatering Experiences Through AR and Dining

The app for Bareburger harnesses AR technology to allow customers to “see” the menu item in front of them on their device before they order, giving them a better, more mouth-watering ordering experience.

The Future of AR in Retail

While AR technology has been around for roughly three decades, advances in facial recognition, immersive technology and real-time feedback are just starting to come into maturation. Those developing and using this technology recognize that the future of AR lies in how the devices we currently use and how we use them will change, and inexpertly enhancing and crafting the user experiences with AR.

From a customer perspective, “AR allows for pre-purchase testing of products and makes the purchase process feels more hands-on.” In today’s market, however, users don’t have wide-reaching access to a completely seamless interaction with retailers, and there are still bugs that need to be worked out in existing software (lacking a natural field of view, comprehensive product info, 3D sensing, low resolution) before users can feel confident using AR from retailers on a large scale to be able to receive customized experiences.

This is where the key changes in the technology will greatly impact mass adoption of AR technology: the tailoring of “personalized, accessible and well-designed” products, services, and experiences. Shopping is an activity that each and every one of us performs, and when retailers recognize the value of investing in and properly designing AR for their customers, they’ll begin to see greater returns on customer loyalty, brand power, and increased sales.

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Mobile Technologies

How Today’s Healthcare Apps are Making Life Better for Patients

Aug 27,2018 / By / No Comments

The Past: Healthcare Before Mobile Devices

In the last 100 years, we have watched as healthcare has advanced while people continue to struggle with their health. Obesity rates are rising, so much so that the United States has an obesity rate of almost 40 percent, over 60 per cent of Australia’s population is overweight or obese, and India is now home to the world’s largest obese population. Cancer rates are also on the rise, several of which have yet to find a root cause. With the advent of widespread technology use, however, we’ve seen exponential changes in the way we perceive and manager our health and wellness.

For much of the twentieth century, the major impact that technology had on healthcare was data management. Family doctors and other medical professionals once tediously maintain patient records but faced risks such as damage and theft. Now, nearly every aspect of a doctor-patient visit is recorded digitally.

An excellent example of this shift in technology behind data and the relationship that patients have with the healthcare industry is Epocrates, the medical application from AthenaHealth.

Epocrates is unique, in that it was one of the very first applications (apps) released when the App Store was first introduced to the world. This point-of-care medical app provides over a million healthcare professionals with support and a network of trusted consults and providers, identifying and safely reviewing multiple drugs and their characteristics to ensure that medications are distributed and used properly and effectively. In addition, the system is set up to automate many of the tasks once performed manually and to access all relevant data and research for the best possible medical advice.

Epocrates

Read the story of how we collaborated with Athenahealth in redesigning and improving the user engagement of the Epocrates app here.

The app iDoc was tested in 2012 – 2014 to determine if it could improve doctors’ efficiency and effectiveness at locating information within a database of textbooks, the study showed that efficiency in search results increased and subsequently reduced the number of unnecessary tests that doctors and nurses had to perform to find the root cause.

Ten years later, we’ve entered an era where healthcare has grown beyond the walls of hospitals, clinics, and doctor’s offices and is managed in the most ubiquitous place: cell phones.

The Present: The Healthcare of the Tech Age

The global market of applications has surpassed 1 million apps since the App Store first launched in 2008. Users can download free or minimally-priced apps that help them not only track their progress but also help them manage their habits, eat better, and connect with a community of other users for support and encouragement. Similarly, physicians and medical professionals have access to a number of applications that offer not only real-time patient monitoring for more up-to-date health data, such as the AirStrip ONE monitoring app, but that also provides comprehensive and ongoing education about critical insights and advances in their fields, such as Radiology 2.0.

Alongside the growing marketplace of healthcare apps (estimated growth to $111 Billion by 2025), we’ve also seen the rise of wearable technology devices both for patients and doctors: from trendy pedometers like FitBit and clothing that monitors basal temperature, heart rate and blood pressure to apps that manage patient information across regions and offer referral networks of medical professional, apps are often integrated with wearables and other mobile devices to provide a more seamless experience for users.

You can read more about such technologies in our ebook – Digital Transformation in healthcare – the evolving landscape

Benefits of Healthcare Apps

The primary benefit of healthcare apps is the education and peace of mind they provide for patients. Users can access a wealth of resources that help them understand any health conditions they may be experiencing. For example, Propeller Health helps patients not only monitor their asthma inhalers but also sends data about a patient’s use of their asthma attacks and inhaler use directly to their doctor, giving them more accurate, more up-to-date information about their day-to-day health concerns.

Propeller Health

Image source : Google Play

In study conducted in 2015, researchers wanted to learn whether apps were actually helping users lead healthier lives. The study showed that many health ”apps help people overcome barriers like a lack of understanding or organization,” which increases their chances of choosing better habits and leading healthier lives. Other key results of the study indicated that users not only had lower BMIs than non-app users, but that they also possessed a greater belief in themselves to actually achieve their health goals.

Other types of health apps offer supplementary health support and goal tracking. Sleep Cycle helps users track not only their sleep patterns, but also determines the best time to wake you up to prevent grogginess from waking up in the wrong sleep cycle. Happify uses scientific methods proven through psychology to increase your mood and overall satisfaction in life. Fooducate not only provides resources to make healthy meals, but it also connects users to a database that contains details about the nutritional content of the food you buy, just by scanning the product barcode with your app.

Apps that allow patients to connect directly with a doctor, such as HealthTap, provide a framework of trust and safety; doctors can request the information they’ll need to provide assistance, and patients can benefit from real-time answers and speedy lab test results in a confidential and secure environment.

HealthTap

Image source : Google Play

The Future of HealthTech and Healthcare Apps

Looking to the very-near future, we will begin to see Artificial Intelligence (AI) play a bigger role in routine medical care. AI can assist doctors in predicting diseases and helping to prevent them. Even something as simple and accurate record keeping or clinical services are repetitive tasks that can be better managed by AI, freeing up time that doctors need to work on more difficult medical cases and vital research.

In short, apps make patient’s lives more fulfilling by providing a medium for them to connect with trusted experts and stay on track with goals that may have otherwise gone unrealized. These apps will continue to evolve as users provide feedback about what works best for their unique needs and by giving them a safe space to share their health and wellness journey.

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Mobile Technologies

Design Tips for a Banking App That Ranks Highly in the App Store

Jul 9,2018 / By / No Comments

You sit in a café, enter a few names and numbers and click ”Send”, smiling when the confirmation page shows that you successfully paid your rent on time. Your company is expecting a large payment installment to come in from a client today and you need to confirm receipt of payment for the board meeting you have in 30 minutes. You check your phone on the way to the meeting and see that the funds have been transferred, but just past the payment deadline. You make a note in your calendar to follow up with the client about payment terms and fees, and head into your meeting with confidence knowing the numbers will be up to date.

These situations are examples of effective user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design in mobile banking. Intuitive design understands, as well as anticipates, what users will need to easily control their money and information online.

But what happens when your financial app fails and customers find themselves stranded or stuck because of missing information? How can large and small institutions alike ensure that their customers remain happy and eager to remain loyal to their brand, products, and services? And how do they consistently gain those highly-coveted 5-star reviews online that new users are seeking when making their own purchasing decisions for their banking needs?

Discussions of the largely unbanked population across the globe aside, mobile banking has become ubiquitous in both personal and business financial markets. And while the financial industry could always be met with a groundbreaking, innovative shift in the near future, we find ourselves today focusing on the keys points that companies can use to better design their mobile banking apps. If you want to learn how to design and release a highly-rated banking application on the App Store, read on.

Determine Your Customer Base

Who are you trying to reach? This can be a fairly broad category, but it’s important to understand who will be using your products and services, and to design your app in order to accommodate their needs. Is your customer base largely under 40 with readily available access to internet? Are they a Baby Boomer or Senior with limited technology experience but possessing robust financial knowledge? While this question may seem obvious, too few companies take the time necessary to dig into their ideal AND actual customer personas. Research shows that Baby Boomers and seniors are becoming more active in the online space for banking activity, while nearly half of Millennials using mobile banking are dissatisfied with the existing online banking services. While 43% of Millennials don’t feel their bank connects with them via their preferred channels, data from the Millennial Disruption Index shows that over 70% of Millennials are more excited about using non-traditional banking/payment features through a company they already use for other business transactions rather than their bank, companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, PayPal or Square. Pay attention to these key metrics to see where your app can’t and exceed expectations.

Determine Your Customer Base

Image source: www.fico.com

Are you targeting the US or North American market? Here you will find an already established network/infrastructure of technology, along with consumers’ desires for more efficient banking services in addition to the traditional services being offered. For those in countries that contain a considerable number of unbanked citizens, your team may want to consider what sort of technological restrictions you may face before implementing in those areas.

“As mobile devices reduce the cost to serve a customer by 50%-70%, it becomes profitable to offer financial services to a vast low-income population segment. And that is just one large market segment you may want to disrupt.”

Partnerships that Make or Break Your Success

How often have you heard of horror stories where companies failed to conduct due diligence on their vendors and platform partners, only to find out that the project remaining uncompleted, or worse, their IP or customer data had been stolen?

While due diligence may shift from company to company, these are the top areas you should consider when conducting due diligence with your vendors:

List of references

  • This point is fairly industry standard when it comes to vetting a service provider. Be sure to watch for names of other reputable companies in their references list, companies that you recognize as industry leaders as well.

Financial solvency

  • Unfortunately, many companies that appear successful are at risk for insolvency due to lack of financial controls. If you are concerned that project work could be drastically impacted by a vendor going under, reach out to them to request their latest financial statements.

Verification of insurance & license documentation

  • Especially when working with sensitive, confidential client and financial information, it’s important to verify that all those touching this information. Ask for licenses that show the provider is up to date with their certifications, along with proof of insurance that covers both parties in the case of

Previous complaint history with BBB, FTC, etc.

  • You may need to dig online for this on your own, but it’s important to read what other service partners and customers have written about their experiences with this vendor. If you see a marked pattern of neglect or repetitive mistakes, it might be best to move on.

Legal & regulatory compliance

  • A key point of review for any company, but especially in financial services. If you encounter a vendor that is unaware of jurisdictional regulations and compliance procedures, this should be a red flag. Same goes for those vendors unwilling to comply with those legal requirements and compliance protocols. Don’t open your company and your clients up to unnecessary risk just to save time or cost.

Expected level of service, security controls, technology architecture, past experience

  • Look for and ask for your potential vendor’s processes and procedures concerning the security of data and their level of experience in working in their industry

Contract review; terms, renewal/notification requirements, required service levels, etc.

  • Have your team review vendor agreements so you know exactly where your exposure might be in regards to terms of renewal (is this optional or required from the vendor, and how would it cost if it were required?), and notification requirements should you need to terminate the agreement for any reason.

Company history bios of management & key personnel

  • This can be optional but also vital. If you know the people working for the vendor are reputable and have a history of building trust in the industry, you can mark that down as another checkpoint of reliability and security.

Never ever underestimate the value and investment of taking extra time and effort by truly vetting your project partners. You’ll thank yourself later.

Learn and Understand Your Customers’ Pain Points

Consider what the average consumer has shared with similar organizations in your target market, and really listen when they are frustrated with a specific product or service. Look for patterns and repetition in the complaints and concerns they express. What pain points do they have?

Many frustrations that customers experience can often be fixed or mitigated with little effort or cost to a company. As simple as it may seem beforehand, and as easy as it may be to fix it at any point in the future, companies should recognize that, if left unchecked and unmanaged, these issues can exponentially grow to the point of destruction of your brand’s trustworthiness.

Onboarding:

Customers don’t mind leaving as soon as they start something that is frustrating or has a difficult and convoluted sign-in process. Even if they’ve gone to the trouble of researching your banking app among many others. Remember, getting someone through the door is much harder than keeping them in; keep this in mind when setting up your application’s onboarding process.

Be honest about timelines for the sign-up process. Can customers expect to have their information live in 10 minutes, or 10 days? To the best of your team’s resources, be very upfront about these expected timelines to set reasonable expectations in the customer’s mind. Clear wording, simple instructions, easy-to-read screens can ensure the onboarding is a productive and pleasant introduction to your company rather than a frustrating obstacle.

Take the Paytm app, for example; the easy-to-read design and layout is an integral aspect of what makes this payment app so popular. Another excellent example is the clean, simple layout of Square; apps such as these feature large areas of white space to simplify the steps users need to follow in order to enter payment details and process their funds, reducing the confusion and risk of mistakes that can often accompany a screen with too many moving parts.

Paytm app

“The banks of the future should provide a full digital onboarding. It needs to be fast, intuitive and frictionless.” Make onboarding match the reality of our digital age.

Business versus Personal banking:

Inconsistencies between personal banking and business banking often make sense for both large financial institutions and new fintech companies; for security reasons, there will often be different access levels and authorization protocols. However, the end users don’t necessarily care about the particulars of these differences. They simply want control over their finances, and consistent functionality across the platform to be able to manage that control.

An excellent example of effective integrated mobile banking is YES Mobile 2.0. Their app features a seamless experience across devices and various platforms – smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, and desktops ─ with innovative features enabled to offer on-the-go ease for day-to-day transactions such as:

  • One-touch bill payment.
  • Speech-to-text for hands-free registration
  • On-the-go bill payments from Wearables
  • Transfer of funds to your social media contacts

YES Mobile 2.0

Especially when using the same bank or financial institution, users will argue that banking and finance functions shouldn’t change much in the day-to-day transactional needs. App developers should be sensitive to this and design an app with a consistent, delightful user experience in mind.

Payments:

One of the greatest aspects of mobile banking is the ability to make payments from wherever you are, whenever you need to. Many customers have often lengthy and sometimes frustrating experiences at the bank teller, with long and complex forms and processes have been the norm. Now users have the flexibility to manage both receiving and sending payments, saving them time and, not surprisingly, money. However, when that system breaks down, customers may find themselves shopping around for another option that provides better, faster, simpler service.

A prime example, MAXIT @ My Universe, was launched to save money for its customers every time they used their credit/debit cards for payments. The company began to notice that the majority of transactions went through cards, without fully harnessing the rewards and offers typically available through these cards. The MAXIT app, in turn, helps users track spending, discover offers and choose the best card for payments.

MAXIT App

The whole point of your banking app is to make your customers’ lives easier and to give them more control over their finances. When simple transactions and payments can’t be made, you’ve essentially rendered your app pointless.

Prioritize Security So Your Customers Don’t Have To

As with anything to do with finances, money, and customer data, security is at the forefront of the conversation, from a backend development perspective. But it shouldn’t be in your customer’s mind. Which means, they shouldn’t even consider that it’s not a priority. When designed well, world-class security surrounding their information should simply be assumed and the customer can go about their day with confidence, ease, and trust in your app.

Make things as simple as possible, as secure as possible. In the interest of security, many financial applications encounter problems with the convenience of access for customers. Consider: would you want to visit a restaurant that was only open for one hour a week? This is an area that is still going through changes in innovation, but if you can combine your institution’s need for security with your customer’s desire for convenience, your customer’s trust in your company will grow.

Less but Better: Mobile Apps and KISS method

Create an easy to use system, and stick to it. Complex systems can be made simple, don’t get caught in the trap that more is better.

Navigation:

Navigating your app should be even simpler than navigating the financial institution’s website in order for customers to access their information. For specific items or issues that cannot be resolved by looking through, they should easily be able to find the Contact page with clear instructions on how to reach someone from their financial institution.

Lack of usability is a common concern for users through their mobile banking application, which translates to an undesirable experience resulting in either lost business or angry customers calling or visiting the bank.

Even something as simple as ensuring button colours are consistent across pages can eliminate moments of confusion and frustration. Can customers easily find buttons for processing monthly bill payments? Are the fields for searching through past transactions clearly and obviously labelled? If changes have been made to the site or app, can users still access their information based on repetition, or will they be required to call technical support?

Customers will thank you for following the wisdom of the KISS method (Keep It Simple, Stupid), and they’ll reward you for this in customer loyalty and more business through referrals and word of mouth praise.

Let Your Customer Support Be Your Cornerstone

So you have an app, that’s great. Welcome to 2018, everyone has an app. The challenge now will be to create a banking application that sits above the rest and that supports your customers’ needs properly. Have you created a process or a system that streamlines, simplifies, and saves time? Have you added subtle details and functionality that delights and surprises customers in ways that add value?

One key takeaway is to make your customer service accessible to your customers. Should they encounter a problem or roadblock, be sure that help is easily found, or that an actual person is readily available to help them and get them on their way. If you make your company’s support team a scavenger hunt to find on your site or app, you leave customers with the impression that you don’t care, or that you don’t want to help. Be friendly, be accessible, be knowledgeable.

All in all, good design in mobile banking brings together security, convenience, and accessibility in one place. Be sure to do your research. Ask your customers what they need and want, and really listen to their frustration. Above all, keep things simple, less but better. And then watch those 5-star ratings roll in.

UX/UI design plays a key role when it comes to creating engaging and delightful products for consumers and we at Robosoft strive to create such digital solutions across industries. We are thrilled to be named as one of the Top User Experience Design Agencies of 2020 by Upvotes.co a leading listing platform for full-service agencies, web design companies, digital marketing firms & top technology companies. You can see more of our work here.

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Mobile Technologies

Voice assistants in retail – what consumers want

Jun 28,2018 / By / No Comments

From the advent of the mobile to smartphones and talking on the phone to talking ‘to’ it, we have come a long way.

‘Hey Siri’, ‘Ok Google’, ‘Alexa’ are now a part of our day to day lives. Voice assistants have changed our relationship with smartphones from being a communication device to being enablers of simplifying some of our daily tasks.

Voice searches and voice assistants have piqued users’ interest over the years. According to Gartner, about 30% of all searches will be done without a screen by 2020 and as per Comscore, 50% of all searches will be voice searches.

Voice searches and voice assistants

Image source: https://voicebot.ai

How consumers are using voice assistants

According to a study, 35.8% of millennials use voice-enabled digital assistants at least once a month. While we have seen consumers using voice assistants and slowly becoming comfortable with the technology, is it something that retailers should concentrate on right away?

To answer that question let’s see how consumers are using voice assistants:

Voice Shopping Skews Younger

Here is how consumers are using voice speakers:

A recent report by Comscore suggests-

  • 60% use them to ask general questions
  • 57% use them to get weather report and stream music
  • 16% use it to find local businesses
  • 11% use it for ordering products &
  • 8% use it for ordering foods and services

The above statistics point out that a very small percentage of consumers are using their voice devices for shopping. Further, a majority of Americans (70%) have not yet used voice search or voice assistants to shop, and well over half don’t trust the current providers to get it right.

Here is how consumers are using voice speakers

Even when shoppers are using voice assistants the highest percentage of people use it for researching or managing their shopping lists than actually making a final purchase.

When shoppers are using voice assistants

Image source: https://voicebot.ai

Currently, among the users who use voice search to shop, Google Assistant leads Amazon Alexa (14% vs. 9%). However, these consumers also feel that these players haven’t got voice-assisted shopping right. A study suggests that almost 63% of consumers feel that none of the current leaders (Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft) will pull ahead and “get it right,” any time soon.

There is obviously a gap that the consumer is facing when it comes to using voice assistants while shopping. As per a recent study, these are the three major reasons why consumers are reluctant to use voice-assisted shopping.

  • The technology is new
  • Lack of personalization
  • Not a simplified experience

Let’s dig deeper into each of these.

The reasons behind the low adoption of voice assistants for shopping

The technology is relatively new

Smartphone is an integral part of the consumer’s life today. While consumers are searching on smartphones they are not shopping on the device. Almost a third of shoppers (29 percent) browse on their smartphones daily, but only 27 percent of those shoppers go on to make a purchase on their devices at the same frequency.

The issue is, it’s more of a habit or muscle-memory in play here. While shopping, people tend to browse items, read reviews, compare costs etc. before making a purchase, these are things that cannot be done on voice-based assistants. It’s a habit that is very difficult to change. Of course, it’s possible to add shopping items to your list via voice but it works for items that you commonly use and ones that don’t need research or reviews from other users.

‘’Meeker’s 2015 report bets on ‘Buy buttons’ on social media to drive e-commerce but that has not happened yet. The incumbent e-commerce players are still the king and will remain so in the near future. I think voice assisted shopping might face a bit of resistance from IoT powered shopping such as the Amazon DASH buttons. For repeated purchase of consumables, one-press buttons are much faster and efficient than voice-based shopping. Even though the speech recognition has improved up to human-level accuracy I think people still have to build a habit of using speech to perform tasks on their phones.’’

-Pradeep Kumar, Vice President, Technology Innovations, Robosoft

The overall adoption of voice technology when it comes to retail is still picking up. One of the biggest reasons for this is the lack of interaction with the actual product on a digital platform vs in-store.

In case of voice assistants, the added disadvantage is the lack of screen as well. When it comes to consumables or CPG products like grocery items, it is relatively easier for buyers to shop for them. However, buying higher value products or apparels without a screen is not comfortable for users.

As per Tiffany Tan Kohler, Director, brand engagement, The Clorox Co.

‘’People use voice commerce, specifically, for consumables and reordering products they are familiar with. The beauty of voice is that it enables frictionless shopping, so it’s particularly ideal for buying consumables that shoppers think about during their day.’’

Of course, this challenge opens up possibilities for brands to experiment with technologies like Virtual Reality. Technology giants like Amazon are already thinking ahead and tackling this problem, last year, Amazon launched its Echo Show that provides users with a screen to better see purchases and other images.

‘’I think voice assisted flows will find more use in much simpler tasks where there are not a lot of options to choose from. It’s better suited for flows that are complex to be performed via click or taps but can be done easily via voice command. This can still be applicable to shopping for products that don’t have a lot of configurations.’’

-Pradeep Kumar, Vice President, Technology Innovations, Robosoft

Missing the connect

Most of the voice assistants need to be given exact and specific instructions. However, while shopping consumers are not always clear about the brand they want to buy, in some cases even the product category they want to buy.

According to a study, most website/mobile app visitors actually spend time researching about a product category than buying, further proves that purchase is typically a secondary consideration. In fact, even when it comes to shoppers who say purchase is their primary reason for visiting websites/mobiles apps, just 38 percent first look for the products they came for.

This means most online shoppers are usually looking for recommendations. The voice assistants available in the market today aren’t able to connect with the consumers. A recent study, suggests, 72% of respondents feel that the voice assistants are not cognitive enough to recommend gift ideas. However, as technology advances retailers will be able to personalize customer experiences.

Google Duplex is an example of one such advancement in this area and is a big step towards humanizing the voice assistants. The recent launch of Continued Conversation, a feature that allows for more natural conversation between users and Google Home voice assistants is another critical step towards making conversations with a voice assistant sound more natural.

As per Google

We’ve heard from a lot of people that adding “Hey Google” before each follow-up question for the Assistant doesn’t feel as natural as they’d like. We announced Continued Conversation at I/O as an optional setting which lets you have a natural back-and-forth conversation with the Assistant without repeating “Hey Google” for each follow-up request.

Chatting up your Google Assistant just got easier

Image source : blog.google

The factors responsible for personalizing these experiences for customers are two-fold:

  • First, AI and NLP (Natural Language Processing) will need to advance to a point where consumers feel that they are interacting with a human voice at the other end.
  • Second, retailers will have to devise a strategy to ensure the device has the latest customer interactions so it can make targeted, on point recommendations that align with the shopper’s current sentiment and previous behavior.

Not a simplified shopping experience

With the advancements in the technology and digital payments, the entire purchase-cycle for online purchases is integrated. However, the ease of payments hasn’t been sorted out when it comes to voice-assisted shopping. As per a recent survey, almost 19% of respondents felt that voice commerce required too much guidance.

When it comes to voice-commerce it is important that users get the convenience of making the purchase in minimal voice-commands and zero screen interaction. Much like in the case of mobile apps it is important that the entire purchase cycle from researching to payments is completed in a limited number of fingertips.

As per Bill Carmody Founder and CEO, Trepoint

‘’If voice commerce is not easy to navigate when making a purchase, users will unplug and move to another channel. Regardless of the channel consumers engage on, they want it to be convenient and that’s a major benefit of an in-home assistant.’’

One important thing that brands need to know if they want to be part of the voice assisted shopping is that their names should be easily recognizable by the NLP engines. Products that have common names might be easily recognizable but products that have a tough name or can be pronounced in different ways will have trouble getting it right. Identifying the brand name via voice recognition is the first challenge that brands will have to face and solve.

Why should brands consider devising a strategy for voice-assisted shopping?

While the technology itself seems to be in a nascent stage, it will advance with innovations and improvements in the area of AI, NLP, AR/VR etc. For brands, to stay ahead of the curve, it makes sense to start exploring the possibilities now, when the technology is still picking up and the adoption is easier.

Further, today’s digitally-savvy consumers seek technology-rich experiences, provided they are done right. According to a recent report by Capgemini–

40 percent of consumers say that three years from now, they will be more likely to use a voice assistant rather than engage with a retailer’s mobile app or website. That’s up from 24 percent who use or would use the technology today.  The study also found consumers expect to be using voice assistants over a number of other retail tasks within three years, including visiting a shop, dealing with customer support/call centres and using a salesperson.

However, while consumers are open to trying a new technology, they are equally fast to abandon an experience that doesn’t add value to their digital experience and isn’t intuitive enough. Hence, it is important for brands to have a clear strategy on why they should have a voice-search strategy and how is it going to make consumer’s life easier.

As Joey Moore, director product manager, Episerver, rightly puts it:

“Today’s shoppers are interested in technology-rich experiences, but only if it’s done right. Rather than introducing novel technology for the sake of doing so, brands should implement tools like smart mirrors in-store and facial recognition sign-in online to make shopping easier, fast, more convenient and engaging.”

What consumers expect from voice assistants

Convenience is one of the major reasons why consumers adopt any new technology. So, is the case with voice assistants too. As validated by a recent report, 52 percent of consumers say convenience and 48 percent consumers say the ability to do things hands-free, are the two biggest reasons for preferring voice assistants over mobile apps/websites. Further, being able to automate routine shopping tasks and a higher level of personalization was tied for third, at 41 percent.

When it comes to shopping consumers would want a voice assistant to make their lives easier at various touch points.

What consumers expect from voice assistants

So what should brands be doing now to get ready for the voice shelf?

It is clear that consumers are expecting retailers to offer a voice-based solution to make their lives easier. Further, in the coming years, voice is going to be a strategic selling channel for retailers. As found in this survey, voice technology has a huge satisfaction rate across several age groups. 65% of users said they can’t go back to a life without a smart speaker and they end up using the technology multiple times a day.

It’s projected to be a $3.5 billion dollar industry by 2021. Given these facts, it is evident that voice-technology is going to take off in the coming years, it is important for brands to plan for voice-technology in their strategy.

How retailers can make the most out of the voice-search

According to ComScore, 50 percent of all searches are going to be by voice by 2020. To adapt to this changing behaviour of users, Google has subtly been evolving its response to this, providing “Answer boxes” for a couple of years to an increasingly wide range of queries. Powered by the Knowledge Graph, which stores structured and unstructured information to help Google improve its search queries, these boxes fuel the answers provided by Google Home. As users get more accustomed to voice search, it will also impact how consumers shop.

It’s clear that voice-activated shopping is only set to get bigger, but many companies are unsure about where to even start with their voice strategy. Some of the basic strategies that brands should be keeping in mind while adopting voice strategy are – eCommerce optimization,  a good search ranking, accurate and complete product content, as well as highly-rated and well-priced products, is the foundation to a successful voice strategy.

Understand your consumers

As mentioned earlier one of the reasons why consumers opt for voice search is convenience and simplifying their day-to-day tasks. Hence, it becomes critical for brands to understand consumer behavior while they shop. Brands will have to anticipate what users need and in doing so, user-centric voice strategy will play a critical role.

It might include providing solutions based on previous user-interactions with the brand, social listening and intuitive user behaviour on a brand’s website or app. As smart-speakers gain ground, a user-centric strategy will help brands get a competitive advantage.

Another important aspect of devising a user-centric strategy would be understanding the user-intent behind any query. This will require brands to develop content as well as expand your paid search keyword lists to include longer tail keyword phrases to reach users at each stage of intent based on the types of questions they are asking.

Understand your consumers

Image source: Campaignlive.co.uk

Understand user’s language

As mentioned earlier in the article, most users are reluctant to use voice search because they do not connect with the voice assistants. One of the reasons behind this is the tone and the words they use while using a voice query vs a search query. Voice searches are longer than keyword searches for a simple reason that compared to typing, we can speak more words at any point in time. Further, when it comes to voice search the queries are more natural than the ones entered in the search bar.

Understand user’s language

Image source: Campaignlive.co.uk

Hence brands will have to be cognizant of the fact that instead of saying what consumers type, they are going to speak in a manner they verbally communicate.

For instance, instead of saying Thai restaurants, Chicago, they’re going to say, “Where are the closest Thai restaurants?”

Natural language queries make up 70 percent of queries received by Google Assistant, and voice searches are 30 times more likely to be action-based. Further, People can speak 150 words per minute compared to typing only 40, and speaking is a much more natural way for us to interact with our surroundings.

Advances in AI, deep learning and NLP will further bridge the gap between voice assistant understanding and connecting with their human friends better. AI also offers an unprecedented access to user habits and preferences—so bands have a huge potential to use it. Brands will need to leverage AI to customize the conversation in the users’ conversational style. Tone and wording are crucial in that endeavour.

Hear more than what users say

While voice recognition technology is still improving, one of the key differentiators in this aspect will be understanding not what users say but what they mean. For instance, if a user asks Alexa to “search women’s Adidas Ultra BOOST shoes,” is she looking for user reviews or is she ready to purchase? And in decoding this user-intent AI will play a critical role by augmenting basic search parameters.

AI can help brands read contextual clues to refine their customer persona model by what stage of the buying journey someone is in. Armed with this information, brands will be better positioned to fine tune their voice in accordance with intent.

In conclusion

While voice search is becoming popular amongst users, it will take time voice commerce to pick up pace. However, it will help retailers and the e-commerce industry to prepare for this change right now, when users are still becoming accustomed to the technology and the entry barriers are low.

However, the incidents of recent security and privacy breaches have made consumers sceptical and more concerned about the security and privacy issues related to any piece of technology. The recent breach of privacy by Alexa’s Echo makes it even more important for brands to ensure robust security measures are taken.

Coupled with advances in technologies like  AI, VR, deep learning, NLP, etc. voice assistant technology is set to slowly become an integral part of consumers’ life. For brands, it is critical to start preparing for this shift now and be future ready

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Mobile Technologies

The right app metrics and other hallmarks of a good app analytics framework

May 18,2018 / By / No Comments

There are approximately 5 million apps in App Store and Google Play.

With over 1.2 billion mobile users worldwide, it is predicted that by 2020 the app economy will reach $189 billion, an increase of 270% from 2016.

While these numbers look promising, the truth is, though there are millions of apps out there in the app stores vying for users’ attention, the apps which get downloaded are abandoned in an eye’s blink. Almost 77% of users never use an app again 72 hours after installing. Time spent on apps is also low with 34% of mobile app engagements lasting less than one minute.

So, how can enterprises ensure that they course correct before it is too late?

While in a digital world, there is an avalanche of data available, this data deluge is precisely the problem. App creators often get overwhelmed by the availability of the information at their disposal and choosing to ignore what is not relevant can be a tasking job.

But this is a job that needs to be done.

Tracking the right metrics is the most critical aspect for determining the success of an app.

‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure.” – Peter Drucker

However, to ensure the success of an app, it is essential that for app creators, analytics is not an afterthought – not something to be thought of after the app release; they have to be clear of metrics which they want to measure when planning.

Not all metrics are created equally

Fundamentally, an app needs to help users accomplish whatever they set out to do, faster and better through delightful interactions. At the core of it, all are human emotions.

At Robosoft, we believe that mobile solutions need to strike a chord among users and engage them emotionally.

And, that is the most critical factor to ensure the success of your mobile app. However, even to get to a point where we are course correcting basis consumer engagement and interest, we need to track the right metrics. But more often product teams waste their precious time and money chasing useless metrics, which do not provide any real value.

Often app metrics are divided into four broad buckets

  • Performance metrics: these metrics focus on how the user is experiencing the app.
  • User and usage metrics: these data points provide visibility into the user and their demographics
  • Engagement metrics: these metrics highlight how the user is engaging with the app
  • Business metrics: Focus on business (revenue etc.) flowing through the app

Though there is no one-size-fits-all approach to measuring metrics for your app performance, it is different for individual businesses. However, for ensuring that you are tracking the right ones, it is important to look at these app metrics from a different perspective.

For instance, today, almost 22 percent apps users download on their smartphones end up not being used ever. So, if an app owner is concerned with mainly tracking downloads, they are chasing an empty metric.

Here are some tips on how app creators can approach tracking of the right metrics:

Identifying Vanity Metrics and Clarity Metrics

While there are a plethora of metrics available, app creators should move away from the broad categorization, which is mentioned earlier.

Not all apps are the same, so defining the right metrics for your business puts you a step ahead.

Our suggestion would be to divide these metrics into vanity metrics and clarity metrics

Vanity metrics

These are surface-level metrics that define macro-level trends. While we can use vanity metrics to support a high-level narrative, we can’t use these to make tactical product-level decisions.

Vanity metrics can measure baseline performance. However, vanity metrics cannot provide insights to allow for better product management decisions.

For instance, while tracking the Monthly Active Users (MAUs) may help us understand if overall engagement with the application is increasing or decreasing – it doesn’t help us understand the value of a specific feature to the business.

Example of vanity metrics include – number of downloads, monthly active users, and ad impressions.

Clarity metrics

These are product-level metrics that define micro-level usage trends. We use clarity metrics to inform decision-making around product modifications. Clarity metrics underpin competitive advantage.

While both vanity and clarity metrics will be used across operations, design, product, analytics, quality assurance, and marketing for team-oriented data, it is essential to have an organization-wide transition from purely using vanity metrics to adopting clarity metrics.

These are metrics used by engineering teams, product teams, and business teams to monitor the performance of the application. Clarity metrics provide insight on the performance of the business. Recommended clarity metrics include – feature adoption rate, feature abandonment, and goal-oriented conversions.

Progressing from clarity metrics to KPIs

To define clarity metrics, we need to start with high-level vanity metrics and apply more granular filters that are feature-specific and/or goal-oriented. However, to make use of these clarity metrics, it is crucial to progress them to KPIs.

KPIs are the clarity metrics which are connected to the business targets of an organization.

Converting clarity metrics to KPIs will ensure that app creators can make better product decisions faster and with a higher degree of confidence. Defining clarity metrics as KPIs will also ensure that the key stakeholders can take the right decisions and make product improvements in real time.

Typical issues faced and recommendations for setting up a result-oriented analytics framework

Here are the most common issues faced by the analytics team while setting up an analytics framework to measure app metrics

App Analytics

Collecting the right data

As mentioned earlier, often app creators are confounded by the flood of data available to them through various metrics, that they miss the important ones. At Robosoft, we take various measures to ensure that the data we collect is relevant and helps in achieving business goals.

Here is what we do:

  • Proper event tracking implementation

Events are a useful way to collect data about a user’s interaction with interactive components of your app, like button presses or the use of a particular feature in a game. We help businesses in identifying the clarity metrics while tracking an event.

  • Well defined event tracking specification (‘Event Taxonomy’ specification)

In this step, we define parameters against any action that a user takes and derive insights accordingly. For e.g., if a user is using the mobile wallet app on their phone to recharge their mobile, then parameters like – amount recharged, the name of the operator etc. might be useful for the business owners to make product based decisions.

  • Comprehensive event tracking within the application

Our event tracking is aligned to insight-driven analysis. Funnels track the user’s behaviour starting from acquisition to conversion. We include conversion event tracking and campaign tracking as well.

  • Allow for quick modifications to tracking

Most analytics tracking measures are archaic and hard coded. However, we use tools like Google Tag Manager; it helps is real-time tracking and modifications.

Collecting data you can trust

Identifying the data to be collected is just the first step. It is important to format this data in a manner so that it can be used right.

Here is what we do:

  • Clean and reliable data through the setup of proper filters

We add appropriate filters while collecting data. We also use the method of cohort analysis, which helps us in deriving insights related to user behaviour. Cohort analysis allows businesses to derive actionable insights. For instance, for an e-commerce app, data points like – in how much time did a group of users checked out, how much money did they spend, etc. may be helpful in making product level decisions.

  • Verify and augment analytics with back-end application data

Relying only on analytics data might not give businesses accurate understanding of the performance of the app. Especially, in case of any glitch in the analytics tool or if the tracking hasn’t been set up properly. So it is important to verify this data with the back-end data as well.

  • Implement back-end performance monitoring

While insights that are derived from analytics data can help app owners can enable app owners in customizing the user experience, it will be a pity if the app performance isn’t up to the mark. When an app crashes on a user’s device, app developers need to know about it. Users who experience severe performance issues aren’t going to write in and inform—they’re going to leave bad app store reviews. Hence, we implement performance monitoring metrics to keep a track on how critical features in an app are performing. We track the time of logging of an API request and its response time.

Access data quickly and efficiently

Like mentioned in the earlier points, it is vital to specify event taxonomy. Doing it right is important.

Here are is what we do:

  • Detailed and descriptive events taxonomy

While creating event taxonomy we make sure that we define the purpose of tracking a particular data point. For instance, if after the sign-up process the users are expected to update their profile, defining why tracking how many people update their profile is important. Or defining which information that is a part of the profile update process is important for the app owners.

Basis this analysis, app owners can take decisions like making some critical data points a part of the sign-up process instead of adding it to the next step.

Access to data across the organization

Sometimes different teams in an organization depend on the app metrics data to take decisions. For instance, product teams might be relying on this data to take feature level decisions at the same time marketing teams will depend on this data to take consumer-facing decisions. Hence it is important that everyone is looking at a unified format of the data.

Here are is what we do:

  • Real-time analytics

While most app owners track periodic data (weekly/monthly), tracking real-time data for some critical app features is important. It helps app owners in taking right decisions at the right time.

  • Standardization of data

Sometimes the data that is captured by the analytics team is in a raw format. Further, different analytics tools will have a different method of collecting this data. It is important to standardize the data visualization process across all divisions.

It will help every stakeholder derive and understand the data in a unified manner than leaving a room for ambiguity in the insights. It will help all decision makers take unified, informed and data-driven decisions.

Make data-driven decisions

Understanding your audience, their in-app behavior, and the natural screen flows are necessary for iterating and refining your app for better results. You can use these engagement insights to launch app marketing campaigns, redesigns, UX changes, and stronger funnels that boost ROI and make your app a profitable channel in your brand’s overall marketing strategy.

Here is how we aid app owners to achieve this:

  • Rapidly deploy the best performing features to optimize KPIs

A lot of times the product team is blind without feature level insights. Hence it is important to define the critical features and track them on a real-time basis and optimize them according to changing user behaviour and performance metrics.

  • Understand your user and use data to prioritize features

Only tracking performance data isn’t enough. It is important to capture user’s intent with analytics-driven features. Further prioritizing features basis, this data will help app owners in getting higher rates of user engagement.

In conclusion:

Most app developers pay heed to setting up an analytics framework after the app is developed and released in the market. Sadly, it is often too late to course-correct. It is critical to identify the clarity metrics that a business wants to chase and then define an analytics framework to capture that data. And, all this needs to be done before the app is released in the app stores.

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Mobile Technologies

5 Key Takeaways from LendIt Fintech 2018

Apr 17,2018 / By / No Comments

Last week’s LendIt Fintech event was a great gathering of Banking, Fintech and Lending professionals from across the globe.

Industry experts covered everything from the future of the banking industry in a digital age, to blockchain and the application of AI and machine learning in the financial services domain.

Here is a roundup of some of my key takeaways from the event:

Banking in a post-digital age – being always present for the always-on customer

The banking and the financial services industry is going through a pivotal time. The most critical reason is the changing digital preferences of the always-on customer. Owing to the changing customer preferences and innovations happening in the industry, financial enterprises and banks are compelled to re-imagine the conventional way of connecting with their customers.

Digital is where today’s generation spend a vast majority of their day and the vast majority of their time. An average adult spends about 4 hours a day on the digital platform, checking their smartphone 150 times a day. And, smartphones are not the only connected devices customers are present on – there are wearables, smart speakers, smart cars, smart TVs and the list goes on. It is expected that by 2020 there will be 30 billion connected devices. It is no longer about being present on the digital medium; it is about building a personal relationship with the customers.

As Avid Modjtabai, of Wells Fargo, points out in her talk:

‘It is about developing a profound level of insight into every customer and connecting with them when and where they need us — with experiences that make a difference in their lives.’

Today’s customers share a great deal of information about themselves with enterprises, with the trust that these enterprises will manage and leverage this data to make their lives simpler. This gives enterprises the opportunity to go beyond the transactional relationship with their customers and make it personal.

Banks have to make sure that they are innovating at the same pace as their customers see in other walks of life.

Here are the few ways banks can achieve this:

 

Image source: Lendit.com

Smarter Data

Enterprises have access to over 375 petabytes of data on customers’ behaviour and preferences. To put that into context, one petabyte can store the DNA information of the entire US population and clone it two times over.

With bigdata, we can make this data work and work harder on behalf of the customers.

According to PwC – 46% of the banking customers are digital-only. This is a huge opportunity for the industry to deliver a contextualized, hyper-personalized experience at the moment wherever they are.

In the future data and AI together can:

  • Enable customers to manage their money with just voice.
  • Give intuitive tips that would help customers plan their finances.
  • Help in underwriting and fraud management.
  • Look at the cash flow patterns of customers and give relevant in-the-moment insights.

Next-Gen ID management

Customers trust banks to secure their assets. Identity management is a core component to manage that trust. With customers linking their IDs and financial accounts to a lot more apps and devices, ID management has become more and more complicated and important.

There are about 60 records that are lost or stolen every second, and that adds up to a humongous 5 million records every day.

With a growing number of security and identity breaches, it has become essential for banks to verify every customer at each and every interaction. Today, financial institutions are moving away from knowledge-based authentication to more advanced processes like biometrics, geolocation tracking, device finding technologies, leveraging AI to look at patterns, etc. This combination of technology is making the process much simpler and secure for customers.

Frictionless payments

Technology has transformed the commerce and transactions landscape. Today consumers want their transactions to be integrated and seamless and expect the payments’ process to be done in the least possible steps.

Technology has reinvented commerce. For instance, in Sweden, cash accounts for only 2 percent of all the payments and half of Swedish bank branches are cashless today.

It is imperative for industries to develop simpler and fast-moving money movement capabilities and experiences. Banks have the capability of being pioneers in this area, and some are raising the bar higher, e.g. Zelle P2P payments from Wells Fargo, helps customers transfer money between participating bank accounts in real time.

Transcending channels

Today customers are always connected, and they expect that from enterprises they deal with as well. Customers want to talk to their banks in the moment of their need – this model is changing the way financial institutions have been thinking about channel and distribution.

Also, banks have to make sure that they are not just available when the customers need them; they also give the customers the choice of communicating with them in the way they wanted, e.g., Apple announced Apple business chat with Wells Fargo. It enables customers to chat with their banks through the same messaging app in which they are talking with their friends and family.

Fintech collaboration

Today technology is not just an enabler but is a differentiator for enterprises across industries. And, hence Fintech collaboration is becoming increasingly important for banks. In the coming years, most product innovations will come from fintechs and banks working together.

Finding the right ‘Product Market Fit’ in Fintech is important:

In this digital era, Fintech is more about the ‘Fin’ and less about the ‘Tech’. A lot of financial enterprises build products with ancient infrastructure with a thin layer of UI on it. It is important to find out the right Product Market Fit in Fintech. Instead of looking for a market first, enterprises should aim at finding out the problem that they are going to solve, build a great product around it and then focus on consumers where the product is a right fit.

Here are few tips from Andy Rachleff, co-founder and executive chairman of Wealthfront, to make sure that you find the right Product-Market-Fit:

Understand the What, Who and How before building a product

Three crucial pillars of building a great technology product are finding the answers to these three aspects:

  • What – what are you going to build?
  • Who – for whom is it relevant?
  • How – what is the business model?

Most enterprises do not realize that they shouldn’t iterate on the ‘What’ too much. It is essential for entrepreneurs to identify an inflection point in technology and build a great product around it and then identify the market that needs the product.

Be unconventional

Trying to do better what someone else does is a path to mediocrity. In a technology-led industry, it is important that enterprises innovate and create differentiation for themselves.

Customer delight is the greatest form of advertising

In the journey of product-market fit, paid advertising and customer acquisition can mislead enterprises into thinking that their products are doing well when in reality they aren’t. Further, advertising is a fixed cost, and for small and medium-sized enterprises it means investing in that fixed cost hoping that the market is big enough to take care of that fixed cost. Enterprises should aim at exponential and organic customer growth and invest in infrastructure and build a robust technology first. A great product will delight customers, and that will ensure word of mouth and organic growth of customers.

Not every product idea will work

It is important for enterprises to realize that not every product idea works, some of them are bound to fail. However, it is critical to identify the ones that work and doing all that you can to make those successful.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency – a vision for the future

In January 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence with the release of the first open source Bitcoin client and the issuance of the first Bitcoins, with Satoshi Nakamoto. Since then, the number of businesses accepting Bitcoin continues to increase, and along with it, the industry expectations on the currency continue to be bullish. In fact, even the Mt. Gox fraud of Bitcoins, led to just a drop of 15% in the value of the currency.

How Bitcoin will change the future of banking

The transactions that happen beyond the medium of the banks mostly remain unbanked. Bitcoins can help in bridging this gap and make the unbanked transactions a part of the real economy. Further, Bitcoins help the movement of the currencies easily from one country to another without the need to convert it. Also, it is easier to catch fraud if a transaction is happening via Bitcoins.

Governments across the globe will recognize Bitcoins’ potential

There are a lot of regulatory issues around Bitcoin as of now. However, in the coming few years governments will make it easier for the people to deal with Bitcoins since governments compete for money, entrepreneurs and people, e.g. South Korea made Bitcoins illegal and then they realized that 40 percent of their population already has a Bitcoin wallet, so they had to ease out their regulations. Since the regulatory requirements are not so stringent in the developing economies, they are a potential market for Bitcoins.

Bitcoins will be the new normal

While established financial and payment enterprises aren’t supporting Bitcoins since they already have an established system, companies like Coinbase will become the banks of the future.

Applying AI and Machine Learning to Financial Services Using the Google Cloud

In 2010, Deepmind a start-up created a neural network that learns how to play video games in a fashion similar to that of humans and Neural Turing machine.

Google foresaw how neural networking and AI would change the future of technology forever and acquired the company in 2014.  They started experimenting with this technology and reinvented how Google works internally.  Initially, Deep Learning was used in image recognition through Google photos. In 2015, the technology advanced to not just recognize the targeted image but also the environment (or pixels) around it and further change it.

Deep Learning

Applying AI and Machine Learning

Image Recognition

Image Recognition

Image source: Lendit.com

In the coming years, the technology was used for reading and writing through an auto response to Gmail and voice recognition.Today Google is using AI and Machine Learning to identify user behavior patterns and give output accordingly on Google’s ad network.

User Behaviour Patterns

Image source: Lendit.com

How AI and Machine Learning can change the financial services landscape

Machine Learning can ingest a humungous amount of customer data, structure it, process it and convert it into tensors. These tensors can be then used to train a machine learning system and deliver customized results.

How AI and Machine Learning can change the financial services landscape

Image source: Lendit.com

Financial services can use these techniques of Machine learning and AI to

  • Analyze their customer lifetime value (CLV) better.
  • Define where enterprises can target campaigns to engage most with their customer set.
  • Prioritize customer interaction based on the CLV.
  • Build more efficient processes by using the technology see and fill forms; and also work on quality assurance processes.
  • Read documents and analyze compliance with documents.
  • Listen and speak to customers and shorten the time from enquiry to resolution.

The emergence of the Internet of Value

The Fintech space is evolving very fast. With technologies like blockchain coming up, the fundamental shift that is expected to happen in the coming few years is the emergence of Internet of Value.

This means that financial assets and money will start moving as efficiently as data has been moving in the last 25 years.

The biggest change that blockchain will bring is the complete inter-operability between all the money, systems and the ledgers of the world.

Correspondent banking will dissolve

Today, if someone wants to transfer money across the globe, they have limitations of taxes and time. This issue becomes more prominent when the transaction amount is smaller. Technologies like blockchain will bridge this gap.

Interoperability of data will fasten the pace of globalization

There are three main keys to achieving true Globalization

  • Interoperability of data
  • Interoperability of good
  • Interoperability of money

While we have been able to achieve the first two, we are still lagging behind when it comes to interoperability of money. Blockchain will help in achieving this. The interoperability of money will also be followed by the emergence of IoP or Inter ledger protocol, which is IP or standardization process for ledgers.

Convergence of technologies will make Fintech simpler

The number of smartphone users has been rising and will continue to grow in the coming years. According to the World Bank, in the coming few years every adult in the world will have a digital bank account on their smartphone.

Today, there is the technology and the device, however finding out a link that will wire all of this together is missing. In the coming years, the Fintech industry will figure that out through the interoperability of monies.

Regulators are supporting systems that make sense

Governments across the globe are working towards inclusion of the people and developing economies which are not connected to the world economy today. Digital currencies and enabling regulations by these governments will help in achieving that. Most payments will be machine to machine once the interoperability and developing world problem is solved.

Data security and privacy will be of utmost importance

As the demand for digital assets grows, governments will also make sure that data privacy issues are addressed. New and stringent laws will be introduced. California consumer privacy act is coming out this year and EU GDPR privacy laws etc. are some steps in this direction. We are in the best of Fintech regulatory environment right now.

Currencies will have more use cases and will be more liquid

ICOs are problematic because currencies need to be as liquid as possible and have as many use cases as possible.That will drive value and utility. The early beta of this is cross-border payments but this is just the beginning, and we will see more such use cases of currencies coming up.

Conclusion

The banking and the financial services is at a turning point right now. This year’s LendIt conference gave us a detailed view of the future the industry is moving towards. With changing customer behaviour, technology advances and innovations there lies exciting times for the industry ahead.

You can find more about the event here.

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Mobile Technologies

Chatbots: revolutionizing the future of customer experiences

Dec 22,2017 / By / No Comments

In today’s ever-changing business landscape, enterprises are not just competing on the products they deliver but also how they engage with their customers. Prudent businesses are already investing in new-age technologies to win at customer experiences. According to a report by Forbes, 56% of the top performing businesses are investing in AI to personalize and continuously learn from customer interactions.

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Featured Mobile Technologies

Top 10 mobile & technology trends that are revolutionising the retail industry

Aug 22,2017 / By / No Comments

In a post PC era, industries across the globe have redefined the ways of connecting with their customers. The retail industry landscape is also shifting owing to the increased penetration of internet & smartphones and emergence of innovative technologies like AR/VR, AI, IoT, etc.

Retailers are working towards using cutting-edge technologies to create delightful, customised and omnichannel shopping experiences for buyers.

For business leaders staying on top of the latest developments and overall mobile and technology trends is critical.

In this article, we will take a closer look at the top 10 interesting mobile and technology trends which are revolutionising the retail landscape across the globe.

1. Today’s digitally-savvy buyer seeks an omnichannel experience

Easy access to the internet and growing penetration of smartphones has influenced almost every aspect of a consumer’s life, including shopping. Consumers are doing more than just searching for product information on the web, today more and more consumers are turning to online portals for making a final purchase. According to a study, overall 67% of millennials and 56% of Gen Xers prefer to shop online rather than in-store.

Though in-store remains the major contributor to the retail economy; online sales are growing at an astounding speed. It is expected that online retail will account for 8.8% of overall retail sales and will register a growth of 89% ($2489 Trillion) by 2018, as compared to its contribution in 2015.

The primary reasons behind the whopping growth of online sales are growing smartphone & internet penetration and changing customer expectations.

While baby boomers wanted to purchase products which were global and boasted of prestigious brand names; millennials are inclined towards buying locally-sourced, authentic and environmentally friendly products. Further, millennials are more willing to save money than spending it on ‘brand names’ which explains their dwindling interest in branded stores.

According to a report by Accenture, Forty-one percent of millennials examine merchandise at a nearby retail store and then shop for it online to find the lowest price.

Taking a cue from this shift in consumers’ shopping habits, retailers are striving to build an omnichannel experience for their customers. Largest offline retailers across the world like Walmart are investing in an online shopping experience; similarly, largest online retailers like Amazon are building brick and mortar stores.

It is apparent that these retail giants do not want to leave any gap and are taking steps to approach their customers at every possible touch-point – online & offline.

For retailers small or big, the implications are rather clear – build an omnichannel shopping experience for customers, which demands an integrated approach including both offline and online presence.

The lines between online and offline shopping experiences are also blurring, and prudent retailers are realising this fact and acting upon it. Walmart, for example, has started using touchscreens in some stores to enable product searches. Retailers are also deploying mobile devices to enable online ordering in-store and offer easy access to inventory searches for customers. For e.g. Lowe’s mobile app allows customers to search and see the entire catalogue, and purchase for in-store pickup, have items delivered directly or find Lowe’s store near their vicinity.

It has become critical for retailers to build a seamless and an easy online shopping experience not just to acquire but retain customers as well.

Further, given the fact that 45% of millennials purchase online through marketplaces like Amazon, small and mid-size retailers must look at listing their products on such online portals.

2. Cross device shopping experiences

Today’s digitally savvy consumers are connected via multiple screens, sometimes at the same time. At an average, Millennials use 3 screens and gen-Z use 5 screens at a time.

According to a study, in 2016 one-third of online retail transactions involved two or more devices across all the retail categories. Throughout the buyer’s journey consumers end up using different devices for individual actions. And these interactions are more complex than the conventional wisdom of ‘browsing on mobile and buying on desktop’. Today’s consumers love their mobiles, and it is an integral part throughout the buyer’s journey too.

Cross device shopping experiences

Image source: Criteo.com

However, the desktop still remains the preferred method of making a final purchase. While mobile accounts for 58.7% of purchases in the UK; in the US, the majority – 54.6% – still use the desktop.

Time Spent Vs. Dollars Spent on retail, By Device

One of the reasons why most of the shopping dollars are still getting spent on the desktop is that most retailers fail to provide a seamless and end to end mobile shopping experience.

A survey done by Newstore found that only 22% of the retailers offer mobile apps that can be used for making purchases. An additional 21% have non-shoppable apps that show products or have other features, but do not allow transactions to be completed through the app.

For retailers, it is important to understand their interactions across platforms and offer intuitive and customised user experience across all the devices that customers are interacting with.

Device performances also vary by the time of the day for e.g. in the US customers shop the most on the desktop during work hours and mobile purchases peak during other hours and weekends.

For making the most out of their cross device strategy, retailers will have to track consumer’s buying behaviour not just across devices but across time too and devise strategies to reach out to them at the right time on the right device.

3. M-commerce is on the rise, and mobile apps are leading this growth

App economy is expected to reach a whopping $6.3 Trillion by 2021 and m-commerce is going to be a major contributor to this revenue.

For retailers choosing between the web and mobile app is an eternal dilemma.However, statistics are inclined to suggest that mobile apps drive more engagement compared to mobile web. Mobile traffic dominates the overall internet traffic, and mobile apps get the lion’s share of consumer’s mobile time with more than 3 hours a day and 89% of the mobile time devoted to mobile apps.

According to a report by PredictSpring mobile apps can drive 3x times more conversions vs. mobile web. Another study suggests that Gen Z are twice as likely to convert on mobile. However, they are quite aversive to poorly functioning apps and websites.

The-State-of-Mobile-Apps

Image Source: PredictSpring

One such example of mobile apps leading to higher conversion is McDonald’s India’s – Mc Delivery app. Last year, to make their mobile app a preferred medium of ordering, McDonald’s India decided to revamp the app. With an intuitive, personalised and simple user interface, the Mc Delivery app was able to garner double the traffic and 103% more orders by redirecting traffic from the web based platforms.

What leads to this positive influence of mobile apps on conversion rates?

Speed and simplicity are the two primary reasons of this. Mobile users are used to simple UI and faster loading speeds, owing to the experience they get on the extensively used social media and messaging apps. Even if the mobile web experience is simplified, it is hard to get the speed factor right all the time. Today’s shoppers have a lower attention span, and lesser time, any delay in loading speed can lead them to abandon an app or divert them to other sites.

According to a recent study, 60% of Gen Z will not use an app or website that is too slow to load, and 62% won’t use an app if it’s difficult to navigate.

Slower sites and apps not just diminish user experience but also result in revenue loss. According to a report, even 1 second of delay in loading speed costs Amazon, 10% on sale, which is $13.6 billion every year.

Sadly, very few retailers make mobile experiences simple, functional and personalised for users. Of the few brands which offer mobile apps, most do not use them efficiently. According to a survey, not many retailers are taking full advantage of mobile technology, almost 36% of retailers miss using push notifications on their apps, and out of the retail brands which offer native apps, only 24%display real-time inventory and a mere 2% offer social sharing options.

For retailers, who have not yet invested in a mobile app, optimising the mobile web experience should be an immediate action point and planning to create a mobile app platform in the near future should be a top priority on their list.

However, while building a retail mobile app the expectations of consumers from e-commerce apps should be kept in mind. According to a survey done by Clutch, the top reasons consumers use mobile apps are -deals & offers, flexibility, price and product comparisons and saving time.

why-consumers-use-e-commerce-apps

Image source: Clutch.com

Further, consumers expect their retail apps to be more than just a buying and browsing platform.
They want innovative, high tech and personalised features on their apps.

In essence, they want their apps to act as a personal shopping assistant to them which can help them with product recommendations, price comparisons, discounts through push notifications, options for social sharing, etc.

For retailers aiming to invest in mobile apps taking into account the above factors and introducing innovative features in their app can give them an edge over the competitors and ensure high customer retention rates.

4. Mobile payments and Digital wallets drive conversations

For consumers, a secure and easy checkout option is of prime importance when it comes to online shopping, and digital wallets can facilitate that. When it comes to mobile apps; digital wallets and in-app payments make life easier for the user by eliminating the need to fill out complex forms on a smaller screen.

The digital wallet market is booming, and consumers are increasingly moving away from hard cash to virtual money mostly because of the convenience factor. In fact, this year Apple Pay’s Monthly Active User’s grew by an astounding 450%. M-commerce is one of the key contributors to this growth. Also, in 2016 in-app payments in retail saw a 57% YoY growth.

The British Retail Consortium estimates that the use of cash has decreased by 14% over the past five years.

Forward thinking retailers are already offering options of mobile payments to their customers even in their offline stores. For instance one of the leading retailers J.C. Penney has adopted payments through Apple Pay across all its stores.

Today’s consumers are moving towards convenient payment options like m-payments, digital wallets, in-app payments, etc. Even payments through Wearables (otherwise considered to be a nascent technology) are also seeing growth. It is estimated that payment transaction volume from Wearables could reach $501 billion by 2020. This is an opportunity which still hasn’t been explored much by the retail industry.

Retail industry must pay heed to the promising attitude of consumers towards mobile wallets and use it to make their interaction simpler on their online and offline platforms. Digital wallets enable users to complete their check out process with just a few taps, making the shopping experience more delightful for them.

5. Live chats giving real time assistance to shoppers

Customer support in e-commerce plays a significant role. A live chat option on the e-commerce platforms (mobile and web) can augment users’ experience and increase conversion rates. It is a known fact that a poor customer care service can adversely affect a brand’s reputation and result in a higher churn rate. According to a survey, 60% of customers say that they have decided to not purchase from a particular retailer after a poor customer service experience.

Live chats giving real time assistance to shoppers

Live chat solutions can help retailers in augmenting customer experience on their platforms with real time assistance throughout the buyer’s journey. According to a report, live chat app solutions have the highest satisfaction level for any customer service channel, with a 73% approval rating.

Smaller retailers are keener to adopt live chat services because it can help them in connecting with the customers during the purchase process and reduces the chances of post purchase customer grievances, which in turn reduces their customer service investment.

According to Michael, merchants have been adopting their services at an annual rate of 84% and have experienced a 100 to 300 percent increase in order size when customers speak to a representative through live chat.

Even larger retailers like Walmart and Nordstrom have adopted live chat to improve user experience on their platforms.

However, one of the drawbacks live chat options are known to have is that they slow down the performance of the sites. This is something retailers must bear in mind if they choose to implement live chat services on their platforms.

6. Innovative ad formats are driving sales

Online advertising is booming. According to an IAB report, digital ad revenue grew to $72.5 billion in 2016. Retailers across the globe are using contextual ads across different platforms to drive sales. In 2017, retail paid clicks were 52% of all the PLAs(Product Listing Ads) on Google.

This boost in online advertising is leading to the emergence of innovative ad formats by various ad platforms, for retailers to experiment with. Exposure to right ads in the right context is driving conversions for brands. Some of the examples of different ad formats being used by the retail industry are:

a. PLA (Product Listing Ads) on Google
b. Geo targeted local ads
c. Targeted pins on Pinterest
d. Goal based bidding ads on Snapchat
e. Contextual ads of Facebook Messenger

Product Listing Ads

Targeted pins on Pinterest

Online ads are not just driving online sales; they are positively impacting in-store sales as well. Location based ads and In-ride/In-hand recommendation ads are formats which are driving footfalls for brick and mortar stores.

Platforms like Uber, Foursquare and Nextdoor, are collaborating to provide location-based ads, and consumers are more accepting to mobile ads which offer them rewards.

In-ride and In-hand recommendation ads

Retailers must use different platforms to target their customers based on where they lie in the purchase journey. For e.g. re-targeting can help in urging a customer to complete a transaction if they have abandoned the cart. Similarly, PLAs can lead the buyer to explore your website or app.

7. Social media influencing buying decisions

Social media is one of the most popular app categories; users are not just engaging with social media platforms but are also getting influenced by it. According to a study, 74% of millennials and 80% of Gen Zers are influenced by social media in their shopping. However, while social media platforms can drive them to make a purchase, these young shoppers despise seeing ads. For retailers, it is important to leverage their social media platforms in an engaging manner rather than just pushing their brand communications with sponsored posts.

Marketers are already devising ways to target the social media loving millennials and gen zers with innovative use of technology and content, be it by using influencer marketing, user generated content or contextual marketing on these platforms.

According to the recent Internet Trends Report Effective UGC (User Generated Content) can generate 6.9x higher engagement than brand generated content on Facebook. Major brands across categories are using UGC to drive engagement.

Internet Trends Report Effective UGC

Further, social media has empowered customers by giving them the opportunity to voice their disappointment and also appreciations on a public and a larger platform. Therefore, stakes for brands are high, not only they have to ensure their product quality and customer service is impeccable; they have to also be vigilant and responsive to their customers on their social media channels.

Chat bots on social media is another example of how brands are leveraging social media to improve customer service.

8. Social media platforms are offering Chatbots services to improve customer service & provide real time solutions

The popularity of virtual assistants like Apple’s Siri, Alexa, Cortana, etc. and inexplicably high engagement drawn by social media has led the way for the introduction of AI on social messaging platforms. Last year, Facebook launched its Messenger platform and businesses since have been using it to create chat experiences for their customers for answering their queries, having customised communication or providing product notifications, etc.

Luxury apparel brands like Burberry, Tomy Hilfiger, etc. are using chat bots to drive user engagement and improve customer engagement.

Burberry launched its chatbot last year during New York Fashion Week. Initially, the bot gave fans an opportunity to shoot the looks they liked and then shop the pieces from the fashion show directly from the app. Burberry has upgraded the bot since then to provide live chat options, store locator function, ask questions and browse and shop from the collections.

Burberry

‘’Customers aren’t spending their time on a sprawl of apps anymore. But, there’s a high concentration of engagement on Facebook Messenger. So we created an experience to fit into the natural behaviour that’s already happening on the platform.” – Alan Tisch, Founder, Spring.

9. Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality bringing online and in-store together

It is expected that retail industry’s investments in AR and VR technology will touch approximately $30 billion by 2020. One of the major benefits of in-store buying is shoppers can see and feel the product. Technologies like AR and VR can bridge this gap for online shoppers.

AR can also help customers to easily get information about a particular store and therefore turning Image based platforms into front-end stores.

‘Well we know that 95 percent of all information humans consume is visual. AR is about the experience and consuming information in real time, which is really the next logical progression from something as pervasive as the Google search engine. AR removes the part of the current process of searching for information on Google, which is that you have to know what to search for, and then sort through information to find it’. – Rohith Bhat, CEO, Robosoft Technologies.

Image based platforms into front-end stores

AR is also being used by retailers like Lowe to guide customers in finding in-store items while shopping.

Lowe to guide customers in finding in-store items while shopping

Home furnishing retailers like IKEA and Wayfair are already using AR to let buyers overlay furniture in their home setting and see if it goes well with their current interiors or digitally paint their house to see if the colour they are planning to go with indeed looks great in reality as well.

Virtual Reality, on the other hand, is helping retailers with making business decisions by providing ways to A/B test store layouts with a set of shoppers or finalising shelf assortments and display. Further, VR helps executives ‘walk through’ their stores across multiple locations.

According to Nikki Baird, managing partner at Retail Systems Research, ‘posting analytics through a VR interface that is driven off of the actual store design provides a lot of important context and can potentially surface connections between things like product categories that are physically proximate, which might not be easily found from a chart or a graph’.

For retailers, planning to experiment with either of these technologies to elevate customer experience it is important to decide which format suits their business objective. Though, VR seems to be an exciting option to go with it requires expensive devices to implement. Further, customers are not yet accustomed to using VR devices for anything else other than gaming.

AR, on the other hand, can use simulations from the real world and augment users experience by overlaying virtual elements on it, and it is easier to implement because any smartphone can be an AR platform.

10. From automation to augmentation – AI reshaping in-store and online retail experiences

Artificial Intelligence in retail has found application across the buyer’s cycle from product assembly to post purchase customer interactions. AI is changing the realms of both online and offline retail experiences.

AI use-cases in the retail industry are going beyond chatbots and product recommendations. According to a study, 45% of retailers plan to use AI based technologies in the next three years.

One of the major advantages of AI solutions in retail is they allow to offer a personalised user experience to consumers. Aided by the Big Data and data analytics platforms, retailers can use AI to have customer centric interactions involving product recommendation, customised searches and even personal assistance, etc.

One such technology platform is Vue.ai, which offers dynamic personalization solutions which enable retailers to personalise every step of the shoppers’ journey. This technology learns in real-time from every click, swipe, product view, cart addition, and purchase, to uncover buyer intent, ensuring that the retail journey is tailor-made for individual customers.

AI solutions like Amazon’s Echo and Home are accentuating users’ online shopping experience, for instance, Google Home can enable users’ to buy products from across 50 U.S. retailers. Given the popularity of voice assistants, last year Amazon unveiled several Echo-exclusive deals and gave $10 off on orders over $20 placed through voice.

Voice Based Mobile Platform Front-ends

Recently, Amazon also launched Amazon-Go unveiling the immense potential of AI in changing in-store shopping experiences as well. Amazon Go store allows users’ to have a new check-out free experience. To use the service, the buyer has to install the Amazon Go app, log in with their account credentials, and then simply put goods from the shelves into their bag and walk out. The store and shelves are equipped with “computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning,” which means it can detect when products are removed and returned to the shelves. When the shopper leaves the store, their account is charged directly.

Retailers are also using for inventory management for,e.g., Pittsburgh-based Bossa Nova offers robots that ensure shelves are always stocked, while French start-up Exotec raised $3.5 million to help warehouses dispatch goods using mini robots. IBM’s Watson is providing a slew of order management and customer engagement capabilities to e-commerce retailers. It is also helping retailers like North Face to assist consumers in determining what jacket is best for them, based on variables like location and gender preference, etc.

While AI can advance customer experience and operations by leaps and bound, it is important for retailers to determine how and where they will implement it. The direction of AI revolution is getting carved by the bigger industry players, for small and medium retailers it is critical to take note of the AI trends and implement it with an objective to drive sales and improve the user experience.

In conclusion:

The retail industry is at a sweet spot right now, with physical stores using emerging technologies to innovate and offer exciting shopping experiences to customers and online retail making shopping convenient and simpler for them.

Technology advancements and ever-changing consumer behaviour together are opening up newer playgrounds for retailers faster than emerging fashion fads. Needless to say that smartphones and internet penetration is leading this revolution and for retailers, the first step to win the retail war is to provide an omnichannel retail experience for their customers across platforms and devices.

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