This month, toy store owner Rick Derr reflects on the importance of trying out new technology to avoid falling behind, and whether AI can be of use to retailers.

“As an AI novice, I was reminded of 2008 when I first struggled to create our Learning Express Toys Facebook business page,” writes Rick. “What will it mean? How will it work? Do people respond and what content and frequency should we follow? And who will be the key person administering the page? Well, 16 years later, it’s still me!

“I firmly believe businesses need to try new technology or tools in order to avoid falling behind or worse, going out of existence. Our introduction of Facebook, back in 2012, remains one of the top two events that has allowed us to not only stay in the toy business but to become a major player in the market. Running my first Facebook ad that December showed me this was a necessary step to compete against the giants and build our own audience of supporters. It was the right move – social media is now our dominant marketing strategy and has been for the last decade.”

Rick goes on to break down AI; what it is, how it works and how retailers could be putting it to use in order to help their businesses. In his view, retailers can maximise efficiency by making use of these applications to help with idea generation, ranking and analysing data and other time consuming tasks.

During his time investigating AI, Rick also took on the opportunity to ask two different 30-year-olds, in two different industries, how they might be making use of AI to help in their jobs.

To read Rick’s full article, which appeared in the March edition of Toy World, click here.