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GK Software’s AI acquisition promises a true omnichannel experience

The company acquired AI-recommendation company prudsys in November.

Robin Kurzer on January 9, 2018 at 3:21 pm

Customers expect product recommendations when they are making a retail purchase. But they are equally frustrated when those recommendations are of no help.

Michael Jaszczyk, CEO of GK Software, North America, says that many companies cannot make accurate recommendations because they don’t have a way to compile and analyze data collected from multiple channels. This means that a customer can make a mobile purchase, but once they are at the cash register, the POS system does not factor in their mobile experience.

GK Software acquired prudsys to solve that problem.

“By integrating the AI (artificial intelligence) capabilities of prudsys AG into its OmniPOS platform, retailers can now create personalized customer experiences across any channel, including the store,” the company said in a release.

“Our expanded omnichannel capabilities present retailers the next level of consumer experience, increasing both loyalty and revenue,” Jaszczyk said. “Personalization based on AI was, up to now, a technology limited to one channel. Now, GK Software makes personalization truly omnichannel, both offline and online. We are enabling retailers to recommend products to their consumers based on their personal behaviors at every touch point.”

Jaszczyk told me that omnichannel marketing has yet to live up to its promise since it became popular about 15 years ago. He said that it’s not only because data activity is happening in different channels, it’s that each channel uses a different business logic to create recommendations.

“Omnichannel came up and the demand was to integrate all those channels and potential customer journeys where someone would buy something online and pick it up in the store,” Jaszczyk said. “For example, if you’re buying something that needs batteries, the retailer wants to upsell the batteries. That means that the process need[s] to be integrated. It needs to apply the same business logic to that transaction.The bottom line is that you have to expose retail business logic from the central system into all the different channels.”

Jaszczyk told me that companies using these recommendations are typically seeing a 3 to 5 percent lift in sales. The technology also allows companies to implement dynamic pricing, which can drive a further lift.

About The Author

Robin Kurzer

Robin Kurzer started her career as a daily newspaper reporter in Milford, Connecticut. She then made her mark on the advertising and marketing world in Chicago at agencies such as Tribal DDB and Razorfish, creating award-winning work for many major brands. For the past seven years, she’s worked as a freelance writer and communications professional across a variety of business sectors.