How AI Can Make Christmas Shopping A Dream

Economic factors are a good indicator of how likely people are to spend or save their money, but with today's connected customer base, there are far more variables to add to the mix - whether or not to buy online, if there is a cheaper option elsewhere, or what the weather will be like when you have the chance to shop. IBM's enterprise service Metropulse combines weather data with geographical and individual store metrics to predict demand on a store-by-store basis, helping retailers with promotions, layout and when to release seasonal items. This year, for example, unseasonable snow storms in the US caught a lot of thanksgiving shoppers unawares, giving savvy retailers the opportunity to sell things like snow chains and winter coats, and put fall stock (like vests or rain jackets) on sale or in storage.