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Point Inside Announces Retail Chatbot to Help Shoppers Find Products In-StorePoint Inside, the leading provider of digital mapping and indoor location-based services for top retailers, today announced their StoreMode-enabled chatbot. Available to all shoppers, the chatbot streamlines communication between retailers and shoppers, offering a seamless conversational in-store shopping experience. Shoppers can now answer the frequent `Where is…' question without the help of a store employee; increasing store sales while reducing store labor expense. Point Inside expands the reach of self-service technology beyond native applications and web by applying its retail chatbot to commonly used messenger platforms. Available via Facebook (News - Alert) Messenger or SMS, the chatbot can assist retail shoppers that want to quickly locate the aisle of desired products in a brick-and-mortar store. Leveraging NLU to decipher shopper questions and Point Inside's machine learning to describe the location of keywords, or products, within the store, it can answer questions such as "where are the coffee makers?" and "can you help me find the lawn and garden section?" with the aid of a map. "Today's consumers expect instant answers and fast resolution. Time is invaluable and giving back that time immensely improves the shopping experience," said Josh Marti, co-founder and CEO of Point Inside. According to Forrester Research, 73% of adults say that valuing their time is the most important thing companies can do to provide them with good customer service. "While store associates will remain an important piece of the retail customer experience puzzle, retailers need to consider how they can leverage technology to better meet their customer's needs." The chatbot is powered by StoreMode's store-specific search service to give shoppers the best results, which are returned in both text format nd a dynamic link which can be directed deep into the retailer's app or to the web. This shopping tool maximizes the efficiency and increases satisfaction of a consumer's shopping experience, while decreasing cost and driving more sales for retailers. "Chatbots operate as a support resource that offers consistent and accessible customer service, meeting shoppers' needs at any point of the customer journey," said industry expert Robin Lewis, CEO of The Robin Report. "From the time a shopper taps a key on their digital device, or walks through a retail door, they are beginning a journey that provides multiple touch point opportunities for interaction between the retailer and shopper. Arguably the most important touch points are when the shopper is seeking discovery and when making the decision to purchase. And, this is even more critical in the physical space. These two dynamics can be the most angst-ridden part of the experience or conversely, the most satisfying. The shopper-to-chatbot engagements not only optimize the in-store experience, but reveals unique and new shopper insights as well. Chatbots are just another miracle of technology, the latest tool in the ongoing effort to unify the online and brick-and-mortar experience." By using tools like Watson's Conversation API's to understand which product or services the user is looking for, Point Inside's chatbot has already achieved 95 percent accuracy in identifying more than 35,000 potential product search questions for a single retailer that, on average, has over 100,000 unique product locations in-store. Having integrated the latest NLU capabilities from Google (News - Alert) API.ai, Amazon Alexa and IBM Watson, among others, retailers can now plug this chatbot into their existing speech to text services with very little effort. In addition to assisting with product location, the chatbot solution can help shoppers locate in-store landmarks like a restroom, in-store pickup or customer service desk. For more information about Point Inside and its indoor location solutions, please visit https://www.pointinside.com/solutions-chatbot/ or www.pointinside.com. About Point Inside Point Inside delivers a complete digital layer on top of physical retail, putting the power of digital information in the hands of connected shoppers and store associates. As the lines between physical and online shopping continue to blur, shoppers want the ability to see, touch and try merchandise, and now demand personalized product and location information, unique offers and expert advice at their fingertips, all while frictionlessly purchasing through multiple channels. Point Inside's cloud-based technology answers shoppers' top two questions, "Do you have it?" and "Where can I find it?" for retailers. Point Inside combines the digital and physical aspects of the store to help retailers deliver a truly unified retail experience that results in more sales, better use of labor, dramatically optimized operations and supply chain and increased loyalty.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171205005513/en/ |
