Microsoft Installs the Shopping tools to Compete with Google.

 More on the shopping aspects/tools being provided.  In Techcrunch.

Microsoft brings new AI-powered shopping tools to Bing and Edge

Frederic Lardinois@fredericl / 11:00 AM EDT•June 29, 2023

People walk past a Microsoft store entrance with the company's logo on top in midtown Manhattan

Microsoft today announced a slew of new AI-powered shopping tools for its new Bing search engine and the Bing AI chatbot in the Edge sidebar. While a lot of the shopping features that Microsoft built into Edge over the years aren’t exactly fan favorites, this new set of tools actually looks useful.

Microsoft will now, for example, use Bing’s GPT-powered AI capabilities to automatically generate buying guides when you use a query like “college supplies.” It will automatically aggregate products in each category it comes up with, list their specs so you can compare similar items and, of course, tell you where to buy them (with Microsoft getting an affiliate fee when you buy).

Given that there is an entire ecosystem of sites that focus on these kinds of buying guides, it will be interesting to see how they will react to this change (and if Microsoft is doing this in Bing, Google and others will surely follow suit). Nobody is going to bemoan the end of the low-quality, SEO-optimized shopping content you often find when you try to compare different products, but this has the potential to hurt legitimate editorial operations, too

The new buying guides in Bing are now available in the U.S. and the worldwide rollout for buying guides in Edge is starting today.

Microsoft brings new AI-powered shopping tools to Bing and Edge.

Oh, Oh,  are we shopping now?  Was this allowed?  Will Google play nice?

Microsoft brings new AI-powered shopping tools to Bing and Edge  in TechCrunch

Frederic Lardinois@fredericl / 11:00 AM EDT•June 29, 2023

People walk past a Microsoft store entrance with the company's logo on top in midtown Manhattan

Microsoft today announced a slew of new AI-powered shopping tools for its new Bing search engine and the Bing AI chatbot in the Edge sidebar. While a lot of the shopping features that Microsoft built into Edge over the years aren’t exactly fan favorites, this new set of tools actually looks useful.

Microsoft will now, for example, use Bing’s GPT-powered AI capabilities to automatically generate buying guides when you use a query like “college supplies.” It will automatically aggregate products in each category it comes up with, list their specs so you can compare similar items and, of course, tell you where to buy them (with Microsoft getting an affiliate fee when you buy).

Given that there is an entire ecosystem of sites that focus on these kinds of buying guides, it will be interesting to see how they will react to this change (and if Microsoft is doing this in Bing, Google and others will surely follow suit). Nobody is going to bemoan the end of the low-quality, SEO-optimized shopping content you often find when you try to compare different products, but this has the potential to hurt legitimate editorial operations, too. ... ' 

Google AI Driven Shopping is now

And how different from past Google methods?

Will Google’s AI-Driven Search Captivate Shoppers?  from Retailwire

6 EXPERT COMMENTS

Will Google’s AI-Driven Search Captivate Shoppers?

AI ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE SEARCH GENERATIVE EXPERIENCE

May 15, 2023 by Tom Ryan

Google last week introduced a new set of features—called Search Generative Experience—that deliver AI-generated summaries to queries similar to ChatGPT as well as follow-up prompts to engage users in a conversation. The technology promises more accurate, relevant and expansive information when shopping via Google search.

“With generative AI in Search, we can help you understand the full picture when you’re shopping, making even the most considered and complex purchase decisions faster and much easier,” wrote Elizabeth Reid, Google’s VP & GM, search, in a blog entry. “When searching for a product, you’ll get a snapshot of noteworthy factors to consider and products that fit the bill. You’ll also get product descriptions that include relevant, up-to-date reviews, ratings, prices and product images.”

The technology giant’s new generative AI shopping technology is powered by Google’s Shopping Graph, which has over 35 billion product listings with 1.8 billion refreshed every hour.

Follow-ups to the original search query take on a conversational style without the need for repeating context or details already provided. “You’ll also find helpful jumping-off points to web content and a range of perspectives that you can dig into,” Ms. Reid wrote.

Search ads will continue to appear in dedicated slots throughout the page, promising to be “distinguishable from organic search results.”

The search feature will initially only be available in the U.S. through a waiting list system. The platform is described as an ongoing “experiment” with improvements expected over time.  .... '

Firm Deploys Robots to Speed Online Shopping

Woman operates the 1MRobotic system which has a hatch from which couriers and shoppers can collect online orders. Israeli 

Firm Deploys Robots to Speed Online Shopping

France 24, February 15, 2023

Israeli firm 1MRobotics has built a 320-square-foot storefront in Tel Aviv, where staff have been replaced by robots to speed up online shopping fulfillment. The robots can maneuver around the small space, grabbing and packaging items. The building is equipped with a streetside hatch where couriers and shoppers can pick up online orders. 1MRobotics' Eyal Yair said a small robot-staffed storefront is more economical for businesses that handle dozens of orders a day. Yair said meeting increased demand for fast order processing and deliveries "requires small warehouses, very close to the clients, and at the end of the day, these small warehouses have to be automated." Yair said the robots and the custom containers that serve as mini-warehouses will soon be deployed in Brazil for an alcohol shop, in Germany for minimarkets, and in South Africa for a cellphone company.

Full Article

Are Ads Causing Shoppers to Lose Faith in Amazon search results?

 Significantly?

Are ads causing shoppers to lose faith in Amazon search results?   by Matthew Stern in RetailWire.

Amazon.com has long been the main go-to place for online product search, but a recent Washington Post article finds that it is no longer giving customers what they want because advertisements are muscling out the real search results.

Running a search for “cat beds,” the Post found that the entire first screen of results displayed advertisements masquerading as listings rather than products arrived at because they provided the best combination of price and quality. The results included one ad that featured a dog in the picture, rather than a cat.

On the first five pages of search results, more than half of the listings were either ads or Amazon’s own products. A Profitero study found that Amazon lists sponsored products on its first page of search results at a rate twice that of Walmart and four times that of Target. Other online outlets, like food delivery platforms and Google and Apple’s app stores, have also started displaying ads as search results.

Amazon’s ad business grew 58 percent in 2021, making it the third largest online ad seller, according to a Recode article. Six high-volume sellers told Recode that to succeed on Amazon today, sellers have to spend between 10 and 20 percent of their sales on ads.

Amazon’s practices surrounding how it lists search results have been criticized before. ... ' 

The Future of Shopping

 Interesting piece.

The future of shopping   in McKinsey,    August 27, 2022   A confluence of trends, disruptions, and shifting behaviors is giving consumers growing power over retailers. Technology will continue to advance, paving the way for new ways for retailers to connect to customers, and Gen Z—which prioritizes values and sustainability more than older generations, per partner Bo Finneman—will reach scale in the next 10 to 15 years. Explore these insights to dig into the future of shopping, how retailers should adapt, and other key topics, including:

the changing role of the brick and mortar

the social responsibility of inward and outward diversity and inclusion

sustainable circular business models and brand loyalty

the “phygital world” and tech’s role in optimizing the consumer experience

why personalization is key   .... 

Kroger to Reinvent Shopping Experience with NVIDIA Omniverse

Want to see this ...

Kroger Reinvents the Shopping Experience with NVIDIA AI   in Retailwire

Kroger and NVIDIA embarked on a strategic collaboration to reimagine the shopping experience using AI applications and services. Discover the progress made by adopting AI and NVIDIA Omniverse.

 Register now: 

VR 'Shopping Task' Could Help Test for Cognitive Decline in Adults

 Does not sound surprising, is it the best measure? 

VR 'Shopping Task' Could Help Test for Cognitive Decline in Adults

By King's College London (U.K.) News Center, February 4, 2022

A virtual reality (VR) test developed by researchers at the U.K.'s King's College London can be used to assess an individual's functional cognition, and eventually may be used to test for age-related cognitive decline.

Using the VR shopping task called "VStore," 142 healthy individuals aged 20 to 79 years were asked to verbally recall a list of 12 items; they then were assessed based on the time it took to collect those items in a virtual store, select them on a virtual self-checkout machine, pay for them, and then order coffee. The researchers found VStore simultaneously engaged several key neuropsychological functions, potentially accessing a greater range of cognitive domains than standard assessments.

Said King's College's Lilla Porffy, "These are promising findings adding to a growing body of evidence showing that [VR] can be used to measure cognition and related everyday functioning effectively and accurately."

From King's College London (U.K.)  https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/a-virtual-reality-shopping-task-could-help-test-for-cognitive-decline-in-adults.   .... ' 

Implications of Google Visual Search: Bringing Eyeballs to Shopping

Been thinking of the implications of Google Lens for some time, will it now more generally emerge.

Will visual search bring eyeballs to Google Shopping?

DISCUSSION

Will visual search bring eyeballs to Google Shopping?

Oct 14, 2021, by Tom Ryan   in Retailwire  with further expert discussion: 

Google is updating the look and format of product search pages so that feature images better resemble a digital store rather than a long list of links and text.

One method involves the use of Google Lens, an image recognition technology that lets a smartphone camera conduct digital searches by identifying real objects. The “search images” button on the Google app makes all the images on a page searchable through Google Lens, providing information on those products as well as views of similar products.

In a blog entry  Bill Ready, president of commerce, payments & NBU at Google, said, “Whether it’s an image that you see online, a photo you saved on your phone  or something in the real world that catches your eye, Google Lens makes the products you see instantly shoppable.”

Google Lens will soon be extended to Chrome on desktops to provide product search results for website images, video and text.

A second method (demonstrated in the video below) enables visual searches directly from mobile search. A search for “cropped jackets,” for example, shows a visual feed of jackets in various colors and styles, alongside other information like local shops, style guides and videos. Users can filter the search down to style, department and brand and access ratings, reviews and price comparisons.

Wrote Bill Ready in his blog article, “This new experience is powered by Google’s Shopping Graph, a comprehensive, real-time dataset of products, inventory and merchants with more than 24 billion listings. This not only helps us connect shoppers with the right products for them, it also helps millions of merchants and brands get discovered on Google every day.”

Google has overhauled its shopping search over the last year as Amazon has surpassed the company as the leader in first product search and lately has also taken share in digital advertising. Google’s changes include no longer requiring merchants to advertise to have their products listed in shopping searches as well as eliminating commission fees. Another newer update has been adding in-store inventory checks to product search.   ..... ' 

Podcast: Portrait of the Post-Pandemic Grocery Shopper

 I still shop in store, not sure I have noticed a real difference.  Worth a listen.

Podcast | A Portrait of the Post-Pandemic Grocery Shopper

In SupplyChainBrain  

What is this creature whom we call “the post-pandemic grocery shopper”? ... 

COVID-19 has upended the entire retail sector, including grocery. The latter’s transformation by e-commerce and the internet was well underway by the time the virus struck in 2020, but the pandemic has wrought permanent changes in consumer behavior that either weren’t expected to happen for a number of years, or happen at all. Specifically, many shoppers who wouldn’t have dreamed of ordering their groceries online before they were forced to shelter at home now swear by the method. But they’re also still committed to shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. On this episode, we talk with Barbara Connors, vice president of commercial insights with the data-science firm 84.51°, about the profile of the newly minted “hybrid” shopper and that individual’s future, as retailers puzzle out how to provide a “customer-centric shopping journey.” Hosted by Bob Bowman, Editor-in-Chief of SupplyChainBrain. .... ' 

Holiday Shopping in 2020

Based on a number of studies.  Will be interesting to see how this plays out after some normalcy returns.

Holiday shopping in 2020

Consumers, longing for normalcy and eager for something to celebrate, plan to spend money while holiday shopping--but differently from the way they have in the past.   Sent from McKinsey Insights, available in the App Store and Play Store.  ...  " 

Pandemic Shopping Habits

An interesting peek into corporate bahavior.

Our pandemic shopping habits are here to stay. Brands are racing to adapt  By Hanna Ziady CNN Business 

Three days a week at 7:00 am, senior Procter & Gamble executives check in with each other about their customers: what they're buying, how their needs are changing and whether the company's products are hitting the mark.  .. "

AR and Improved Online Shopping

We spent some time examining this proposition, but did not find that AR provided significant results in engagement and sales, except in very narrow domains. Here new studies of interest with new tech.

AR Can Improve Online Shopping, Study Finds
Cornell Chronicle
E.C. Barrett

Researchers at Cornell University, Iowa State University, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute found that online shopping could be enhanced by allowing consumers to try on garments virtually via Augmented Reality (AR). The goal is to reduce the expense and carbon footprint of bracket shopping, in which shoppers order an item in multiple sizes and colors, and send back those they find unsuitable. The AR system requires a computer, telephone, or tablet screen reflecting the shopper and their physical backgrounds, with selected garments overlaid; study participants assessed the AR garments for size, fit, and performance, followed by physical try-ons. Evaluating the fit in AR was problematic, but shoppers' responses to the AR and actual garments were positive. Cornell's Fatma Baytar said, "We can expect that as these technologies evolve, people will trust online shopping more." ... '

News from the Grocery Supply Chain

Been watching indications in the Grocery and general retail supply chain,  so far, except for might be called illogical hoarding, things are going well.  Suppliers are running manufacturing overtime.

Head of grocery group talks virus impact, shopping habits
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO in APNews

NEW YORK (AP) — As Americans stockpile everything from canned soup to toilet paper, food and consumer products makers are scrambling to meet demand.

Companies like Clorox Co. and J.M. Smucker Co. are running their manufacturing plants 24/7 while reducing their product lines so they can get the products into stores faster. They’re also under pressure to protect their workers who’re on the front lines of the coronavirus.

The Associated Press recently interviewed Geoff Freeman, the CEO of the Consumer Brands Association — formerly the Grocery Manufacturers Association — on a range of issues including the current status of supplies, protections for workers and customers’ shift away from organic food to packaged items like mac and cheese. Questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q. How does the industry’s supply chain brace for a pandemic?

A. I’m not sure that any of us would have been prepared for something we have never seen in our lifetimes, frankly our grandparents didn’t see in their lifetimes. It isn’t much a playbook to dust off as there is a put your head down, rise to the occasion and do everything you can do, and this industry has done just that.

Q. Are you seeing consumers’ stockpiling leveling off a bit?

A. We’re seeing things settle into a new normal. The new normal isn’t back to 100%. There isn’t that much happening in the food service environment, the restaurant environment and the eating-away-from-home environment. So the industry is having to produce more for people to eat within their own homes. They’re doing that by increasing the productivity of their lines. They’re also taking food service products or lines that were focused on food service and reorienting them more to in-home consumption. That’s true on both the food side and consumer packaged goods.  .... "

Kroger CEO Talks Now and Next

Good overall view by a major player.

Kroger CEO talks about booming sales, supply chain advantage, shopping habits in BizJournal

Sales are soaring at Kroger Co., but CEO Rodney McMullen said today in a wide-ranging discussion he's watching what the next phase of shopper behavior will be and has even talked with supermarket CEOs around the world to track consumer activity as coronavirus creates a new normal.

McMullen talked Thursday morning with Evercore ISI analyst Mike Montani for a fireside chat, or as McMullen called it, “a fireside chat without the fire” since it was done remotely. He covered everything from shopper behavior to in-demand products to consumers’ brand preferences for toilet paper. As head of downtown Cincinnati-based Kroger (NYSE: KR), the nation’s largest operator of traditional supermarkets, he should know.

McMullen said he has “regular calls” with CEOs of supermarkets in China, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Canada.  ... " 

Apple (or Amazon) as a Store Anchor

Does Apple Anchor a Shopping Mall?

This came to mind as well as we noticed all the failing local malls.  Used to go to them for holiday shopping, just for the atmosphere, but many have descended below that. ....

Does Apple Anchor a Shopping Mall? The Effect of the Technology Stores on the Formation of 
Market Structure - HBS Working Knowledge - Harvard Business School .... '

Decision Trees for Shopping

Perhaps simplistic, but interesting.   Even if you have to ultimately complicate such a model, its useful to start with something this simple and see how well it can predict, then add more complexity later.  In the enterprise, we did lots of that.  It can also act as a benchmark for more complex models.  Decision trees are also nicely transparent.

Decision Trees for Online Shopping Analysis
Towards Data Science by Chathuranga Siriwardhana  

Nowadays there is a trend to use online shopping solutions like Amazon, eBay, AliExpress. These websites provide a platform for the sellers to sell their products to a large number of customers. Since many delivery services are connected with these online shopping platforms, customers from different countries buy products. Unlike the traditional shops, the ratings and the good-name is directly represented on the shopping platform for each seller. Therefore the sellers have let the customers return their bought items if they don’t like the product or there is any defect of the item. Some sellers refund the whole amount if the customers complain that the items are not delivered within the promised period. Some customers are misusing these facilities and fraud to the sellers. Therefore, the sellers on the online shopping platforms experience a huge loss of profits. Let’s discuss how we can spot these types of customers by developing a simple Machine Learning model; a Decision Tree.

Have a look at this medium post on Decision Trees if you are not familiar with them. For a quick recap, a decision tree is a model in machine learning which includes the conditions on which we are categorizing the data (for labelling problem). As an example, think about a simple situation where a man is happy is the weather is sunny or he is on vacation. This scenario is modelled below. Note that you can use weather and vacation status to predict the man’s happiness with this model.  ... "

Google Redesigns Shopping

Always thought Google had underused its lens to create a context stream within shopping decisions.  Is this finally a step forward?  Here using it for fashion decisions, likely also for other contexts as well.

Redesigned Google Shopping goes live, with price tracking, Google Lens for outfits and more    By Sarah Perez in TechCrunch

Google Shopping is getting a redesign with several new features, including options to shop local stores, track prices and even find style inspiration through Google  Lens. Already, Google Lens’ smart image recognition technology can help identify objects, translate text, and find similar items. Now, using a photo of an outfit you like — for instance, something you found on Instagram — Google Lens will be able to pull up other “style ideas” from around the web.

These style ideas are focused on showing you how other people are wearing the item in question, not just returning matches of similar items, Google explains.

For example, if you found a skirt on social media, you could take a screenshot then use Lens in Google Photos to see how other people have been photographed wearing that same skirt.  .... "

Shopping Malls and Face Recognition

Not unexpected,  how will shoppers react?   Will the use be clearly posted?   There are already lots of security cameras.  We did lots of work tracking traffic in stores, and tested technical methods.  Many malls used the same methods.   

Shopping Centers Exploring Facial Recognition in Brave New World of Retail    By The Wall Street Journal 

Facial recognition is showing up in malls and shopping centers.

U.S. mall owners and retailers are ramping up their use of facial recognition to learn about shoppers' traffic patterns, employees' performance, and consumer responses to displays and marketing.

U.S. mall owners and retailers are ramping up their use of facial recognition to ascertain shoppers' traffic patterns, employee performance, and consumer response to displays and marketing.

Said Sandy Sigal, CEO of shopping center owner NewMark Merrill, "We definitely at the minimum want features that accurately identify who your customers are, where in the shopping centers they go, and how long they spend there."

Data/intelligence provider Springboard Research sells tracking technology that plugs into security cameras, to anonymously monitor individuals and vehicles in malls.

Meanwhile, Remark Holdings' products allow clients to use facial-recognition data to track down customers and enroll them in loyalty programs.

From The Wall Street Journal 
View Full Article - May Require Paid Subscription  .... "

Google Redesigns their Overall Shopping Experience

They needed to, and the outcome is worth understanding.  Remove confusion, intelligently combine sources, frictionless ....

Making it easier to shop across Google    By Surojit Chattarjee  Vice President, Product Management, Shopping,   in the Google Blog,    

Each day, hundreds of millions of people do shopping-related searches on Google. Now, we’re making the places where people come to browse and explore products on Google shoppable. These new shopping experiences let people shop and purchase frictionlessly right where they already turn to for research and inspiration: Search, Google Images, YouTube and a redesigned Google Shopping destination.

The new Google Shopping experience

This year we’re unveiling a redesigned Google Shopping experience with new, immersive ways for shoppers to discover and compare millions of products from thousands of stores. When they’re ready to buy, they can choose to purchase online, in a nearby store and now directly on Google. For retailers and brands, it brings together ads, local and transactions in one place to help them connect with consumers at the right time.

Shoppers will have a personalized homepage on the Shopping tab where they can filter based on features they care about and brands they love, read reviews and even watch videos about the products. For example, if they’re looking for headphones, they can filter for wireless and the brand they’re looking for.  .... "