generative ai

Kapil Dabi and Ann Ruckstuhl

Unified Commerce Benchmark: How Manhattan Associates and Google Transform Retail Excellence at Shop Talk

Welcome to this episode of Talk Commerce Live from Shop Talk, featuring an insightful conversation with Kapil Dabi, Americas Market Leader for Retail and CPG at Google, and Ann Ruckstuhl, Chief Marketing Officer at Manhattan Associates. The discussion centers on unified commerce and the groundbreaking partnership between these industry leaders.

Key Takeaways

  1. The Unified Commerce Benchmark (UCB) evaluates 300+ attributes across eight shopping trips
  2. Top-performing retailers see 3x faster revenue growth and 31% lower fulfillment costs
  3. Companies using generative AI witness 14% increase in average order value
  4. Customer lifetime value improves by 11% through AI implementation
  5. Store associate empowerment leads to 1.25x higher customer lifetime value

About the Guests

Ann Ruckstuhl

As Chief Marketing Officer at Manhattan Associates, Ann leads the company’s marketing initiatives for their supply chain and omnichannel commerce software solutions, including order management and point of sale systems. Manhattan Associates specializes in cloud-native solutions built on the Google Cloud platform.

Kapil Dabi

Serving as Americas Market Leader for Retail and CPG at Google, Kapil oversees Global Retail Strategy, Industry Solutions, and Partnerships. His expertise focuses on helping retailers leverage technology for digital transformation and enhanced customer experiences.

Detailed Episode Summary

The conversation begins with an introduction to the Unified Commerce Benchmark (UCB), a collaborative initiative launched two and a half years ago. The UCB evaluates 220 brands across North America, examining various aspects of retail performance:

Benchmark Categories

  • Leaders (top performers like Sephora and Apple)
  • Advanced
  • Developing
  • Basic

The discussion highlights how modern retail requires managing customer experiences across multiple channels:

  • Traditional stores
  • Online presence
  • Social commerce (TikTok shop, Instagram)
  • Mobile platforms

The speakers emphasize that customers typically interact with brands through ten touchpoints before making a purchase decision. This multi-channel approach necessitates seamless inventory visibility and consistent customer experience across all platforms.

Personal Commentary and Analysis

The partnership between Manhattan Associates and Google represents a significant advancement in retail technology integration. Their focus on measurable outcomes—such as the 30% reduction in customer service call volume through agent AI implementation—demonstrates the practical value of their solutions.

Memorable Quotes

“Most retailers have stores, have online presence and lately shop fill in the blank, TikTok shop, Instagram. It’s all becoming part of your go to market and your store presence.” – Ann Ruckstuhl

“The consumer is almost doing 10 steps or 10 touch points… they’re actually interacting with the brand almost 10 times before they’re actually purchasing it.” – Kapil Dabi

Engaging the Audience

Access the Unified Commerce Benchmark report at Manhattan Associates’ website to evaluate your retail organization’s performance against industry leaders. The comprehensive analysis provides valuable insights for digital transformation initiatives.

Final Thoughts

The future of retail success lies in unified commerce implementation supported by AI technology. As consumer behaviors continue evolving, retailers must embrace these innovations to maintain competitive advantage and deliver superior customer experiences.

Listen to more conversations about customer experience here

Talk Commerce Guest Udayan Bose

AI-Powered Marketing Revolution: Insights from Udayan Bose

In this episode of Talk Commerce, I had the pleasure of chatting with Udayan Bose, the founder and CEO of NetElixir, an AI-first digital agency. Udayan has been a guest on the show before, and we always enjoy picking his brain about the exciting advancements in AI and their impact on the ever-evolving world of ecommerce. This time, we dove deep into the potential of generative AI, beyond just content creation, and how it’s transforming areas like SEO, paid search, and even Google’s strategy. Join me as we recap some of the key takeaways from our insightful conversation with Udayan.

Ecommerce and the Rise of Generative AI: A Conversation with Udayan Bose

Beyond Buzzwords: How Generative AI Is Boosting Productivity

Udayan highlighted how NetElixir is leveraging generative AI to significantly enhance productivity within their agency and for their clients. They’ve developed a suite of tools called LXR Smart AI, focusing on practical applications like creating meta descriptions for SEO, generating image alt text recommendations, and writing ad copy variations. These seemingly small tasks can eat up a lot of time, and Udayan shared how automating them through AI can free up marketers to focus on strategic initiatives.

My take: I’ve seen firsthand how these seemingly small tasks can bog down a marketing team. The potential for time savings using AI-powered tools like those Udayan described is enormous, and I’m excited to see more platforms adopting this approach.

The Zero-Click Search Dilemma and the Future of Google

We discussed the growing trend of zero-click searches on Google, spurred by features like AI overviews. Udayan shared insights from NetElixir’s research, revealing a noticeable drop in click-through rates across various search query types, particularly informational and navigational searches. This shift has significant implications for ecommerce businesses that rely heavily on organic traffic from Google.

Udayan posed a crucial question: Is the future of search a chatbot-led experience? I think this is a topic that deserves a lot more discussion, especially as we consider how user behavior is evolving and the ways businesses will need to adapt to maintain visibility.

Google’s Challenges and the First-Party Data Revolution

Udayan didn’t shy away from addressing the challenges Google faces in the age of generative AI and the increasing dominance of walled gardens like TikTok and Amazon. He pointed out Google’s flip-flopping on AI-generated content and their struggle to adapt to a first-party data future, especially with the impending deprecation of third-party cookies.

My thoughts: Google is at a crossroads, and their response to these challenges will shape the future of the digital advertising landscape. It will be interesting to see how they leverage their vast resources and assets, like YouTube, to innovate and maintain their position.

Embracing the AI Plus World

Udayan ended our conversation with a powerful message: The future is about collaboration between humans and AI. He encouraged marketers to embrace these new technologies and explore how they can be used to improve efficiency and unlock new possibilities.

I wholeheartedly agree with Udayan’s sentiment. The AI revolution is here to stay, and businesses that adapt and learn to leverage these tools will have a significant advantage. I encourage everyone to check out NetElixir’s LXR Smart AI tools and explore how generative AI can transform your workflow.

Conclusion

Our conversation with Udayan Bose was packed with valuable insights and thought-provoking questions about the future of ecommerce and the role of generative AI. I’m grateful to Udayan for sharing his expertise and for his passion for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with AI.

Be sure to listen to the full episode of Talk Commerce to hear our entire conversation with Udayan. And don’t forget to check out LXR Smart AI to experience the power of generative AI for yourself.

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