What Just Happened

Walking into a convenience store is meant to be quick and seamless, but often when a crowd appears, long lines can make shopping tedious and frustrating. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has made its way into shopping. CEO and Co-Founder Steve Gu sits down with What Just Happened? Host Christine Russo on the direction of AI in retail.

While the use of e-commerce is growing, many consumers still crave physical spaces, including shopping in stores. “I believe that roughly more than 80% of the transactions still happen in the physical world,” Gu said. “As humans, we still need to interact with physical objects and even though many of us are fans online, myself included the majority of the activities we do still happen in the world, and that's where we think AI can play a huge role.”

AiFi’s new partnership with the Miami Dolphins and the Detroit Lions allows fans to scan a QR code, a credit card, or an app to tap and pay, then they simply grab their item and go back to their intended viewing. “I want them to leave as quickly as possible like a Google search engine because I know their goal is to come and leave so they can focus on their game. And in the end, we want a fully autonomous store, or a shop that can run essentially by itself,” Gu said.

The beauty of AiFi, Gu further explained is that they partner with retailers, they do not compete with them. “We are a technology firm by heart. We're not retailers but we chose to work with retailers to make all this amazing shopping experience happen because we know the future is in AI,” he said.

AiFi plans to fit its products into more local mom-and-pop stores and other venues around the world. “The best part of our system is that we can support different types of users, all based on the same operating platform. We tailor it to the needs of the client because we are flexible to work with, and we want to provide solutions,” Gu said.

Walking into a convenience store is meant to be quick and seamless, but often when a crowd appears, long lines can make shopping tedious and frustrating. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has made its way into shopping. CEO and Co-Founder Steve Gu sits down with What Just Happened? Host Christine Russo on the direction of AI in retail.

While the use of e-commerce is growing, many consumers still crave physical spaces, including shopping in stores. “I believe that roughly more than 80% of the transactions still happen in the physical world,” Gu said. “As humans, we still need to interact with physical objects and even though many of us are fans online, myself included the majority of the activities we do still happen in the world, and that's where we think AI can play a huge role.”

AiFi’s new partnership with the Miami Dolphins and the Detroit Lions allows fans to scan a QR code, a credit card, or an app to tap and pay, then they simply grab their item and go back to their intended viewing. “I want them to leave as quickly as possible like a Google search engine because I know their goal is to come and leave so they can focus on their game. And in the end, we want a fully autonomous store, or a shop that can run essentially by itself,” Gu said.

The beauty of AiFi, Gu further explained is that they partner with retailers, they do not compete with them. “We are a technology firm by heart. We're not retailers but we chose to work with retailers to make all this amazing shopping experience happen because we know the future is in AI,” he said.

AiFi plans to fit its products into more local mom-and-pop stores and other venues around the world. “The best part of our system is that we can support different types of users, all based on the same operating platform. We tailor it to the needs of the client because we are flexible to work with, and we want to provide solutions,” Gu said.

When Gary Hawkings first started his career in retail, he didn’t know exactly where the road might take him. Rightfully, he has carved his own path and now sits down with host Christine Russo as the founder and CEO of CART, the Center of Advancing Retail and Technology to discuss CART’s purpose and the driving factors of change in the industry.

While Hawkings and CART specializes in CPG and grocery, its far more than that. Born about 10 years prior, CART was founded to have an influential and helpful hand on the technology driven changes in the market and industry.

“[I] saw that a lot of retailers really needed help in understanding and discovering what new tech, what new innovation is out there and understanding the implications of a lot of this new technology,” spoke Hawkings on creating CART.

He said, “Technology is triggering…this new competitive battleground,” which is driving changes across the industry. With technology changing everything from supply chain operations to in-store functions, Hawkings noticed that, “It’s the digitalization of the retail industry that is powering such transformation, such disruption.”

New AI research can build a profile of each shopper and compile all the information gathered to “strategically drive what specific promotions, not only what products but what pricepoints, or discounts, need to be provided to each individual customer to grow lifetime value, grow engagement,” explained Hawkings.

In traditional discount schemes, the brands take on retail marketing, “but as retailers…have become very cognizant of all their customer data, customer behavior and what’s happening” retailers have learned the power of individual marketing schemes to draw customers in.

As Hawkings stated, “Different markets in Europe are ahead of the U.S. right now,” in terms of computervision, however, what’s to come is certainly on the edge of the horizon.

When Gary Hawkings first started his career in retail, he didn’t know exactly where the road might take him. Rightfully, he has carved his own path and now sits down with host Christine Russo as the founder and CEO of CART, the Center of Advancing Retail and Technology to discuss CART’s purpose and the driving factors of change in the industry.

While Hawkings and CART specializes in CPG and grocery, its far more than that. Born about 10 years prior, CART was founded to have an influential and helpful hand on the technology driven changes in the market and industry.

“[I] saw that a lot of retailers really needed help in understanding and discovering what new tech, what new innovation is out there and understanding the implications of a lot of this new technology,” spoke Hawkings on creating CART.

He said, “Technology is triggering…this new competitive battleground,” which is driving changes across the industry. With technology changing everything from supply chain operations to in-store functions, Hawkings noticed that, “It’s the digitalization of the retail industry that is powering such transformation, such disruption.”

New AI research can build a profile of each shopper and compile all the information gathered to “strategically drive what specific promotions, not only what products but what pricepoints, or discounts, need to be provided to each individual customer to grow lifetime value, grow engagement,” explained Hawkings.

In traditional discount schemes, the brands take on retail marketing, “but as retailers…have become very cognizant of all their customer data, customer behavior and what’s happening” retailers have learned the power of individual marketing schemes to draw customers in.

As Hawkings stated, “Different markets in Europe are ahead of the U.S. right now,” in terms of computervision, however, what’s to come is certainly on the edge of the horizon.

Getting consumers to stay means providing quality product and quality rewards. Andrew Forman, CEO and Founder of Givz.com, a donation-driven marketing tool, sits down with host Christine Russo to discuss the story behind Givz and how his product is shaping the retail and ecommerce market.

There are current trends in retail.

Brands are moving away from discounts but need to find a way to continue driving sales

Consumers are demanding purpose-driven activity specific to each individual shopper

To meet those trends, Forman said, “Givz sits at the nexus of those two trends, allowing brands to convert discounts into donations and run what we’re calling donation-based incentives.”

Givz works by allowing the retailer to book the full amount of revenue while providing incentive post-purchase. “When you give a 20% discount, you’re losing 20% of your revenue. In this case, you’re getting the full amount of revenue,” said Forman. After purchasing, the customer can choose their charity of choice and donate to that charity through their purchase.

"The brand only pays for the people that actually follow through and go through with choosing their charity,” he continued.

The donation code itself is only valid for 14 days but customers do receive two reminder emails, once within 24 hours and once after 10 days, to use their code. With over 250,000 different charities, Givz has a plethora of charities to choose from and their impact is undeniable.

Over the course of Black Friday Weekend in 2021, “$60,000 went to real charities here in the United States, over 600 charities were supported,” stated Forman.

Givz works with companies such as H&M, Tervis, and Smile Direct Club and avoids decreasing conversion by using drop-down banners and PDP inserts through their Shopify app.

Brands can also use Givz through implementing an API I-frame on the web page or simply by sending an email.