Product assortment customization can pay off

Retailers creating artificial intelligence customer-centric product assortments can boost incremental sales growth, nearly 1% to 2% more than assortments that are not customized.

That's a prime finding of a SymphonyAI Retail CPG global shopper research report.

Such an approach can also grow customer loyalty even in unfavorable economic conditions, according to a press release.

One reason retailers aren't jumping on generating customer-centric assortments is because it can be complex and requires a more connected and holistic view of assortment: connecting to and analyzing many disparate, granular data sources. Incorporating AI and advanced analytics can help with those complexities, according to the release.

SymphonyAI's study analyzed shopper data from more than 60 million households and more than 630 million shopper baskets. The study also revealed additional insights:

• Smaller-sized stores with less shelf space benefited the most from using a customer-centric assortment, growing sales on average by nearly 2% annually.
• Stores that incorporated customer needs into assortment improved loyalty and retention of its most valuable shoppers by half a percentage point — a significant impact as retention and growth of primary shoppers is a strategic priority for retailers.
• The impact of customer-centric assortments varies by category; those with the highest incremental sales include frozen meals, baby food, oral care, healthy foods and sweet snacks.

"All retailers strive to fill store shelves with products that satisfy their customers' needs, but keeping up with those needs is more challenging than ever," Laetitia Berthier, head of client management, SymphonyAI Retail CPG, said in the release. "E-commerce, competing store formats and rapidly evolving shopper behavior have made optimizing product assortments in stores very difficult using traditional methods. Fortunately, AI-based solutions using predictive and generative AI can seamlessly deliver these space-aware and customer-centric assortments at scale, enabling retailers to develop an enduring competitive advantage."