Jeff Olchovy

SVP Engineering, Crisp

Retailers must recognize that the data they offer within their ecosystem is also a product. Like other technology products, data providers should establish clear ownership structures and assign dedicated data stewards to ensure data integrity, accuracy, and consistency.

However, addressing data quality and governance requires more than organizational structure; technologies like those in leading data mesh and data fabric solutions offer automated, rule-based data quality checks, warehouse-wide data profiling, and comprehensive data cataloging. These features give data owners leverage to govern and enforce standards across their assets effortlessly. This control ensures data integrity and compliance with industry regulations, vital for maintaining customer confidence, especially as more data feeds into large-scale AI models and applications in the future.

Jeff Olchovy, SVP Engineering, Crisp

Kyle McKenzie

Vice President of Engineering, HIVERY

Traditional operations research methods operate on aggregates and fail to make use of granular, actionable insights. Traditional research methods have limitations in granularity, being dependent on averages and indices of demographics or small sample sizes. Modern machine learning and AI methods enable HIVERY Curate to identify latent patterns in shopper behaviour with granular, store specific datasets which enables assortment decisions that do not rely solely on average demographics. The same set of methods allow price forecasts to be learnt and embedded into ensembles which provide inference retailers can user to tailor assortment to unique shoppers and stores. With those tailored assortments, retailers are able to refine assortment and merchandising strategies accordingly. Working across over 110 retailer category combinations, we’ve seen this alignment with actual customer behavior, rather than just stated preferences or averages, achieve assortment recommendations in half the time, while boosting shopper satisfaction and driving millions of dollars of incremental revenue”.

Kyle McKenzie - Vice President of Engineering, HIVERY

Thomas Borders

VP & GM of Product Lifecycle Solutions, Inmar

Product returns are ingrained in the e-commerce landscape – as they should be. However, a recent Inmar Post-holiday survey revealed that nearly 60 percent of a retailer’s returns can be avoided. The three leading causes of returns were:

1. Shipped the wrong product

2. Inaccurate site content (poor product descriptions, inaccurate sizing, limited pictures, etc.)

3. Product arrived damaged

These three issues – all on the retailer’s side – can be easily addressed through quality control and contextual adjustments to product listings. Augmented reality can be added to give shoppers realistic views of products before they purchase.

Additionally, data should be collected at every touchpoint throughout the returns journey. This will help retailers address root causes while driving customer lifetime value.

Thomas Borders, VP & GM of Product Lifecycle Solutions, Inmar

Goran Paun

Principal and Creative Director, ArtVersion

Streamlining the checkout process with quick, reliable payment gateway integrations to the likes of Apple Pay and Samsung Pay is crucial in today's fast-paced digital environment. Despite its apparent importance, there is a surprisingly high percentage of enterprises and companies that do not have a seamless checkout experience on their websites and platforms.

Prioritizing quick digital checkouts is essential in the development phase of websites, especially given the competitive and fast-paced nature of the digital landscape. Enhancing customer relationships is all about adopting a user-centric mindset, with an empathetic perspective. Therefore, the efficiency and reliability of payment processes directly influence the user's decision to complete a transaction. Subsequently, integrating advanced payment technologies from the outset is a strategic move that enhances customer satisfaction, cultivates trust, and ultimately creates strong customer relationships.

Goran Paun, Principal and Creative Director, ArtVersion

Aarthi Ramamurthy

Chief Technology and Product Officer, Rithum

AI will be a game-changer for e-commerce – and it’s happening faster than many realize. Our recent research shows that consumers increasingly research and purchase products through various channels. This exacerbates challenges like isolated and incomplete data fragments for retailers. With the adoption of AI, Rithum is helping retailers rapidly adjust product selection and to better personalize for customer needs, all while staying focused on profitable growth. We’ve integrated AI into our products to help our customers with tasks like automatic channel mapping. For example, we can leverage AI to automatically map brand or supplier product data to create one source of truth. From our normalized schema, we then map the data to any marketplace’s specifications at the click of a button, saving time and resources for brands to go to market on new marketplaces.

Aarthi Ramamurthy, Chief Technology and Product Officer, Rithum