How the distribution industry can be proactive with personalization

28 January 2021

2 min read

The Distribution Sector faces inherent challenges around delivering timely value, asset management, supply chain operations, customer segmentation and how to make use of the immense amounts of data interwoven throughout.The economic environment experienced in 2020 magnified these challenges and introduced new customer experience demands that can only be met through hyper-personalization.

Companies continually look to optimize operations while also focusing on the needs of each customer. The future of distribution requires overcoming complexity in your business, including:

  • Overwhelming data. Large sets of data are coming in at an unprecedented rate and therefore becoming obsolete very rapidly. With this, it is vital for distribution companies to embrace AI solutions for their business’s analytical needs and plan for the future.
  • Pricing strategy. Leveraging the right pricing strategy while knowing when to discount an item becomes critical.
  • Demand anticipation. This impacts the transportation of goods to and from warehouses, for example, to ensure the anticipated demand can be met accordingly.

Grow your business with pre-packaged solutions

IBM Data and AI Industry Accelerators analyze your customer and operations data against Distribution Sector-specific use cases. These insights help you optimize operations, forecast consumer demand, allowing you to shape personalized journeys for your customers.

Each IBM Data and AI Accelerator is a pre-packaged set of assets — designed to work with IBM Cloud Pak® for Data — to help business leaders and data scientists solve specific business problems and drive personalization simultaneously.

With sample data, model-creation notebooks, scripts, a sample application and other offerings, you can kickstart your implementation with the power of IBM Cloud Pak for Data.

IBM Data and AI Accelerators can help you build and scale a personalization strategy for your business. Each accelerator is designed to help address the most familiar challenges distribution institutions face.

Personalizing client experiences 

Provide the right offers at the right time to strengthen the health of your customer base and drive new business with Customer Offer Affinity. Provide product recommendations with speed and efficiency to secure customer loyalty and cater to their needs. Your data and the power of Data and AI Accelerators provide insight into what excites and delights clients.

Segment customers based on demographics and common behaviors with Customer Segmentation. Pricing strategies can be intelligently built using the most accurate segmentation of your customer base.

Optimize operations to support personalization

Optimize your supply chain operations with AI using Supply Chain Forecasting. The ability to forecast sales and anticipate demand allows your company to coordinate inventory availability ahead of time and distribute goods more efficiently.

Ramp up with the right expertise

Industry Accelerators in IBM Cloud Pak for Data provide tools to help you to advance your personalization strategy from demonstration to implementation in hours, rather than weeks or even months. Learn how these accelerators can help you expedite your personalization strategy by exploring the new Accelerator Catalog.

For help getting started, let our experts assist you. The IBM Data Science and AI Elite (DSE) team will work side by side with your team to co-engineer AI solutions and help your business develop a personalization strategy.

Visit our website to learn more.

 

Author

Carmen-Gabriela Stefanita

Senior Data Scientist and Machine Learning Engineer

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