How Does the Usage of AI to Predict Customer Behavior Transform the Shopping Experience?

Posted on May 10, 2024May 17, 2024 by Adina Humayoon

Imagine a store where each experience is uniquely tailored, so it feels as though the whole store has been specially crafted for you.

Well, you’re not alone, as the majority of shoppers are increasingly undergoing such a shopping experience, causing a significant hike in sales. It’s not some sorcery, its the use of AI to predict customer behavior. In 2023, the global retail e-commerce market soared to an impressive 5.8 trillion U.S. dollars, with projections forecasting a 39% surge, aiming to eclipse eight trillion dollars by 2027. This growth is largely attributed to a shift in customer engagement, transforming shopping into a journey of deep personalization, driving the retail sector to new heights.

Statista graph showing sales in global retail e-commerce market in the US — Source: Statista

You must have received product recommendations or advertisements on your social media app that are so spot-on. So much that it feels like Google, Facebook, or Instagram are eavesdropping in on your conversations or browsing history, even in Incognito mode! It turns out, they kind of are—using AI. This technology has been making waves across the retail sector, with its market size leaping from USD 6 billion in 2022 to a projected USD 100 billion by 2032. That’s a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 30%! And while only a fraction of retail harnesses AI effectively, a staggering 80% of retail executives predict their operations will be powered by AI-driven automation by 2027.

AI has driven $150 billion in value in overall AI technologies for the GCC countries alone, contributing to more than 9% of their combined GDP. Talk about economic growth; in this $150 billion, the retail industry is a contributing factor. AI is creating shopping experiences that are more engaging, efficient, and tailored to individual preferences. Moreover, the GCC region is focused on adopting this sort of shopping experience for their customers.

Retailers use AI to predict consumer behavior with greater accuracy, what the user is likely to want, and offer seamless and uniquely tailored shopping experiences (details and examples mentioned below). But how is AI enabling it all at the back end? Let’s discuss this and more below.

AI’s Role in Predicting Customer Behavior in Retail and CPG

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are foundational technologies reshaping retail and CPG sectors. AI refers to computers performing tasks that typically require human intelligence, while ML, a subset of AI, involves algorithms learning from data to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed.

Retailers and CPG companies leverage these technologies to understand and anticipate consumer behavior, preferences, and trends. By analyzing historical and current data, AI and ML enable customer behavior prediction for businesses. Through this, they are filling the gap between traditional guesswork and data-driven decision-making. This strategic use provides a competitive edge, allowing for more personalized customer experiences and efficient inventory management.

Data Collection Methods

Data collection in retail encompasses a wide range of methods, making the entire operation successful. It’s crucial because it allows retailers to tailor their offerings and communications precisely to individual preferences and needs. This personalized approach meets customer expectations and drives loyalty and sales, ultimately creating a difference in how retailers connect with their audience.

Together, these methods provide a comprehensive view of consumer preferences and behaviors, enabling retailers to deliver highly customized shopping experiences. This approach not only increases customer engagement and satisfaction but also optimizes inventory management and marketing strategies, leading to improved sales performance and customer loyalty.

How AI Processes Data to Predict Consumer Needs and Preferences

After data collection, the data is processed by AI, which involves the following steps:

Introducing Amazon Go and the world’s most advanced shopping technology

The sophistication of AI in processing and analyzing data allows retailers to anticipate the needs and preferences of their consumers. All this to craft highly personalized and engaging shopping experiences. This technology-driven approach is making retailers more responsive, efficient, and customer-centric than ever.

Real-Time Personalization and Predictive Analytics

It is no secret that brands are investing in AI predictive analytics for consumer behavior to create shopping experiences that resonate with individual consumer preferences. Amazon launched Amazon Go back in 2016, and has since evolved with multiple other tools within the domain. One notable example is Amazon Rufus, which uses AI to power its recommendation engine. It suggests products based on browsing and purchase history, leading to significant increases in customer engagement and sales.

A screen with clothes showing AI's role in predicting consumer behavior — Stitch Fix

Another example is Stitch Fix, an online styling service that uses AI to tailor clothing selections based on customer preferences, sizes, and feedback, demonstrating the potential of AI to customize services at scale.

Impact on Inventory Management

For inventory management:

AI forecasts demand: Predicting product needs to optimize inventory.
Optimizes stock levels: Balancing inventory to avoid overstock and stockouts.
Improves supply chain efficiency: Streamlining operations for better performance.
Reduces costs: Lowering expenses associated with excess inventory and missed sales.
Increases customer satisfaction: Ensuring products are available when desired by customers.

Impact on Product Recommendation

Product recommendations are among the most visible impacts of using AI to predict customer. By analyzing customer data, AI can suggest products that a customer is likely to be interested in. It thereby increases the chance of purchase.

The Consumer Experience Today VS. Before

Today, shoppers engage with retail through various means of technology in ways that were unimaginable just a decade ago, leading to a more personalized, efficient, and engaging retail therapy experience. Traditionally, shopping involved visiting physical stores, browsing through aisles, and often dealing with the uncertainty of item availability or fitting. Today, the use of AI to predict customer behavior has transformed this experience into one that is more tailored to individual preferences and needs.

Enhancing Customer Experience with Augmented Reality in Retail

Virtual reality and its role in customer predictive analytics — Nike’s AR-based application

Virtual try-ons and augmented reality (AR) solutions represent some of the most innovative uses of AI in retail. Nike’s use of AR for shoe sizing allows customers to find the perfect fit without physically trying on the shoe, combining convenience with personalization.

Too Faced is one of the brands investing in ai predictive analytics for consumer behavior — Too Faced virtual makeup application

Similarly, beauty brands like Too Faced employ AR to enable customers to ‘try’ makeup or hair colors virtually, ensuring the product suits their preferences before making a purchase.

A lady trying on clothes through metaverse in Tommy Hilfiger — Tommy Hilfiger’s in-store virtual try-on

Clothing apparel brand Tommy Hilfiger isn’t too far behind either. It has ventured into the Metaverse by partnering with augmented reality technology company Zero10 to introduce an AR try-on feature in three of its European stores. This innovative approach allows customers to virtually try on clothes using an AR kiosk, leveraging 3D body tracking and cloth simulation to create realistic representations of the clothing on the user. This significant step by Zero10 and Tommy Hilfiger marks a move towards blending the physical and digital shopping experiences. It offers customers with a new, interactive way to engage with the brand’s fashion offerings.

Furthermore, AI-driven customer service, such as chatbots and virtual assistants, is boosting customer support by providing instant, 24/7 responses to inquiries. This not only improves the efficiency of customer service but also significantly enhances customer satisfaction by offering timely assistance.

Time to reap the benefits of using AI to predict customer behavior

AI’s evolution is transforming shopping into deeply personalized experiences, using AI to predict customer behavior is exceeding customer expectations globally. By focusing on consumer-brand interactions and decision-making, AI helps retailers boost sales and loyalty. VentureDive’s Data and AI services are at the forefront of this change, offering solutions that empower businesses to navigate this transformation successfully. Connect and explore how we can enable your business with the best AI technology that resonates with your customers.

VentureDive Wins Another 5-Star Review on Clutch

Posted on January 21, 2022September 4, 2023 by Clutch

Another year, another achievement under our belt; and we couldn’t have been happier with our progress throughout our journey as a top-tier custom software development company.

Since 2012, VentureDive has been a leader in the technology space when it comes to building one-of-a-kind, custom experiences for a diverse clientele. Over the past years, we’ve assisted countless businesses, large and small, and helped them build the digital products that they have envisioned. Moreover, we delivered comprehensive solutions that guaranteed the best quality in terms of results for our partners.

With that said, we’re ecstatic to announce that we received another 5-star feedback on our Clutch profile. The newest addition to our catalog of reviews comes Ona Systems, Inc., a data solutions company that currently employs our services for custom software development.

But first, if you are wondering what Clutch is and how it functions, let us give you a quick overview of the platform. Clutch, a B2B ratings and reviews firm in the heart of Washington, D.C., connects businesses with the best-fit agencies or consultants they need to tackle their next big business challenge. It covers hundreds of different services from IT to advertising and marketing and ranks service providers based on a range of factors, including past clients and experience, verified client reviews, and market presence.

The most recent review from Ona Systems, Inc. talks about our ongoing engagement with them. Currently, they entrust us with the development of their data collection app. We’ve been working together for almost two years now, and VentureDive is delighted to have received such kind feedback from them. Here’s what they shared during their interview with Clutch:

“VentureDive provides software engineering and project management services to help us deliver on our client projects.

The VentureDive team supports a number of projects at Ona. They are valuable members of the team that has helped us deliver on our client software solutions and improve code coverage of products in development.

The nature of Ona’s contracts means that we often shift resourcing between projects at short notice. They’re flexible and adaptive in responding to changing priorities and competing demands with a positive attitude.”

— Joyce Chen, Director of Delivery, Ona Systems, Inc.

We are thrilled and would like to thank the client for taking the time and effort to leave this wonderful review. Over the years, we have collected countless valuable reviews from our dedicated clients, be sure to visit our Clutch profile to read about it. Also, Top Design Firms, the newest B2B resource from the makers of Clutch, displays design projects of the best-performing service providers — we’re named among the leading design companies on their list!

With that, let’s partner up for your business and discuss your project. Feel free to review our portfolio and connect with us. We’d love to hear from you!

Performance Review for a Software Developer: The Human Approach

Posted on March 16, 2021September 4, 2023 by Faisal Amin

Every employed person, regardless of their post, grade, profession, or experience, needs regular feedback on their work performance, so they can continue to improve, grow and evolve as a professional. In this blog, I will narrow down our discussion to software engineering – my expertise – and share some thoughts on how a performance review should be evolved to get the full picture of an employee’s work.

At VentureDive, we regularly engage as outsourcing partners with our clients. It’s our goal to make sure we fully understand their pain points to deliver impactful solutions to their business needs. To ensure the delivery of high-quality software products and solutions, I feel it’s essential to be empathetic and human about how we measure our own talent’s performance.

Contextualizing a performance review

The great debate about subjective versus objective opinion that revolves around the mathematical mindset of “measuring” everything versus the artistic approach of “feeling” the unmeasurable things has left us with a very difficult yet interesting question of what should be a good performance evaluation system.

I believe this question is too broad and deep to be covered entirely in one article. I would rather limit my words to one core aspect, i.e. how often the “contexts” are neglected or even missed altogether in performance evaluations.

So what do I mean by a “context” here? Simply put, a “context” is the specific environment or the circumstances in which a problem is solved, or a goal is achieved.

The real challenge is how to model the context (to a good degree) in performance evaluation systems.

Let me explain further by taking an example from the world of sports.

Cricket is a game that I love to watch and play (if I am allowed!). For those of you who also follow cricket, you know there are different rankings of players like the world’s top 10 batsmen or the world’s top 10 bowlers, etc.

Now, talking about the batsman ranking system – while I do not know the exact details of the current ranking algorithm, I think they do factor in some aspects like total runs scored, overall team’s score, opponent’s bowling quality, etc.

However, the question is, how sufficiently the context has been factored-in, in this case. As a cricket lover, I know this: to rank any batsman’s specific innings, the following factors are truly important:

Total runs scored
The speed of scoring
Remained out or not out
The team won or not
Quality of opponent’s bowling attack (a contextual factor)
Match condition: when the batsmen came out to bat, whether his team was under pressure (a very important contextual aspect)
Whether he played with a positive intent towards winning or just accumulated runs (another important contextual aspect)
Ground/pitch conditions (context)

A batsman’s inning of 50 runs which has resulted in saving a match is much more valuable than complacent innings of 100 runs.

So without going much into cricket, you can reflect from the above example that other than the simple measures, the contextual aspects are really important to truly judge the quality of an innings.

A software developer’s performance review

Let’s converge the performance review discussion to the field of software development. To evaluate the performance of a software developer in a project, usually, the number of tickets developed in a sprint, code quality (number of bugs identified), code coverage, etc. are considered. These are good measures of performance, but are these enough? Do they factor in the context? Some context-related factors could be:

How challenging was the project in terms of requirement clarity?
Was the technical stack new for the developer?
Was the business domain a different one?
If the developer is a junior, was he getting sufficient guidance or he has delivered in the absence of a mentor?
Was he getting sufficient support from other stakeholders in the project?
Did the developer just finish his work, or did he help others achieve their goals as well (e.g. helping fellow developers, giving good suggestions to clients, etc.), beyond the call of duty?

All these factors are essential to consider when conducting an engineer’s performance review. They account for creating a human-centered work culture, where empathy is at the heart of everything. When your employees are happy and satisfied, it brings a multitude of benefits to your organization as well. Here’s how workplace compassion can be of benefit to you:

Long story short

Creating a code of 1000 lines in a relaxed environment cannot be compared to the code, having a similar number of lines, but coded under tough deadlines.

We all know, developing software when you are challenged intellectually – beyond a certain level – is tough but what if you are challenged emotionally at the same time? It makes the situation much more difficult.

So you see, the contextual aspects are quite important to properly judge the performance of a developer. The challenge is how to model and factor these in our performance management system properly, I will leave this for some other time, but currently, just wanted to highlight that numbers without the right contexts are just insufficient facts.

A comprehensive guide on last-mile delivery solution: Features, benefits, and future implications

Posted on January 18, 2021September 4, 2023 by Ameer Hamza

The term ‘last mile’ was originally used in telecommunications to describe the difficulty of connecting end users’ homes and businesses to the main telecommunication network. This ‘last mile’ of telecommunication cable was going to be used by only one user, thereby not justifying the cost of installing and maintaining it.

As the world increasingly turns to e-commerce for shopping, the ‘last mile’ issue is one of the biggest and most expensive challenges for businesses.

What is last-mile delivery?

As soon as you check out from your shopping basket on any online shopping website, your product begins its long journey from a warehouse shelf to your doorstep. Here the ‘last mile’ represents the last leg/gap between the fulfillment center and you. Most businesses depend on a third party, like a shipping carrier, to handle their orders in the last mile. This last mile can be just a few meters to 100 kilometers or more. The key objective of last-mile delivery is to deliver your package as soon as possible and as safely as possible.

Challenges of last-mile delivery

Just like in telecommunications, the last mile is the most time-consuming and expensive part of the whole shipping process. If done correctly, it can convert users to loyal customers and save you a lot of time and money. The problem with last-mile deliveries is that not all of them are the same, some of them are pretty straightforward and usually involve a big truck carrying a large number of goods through a major road or highway. The complicated ones are those which require the delivery person to navigate through crowded streets, confusing alleyways, similar-looking buildings, and even large swathes of uninhabited rural areas to make singular deliveries.

Inefficiency is a major problem for last-mile deliveries as most of them require multiple stops with low drop sizes. The issue has been further compounded by the continuous rise of e-commerce, which has dramatically increased the number of parcels delivered each day, as well as raised customer expectations to include not just fast, but also free delivery.

The last mile of the entire supply chain adds up to about 30% of the cost and as free shipping becomes more commonplace, customers are less likely to be willing to pay a delivery fee, leaving retailers to shoulder the cost. Other challenges include:

Allocation & Address Issues

Destination grouping/management is a major issue for last-mile deliveries. Many retailers allocate jobs manually, which leads to human error, allowing shipments to get misallotted or missed out on a particular route. Additionally, bad and incorrect addresses and a lack of proper signage are also major concerns.

Dynamic Routes

If the delivery person is not changing routes based on conditions that prevail on that particular day, then they are further complicating the scope of last-mile delivery and timeline adherence for order fulfillment.

Delivery Density

There is a fine balance between managing the number of deliveries in a day within a particular area. Taking into account the size of shipments, and considering the following use cases, the delivery density problem quadruples in magnitude:

Low-Density Short Distances
Low-Density Long Distances
High-Density Short Distances
High-Density Long Distances

Transit unpredictability and lack of communication

While this is something retailers have no control over, the least they can do is to have a communications plan in place so that the delays are communicated to the respective stakeholders in a proactive manner.

Fulfillment timelines

Missed timelines can prove to be very expensive to retailers. In the case of food deliveries, some companies cannot charge customers for the delivery if the guaranteed timeline is missed. Not just that, it also causes damage in terms to the reputation of the brand.

How is last-mile delivery changing?

App-based delivery and the gig economy

As traditional delivery companies have started becoming inefficient, last-mile startups are on the rise, providing a cheaper, faster option. From food to large item delivery, crowdsourced delivery is becoming a viable and popular option.

Payment

Once the user selects what they require, they make a payment to Postmates. The payment includes the price of the product, the delivery fee, and service fee.

In-house delivery

Another new development is that businesses have started to hire their own drivers and trucks to cut down on costs, although this brings up a host of other issues.

Warehouses in major cities

Businesses are also adopting Amazon’s model of having fulfillment centers in high-ordering areas to improve efficiencies, allowing for rapid order fulfillment in major cities, including same-day delivery. Reducing the distance from the warehouse to the final destination costs less and can shorten delivery time to same-day or next-day delivery.

How can you boost your last-mile delivery?

Investing in a last-mile delivery solution that is feature-rich and can holistically transform your business by making your last-mile delivery more efficient than ever. Your custom mobile app can have features & benefits like:

Route optimization
Delivery route optimization is a crucial feature that can help in minimizing total delivery time by discovering the most efficient routes. It works by taking into account several factors like traffic, location, capacity, and time under consideration to come up with the most efficient routes. It also allows you to make last-minute changes or re-optimize by sending a real-time update to the driver.
Auto-dispatch
This feature helps in efficiently managing your assignments and on-demand orders by assigning the right driver for the right task at the right time and thus minimizing the service time and labor costs.
Bird’s eye view
This feature allows you to get a bird’s eye view of all important aspects with the team, time, and status filtering. You can search using time, text, and status-based queries to quickly find the customers, drivers, and delivery tasks.
Proof of delivery
This allows recipients to sign off on their goods through in-app signatures, photos, notes, and barcodes.
Real-time status update
This is an important feature that provides real-time status updates of the shipment to customers so that they know exactly when their goods would be delivered and by whom. They are also informed in case there’s any delay.
Real-time visibility
This helps you increase your fleet’s visibility by quickly being able to check where your vehicles are and how many of them are idling. It also helps in minimizing theft, spoilage, and pilferage.
Audit key metrics
This feature allows you to visualize success rates, service times, on-time rates, distance traveled, feedback scores, and much more.
Reports & analytics
Gain detailed insight into your business through graphical and date reports.
Delivery Flexibility
A customized last-mile delivery solution will allow your customers to choose the time and location of delivery.
Boost productivity
The last-mile delivery solution can help you boost productivity by eliminating any unnecessary idling or unplanned diversions.

What is the future of last-mile delivery?

As e-commerce increases, time-critical deliveries will become paramount. Here are some ideas on what innovations will be necessary for last-mile delivery in the future:

Multiple Options

Companies must adapt to changing customer demands; home deliveries, same-day deliveries, time windows, delayed deliveries, alternative locations, unmanned pack-station at offices, neighborhood stores, and in public transport stations, customer-centric return processes for products and packaging, and just-in-time deliveries. There will be multiple touchpoints with customers in the future.

Robotisation

Robotisation will soon become an integral part of urban freight solutions. Unmanned deliveries by robots and drones, and unmanned pack-stations for pick-up and delivery at offices, stores, and public transport stations will become commonplace.

Smart planning, IoT, and reliance on ride-sharing

Since urban freight mostly involves finding an unloading zone, walking, and actual delivery, new transport planning, and scheduling systems will be developed using big data to forecast delivery routes and using real-time traffic information and availability of unloading zones for planning and scheduling. The reliance on ride-sharing will become commonplace as these social delivery networks will lead to innovation in urban freight.

Food for thought

Last-mile delivery is a major bottleneck for a lot of retailers. The solution is to shore up on last-mile delivery with a custom-made solution that is tailor-made for your organization, it will surely boost your last-mile delivery tracking and hence increase the profits.

Keep in mind the latest trends though, couple that with a last-mile delivery solution, and you are ready to take your business to new heights.

Simple tips for impactful content

Posted on January 17, 2021May 31, 2024 by Ureeda Asim

There is a lot of content out there. The web is swarming with millions of blogs, articles, social media posts, videos, images, and whatnot. It is highly possible for any content that you put out there to get lost in the crowd.

Amidst all that, you have to make sure your content is visible and accessible to people. Does that mean you start writing more content? Well, maybe, if it were 2004. That’s when the idea of content creation online was fresh. Now, everybody is doing it.

To get your content noticed today, you have to make sure it’s high in quality. In the realm of social media marketing, if the content piece aims to truly help people, is written in an easy-to-ingest format, and keeps the reader engaged, then it is considered high-quality.

Here are a few rules that we, the magic makers at VentureDive, stick to, for producing content that our audience loves.

1. Storytelling is vital

There’s a whole science behind it. Research shows that our brains become more active when we’re being told a story — the parts of our brain responsible for processing the visual input are also active, in addition to the language processing parts, when we’re reading a story.

When your content sparks the audience’s imagination and allows them to actually experience what you’re saying because of your words that are rich in imagery, more often than not, they stay with you till the end.

Boring, textbook-style content doesn’t sit well with most people. The page exit rates are quite high for posts with tedious and factual content. That’s where we, the content marketers, come in. To turn any piece into a story, here are a few things we like to do:

Make it conversational — add a monologue or a dialogue
Metaphors make the business talk relatable — for example, everybody has heard, “Time is money.” This doesn’t really mean that time is a currency, rather, it just denotes the value of time — it’s so valuable that it may as well be money.
Leverage the jargon — create vivid imagery through words — e.g. change “The market dip put the investors at loss.” to “The 10-million dollars’ crash in the United States stock market incurred a 75% loss to the investors.” The second sentence is descriptive and portrays a clearer sense of the story.
Tap into the subconscious — insert common examples that most people are familiar with, so they follow along with minimal effort.

2. Focus on the ethos

Content that appeals to the emotions of the audience generally tends to do much better than that which doesn’t. If people can relate to your content, and it evokes positive feelings, the content is successful. It doesn’t matter what you’re talking about — it could be the most run of the mill thing ever — like artificial intelligence or machine learning.

Cocacola ad — *Coca-Cola Advertisement (2019, left & 1890’s, right)* | Left — targets **Ethos** (feelings), Right — targets **Logos** (facts).

However, if the content is written in a witty, friendly, unbiased and fun tone, it is likely that people will scroll through to the end of the article or blog. It is always good to create content that is in line with your brand personality. At VentureDive, we aim for all pieces to exude the bold, passionate, fun and fresh personality that we have.

Remember, your audience will always remember how your content made them feel, even though they may forget what it said. If the feeling lasts, they are likely to revisit your content, too.

3. Harness the power of visuals

Visuals last longer in our brains than any other form of content. It is a tool that should always be used when storytelling. People can relate to the stuff they can easily imagine and keep up with.

The right visuals, when used in tandem with the storyline, can make your content go from good to awesome. Stats suggest that 90% of the information that our brain processes is visual and the processing speed is much, much faster, as well.

Furthermore, it has been proven that 40% of people respond better to visual information as compared to plain text.

Therefore, telling your take through imagery can help elevate your content’s quality, resulting in a lowered exit rate, and increased time spent on-page. It’s all about capturing the reader’s attention.

4. Ensure your content is useful

If your content isn’t providing any actionable takeaways to your readership, then the content quality needs to go up. The key is to keep the content from losing meaning.

In an attempt to make the content fun and interesting, it is quite easy to lose track of why you intended to write it in the first place. If it’s losing the meat, it’s time to take a step back and reevaluate.

Here’s how we stay relevant when creating an awesome content piece:

Build an outline — define the headings and subheadings before you start writing
Write a solid conclusion — the whole story summed up in a short paragraph
Chunk it down — smaller text blocks, dotted with relevant images and videos

Furthermore, another important thing is to back your content with adequate research and facts. If what you’re saying fits with the story, but there are no references to back them up, then the authority of your content is greatly reduced.

Useful content is something that actually helps your audience. You can include lists, graphs, and any other diagrams that effectively summarise what you talk about throughout the blog. What I mean is, if the title of your blog post is “7 marketing tools that can make your life easy”, then you better be talking about those 7 tools, with a list in the conclusion. That makes it easy to skim through.

5. Be seen with celebrities (not kidding!)

When you’ve been creating content for a while, it’s always better to get in touch with renowned names in the market. Doing collabs, working together, getting into a partnership or contract with famous names in your niche can offer you a boost in legitimacy.

It’s natural. If you’re trying to establish yourself as a food blogger, for example, then be seen with Mark Weins, and your authenticity in the capacity of someone who knows food well will improve. People will say, “Oh, Mark Weins knows this guy, it must mean that this guy is a food expert too, and it’s worth our while to check out his content, too.” It’s just our brain’s way of making connections and establishing authenticity.

So if the content marketing department at VentureDive needs to increase its legitimacy, maybe we would collaborate with Gary Vaynerchuk or Neil Patel, for that matter! 🙂

6. Get reviews and feedback

If people endorse your content, and refer you through reviews, it boosts your genuinity. Here are a few ways that can help you get good reviews for your business:

Make sure your content is high-quality and optimized.
Offer lucrative incentives, e.g. $10 Amazon Gift Card for a review.
Ask customers for a review in-person — the personal touch, matters.
Choose the right moment to ask for a review
Respond to every review — even negative ones.
Be the first to review your customers — best to keep it positive.
Share and re-share any good reviews you receive.
Allow people to leave reviews on multiple platforms.
Host events (meetups, conferences, and exhibitions) to get quotes and on-spot reviews from your customers.

Moreover, reviews are a means of receiving honest feedback from industry experts. There is always room for improvement. Reaching out to experts and receiving feedback can offer advice for improving your content — and if they are words of praise, it’s always a plus. Trust the gurus. They know better. Improve your content and fly high.

Long story short

The sea of content out there can intimidate anyone who is just venturing into the content marketing field, but don’t be discouraged. As long as you create content following these 6 rules, you cannot go wrong.

While you may be a brilliant writer, these tips can help you market your skills better. We’ve tested these techniques and the results have been phenomenal. Since these are quite generic in nature, you can apply them to any kind of content you’re producing.

However, the type of audience may require you to adjust your strategy a bit. For example, it is not advised to go for the witty or fun tone of voice when writing an instruction manual that is to be used by technicians to operate certain equipment.

All in all, you can create remarkable content, it’s definitely not an impossible feat. The first step is to get started and not be overwhelmed. The rest will follow. Plus, spend double the time on its promotion. Remember, the wider the reach, the better your content performs.

VentureDive: A Top-Rated Venture by Clutch 2020

Posted on January 14, 2021September 4, 2023 by Ureeda Asim

At VentureDive, we pride ourselves on our ability to innovate to improve lives. What sets us apart from other technology solutions companies is our underlying mission to solve real-world challenges through cutting-edge services, products, and experiences.

Our technology solutions span web and mobile design and development, consulting, and data and analytics. To provide potential clients with insights into what it’s like to work with us and the results we’re capable of delivering, we often direct them to our Clutch profile.

Clutch.co is a rating and review platform based in Washington, D.C. covering web, software, and mobile app development companies around the world.

Clutch lists IT organizations across the world, rating them on their market presence, industry experience, and proven ability to deliver excellence and results to their clients. Instead of clients merely leaving reviews or star ratings, the Clutch team speaks directly with current and past clients to hear first-hand how each firm performs and delivers.

This comprehensive approach gives users and buyers a realistic understanding of each service providers’ strengths and weaknesses.

It’s very important for us to receive honest and detailed feedback from our clients. This feedback helps us upgrade our strengths and correct our weaknesses. We are thankful to all our clients whose words will continue to inspire us to work, create, and evolve.

Many of our clients have given us amazing reviews on Clutch and shared their experience of working with VentureDive. They’ve rated us out of 5 in different categories; below are some insights from a few of our clients.

Kashat

Our most recent five-star review comes from Kashat, the first digital nano lending company in Egypt. They approached with a unique challenge, to deliver a cutting-edge solution to their customers which would be the first of its kind in Egypt. Considering the project and the regulatory requirements, it was paramount that the highest level of quality and security was maintained for this project.

The client was thrilled with our team’s high level of understanding throughout the process and their professionalism ensured that the build process went smoothly and finished on time.

GoRead.pk

GoRead.pk, an educational startup that’s working to improve literacy and develop a love for reading amongst children in Pakistan, left us our first review on Clutch — along with a perfect 5-star rating!

The startup approached us to develop their mobile app. A core part of GoRead.pk’s initiative is to have volunteers read stories aloud to children in underserved communities.

The startup wanted an app that would help facilitate volunteer registration and serve as the primary communication tool amongst all stakeholders in the program. They also hoped that eventually, the app would give children independent access to stories.

Although the client had a short two-month deadline, the team was up for the challenge; we worked quickly and ensured effective collaboration between our teams so that the app was ready on time.

When the app launched, it immediately generated a lot of interest, and GoRead.pk reports that it’s become a beneficial tool in their program. They appreciate that our team has come to their offices to help volunteers download and troubleshoot the app.

Tez Financial Services

We recently received another glowing review from Tez Financial Services, the first fully-digital and licensed financial institution in Pakistan. They wanted to provide frictionless financial access and aggregate various financial accounts, from insurance to savings, into a single mobile app — and they hired us to do so.

The first order of business was to meet with Tez Financial to discuss their business goals and determine what end-user needs the platform had to fulfill. Then, we got to work developing a robust, comprehensive, forward-looking, and user-friendly mobile app. We designed the app and did both front-end and back-end development.

Tez Financial reports that we played a pivotal role in the launch of their company. The app has a healthy NPS and a high rating in the Google Play Store.

The client appreciated that our senior management provided full support throughout the project, which helped to ensure that all of the project objectives were met in a timely manner. They also commended our efforts to align with their vision.

Unilever

One of our recent high profile projects was the Munchies project with Unilever Pakistan. This was an important project as this was the first time that Unilever got into a joint venture with a tech-led company in Pakistan.

The challenge was to build a delivery platform from where a consumer could order and get ice cream delivered in 10 minutes. Unilever initially approached us for a google sprint to the entire model and then moved on to partner with us to develop the entire framework.

A month after the launch, Munchies was downloaded over 7,000 times and the system had received 3,000 orders. The client appreciated our organization and attentiveness when it came to the project as we successfully met deadlines.

We strive to provide our customers and partners with solutions that perfectly match their requirements and these amazing reviews are a testament to our commitment and drive. If you want more information about our work and approach, feel free to visit our case study section, read our blog, & follow us on our social media pages.

We look forward to growing our Clutch presence and delivering more successful projects to our clients. If you have a business challenge that you’d like to run by us, don’t hesitate to reach out! We love taking on new partners and challenges.

VentureDive: Top software development company by Techreviewer 2020

Posted on January 13, 2021September 4, 2023 by Techreviewer

VentureDive is a custom software development company that has proved its worth by delivering top-notch solutions to clients and providing them with flexibility and support. Not long ago, they were classified as a top-rated venture by Clutch 2020.

Extensive experience in delivering full-cycle software development services along with deep technology expertise enabled the company to hit the lists of the leading web and mobile companies according to prominent online directories and research agencies.

Let’s talk about some of the many notable projects delivered by VentureDive, along with the appreciation they received from the clients.

Careem: E-hail platform for affordable ride-hailing in the Middle-east

Careem is the leading cab booking service in the MENA region. In 2012, when it was still just an idea, they needed a technology partner to develop Careem’s Core platform & apps.

VentureDive worked with Careem to successfully deliver e-hail systems using Artificial Intelligence, Growth Management, and Security Protocols.

Unilever Munchies: A mobile app for instant delivery of snacks to your doorstep

VentureDive & Unilever brainstormed the idea for a digital platform for instant snacks’ delivery. Munchies’ hyperlocal model gives it the agility to deliver within minutes.

The company worked on product design, design sprint, and growth hacking for Munchies.

Kashat: Nano-lending mobile app offering small loans to micro-business owners

Kashat is the first Nano lending mobile application in Egypt, offering short term loans. They needed an outsourced software development team to develop the app and ensure tech alignment with business needs.

Through mobile development and product design, VentureDive helped the company grow and boost its bottom line.

Tez Financial Services: Android app for frictionless financial access to the masses

Tez Financial Services is Pakistan’s first fully digital Non-Bank Microfinance Company. They needed a technology partner to design and develop the Tez Financial Services platform & app.

VentureDive worked on role-based security, SSL pinning, and fraud prevention to help Tez establish a safe and secure financial inclusion platform for people across Pakistan.

Droobi Health: Mobile app & platform for chronic disease management

Droobi Health is a digital therapeutic company specialized in transforming chronic disease management. They needed mobile apps for diabetic patients & healthcare consultants to collaborate & keep a check on their health and lifestyle.

Using Apple health kit and J&J one-touch glucometer, VentureDive built and delivered a mobile application with chat and video features to help patients monitor their diabetes.

Now, there is another feather in their hat: VentureDive has been featured by a trustworthy analytics company, TechReviewer.co, as a leading Software Development Company in 2020.

“We are honored to be recognized as one of the best software development companies worldwide. We will continue to justify the confidence placed in us by TechReviewer, our clients, and partners. We believe we will reach new heights, expand our technology expertise, and gain more winning awards in custom software development, mobile, and web app development.” — VentureDive Team

AI’s Role in Predicting Customer Behavior in Retail and CPG

Data Collection Methods

How AI Processes Data to Predict Consumer Needs and Preferences

Real-Time Personalization and Predictive Analytics

Impact on Inventory Management

Impact on Product Recommendation

The Consumer Experience Today VS. Before

Enhancing Customer Experience with Augmented Reality in Retail

Time to reap the benefits of using AI to predict customer behavior

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Contextualizing a performance review

A software developer’s performance review

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What is last-mile delivery?

Challenges of last-mile delivery

Allocation & Address Issues

Dynamic Routes

Delivery Density

Transit unpredictability and lack of communication

Fulfillment timelines

How is last-mile delivery changing?

App-based delivery and the gig economy

Payment

In-house delivery

Warehouses in major cities

How can you boost your last-mile delivery?

What is the future of last-mile delivery?

Multiple Options

Robotisation

Smart planning, IoT, and reliance on ride-sharing

Food for thought

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1. Storytelling is vital

2. Focus on the ethos

3. Harness the power of visuals

4. Ensure your content is useful

5. Be seen with celebrities (not kidding!)

6. Get reviews and feedback

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Kashat

GoRead.pk

Tez Financial Services

Unilever

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Careem: E-hail platform for affordable ride-hailing in the Middle-east

Unilever Munchies: A mobile app for instant delivery of snacks to your doorstep

Kashat: Nano-lending mobile app offering small loans to micro-business owners

Tez Financial Services: Android app for frictionless financial access to the masses

Droobi Health: Mobile app & platform for chronic disease management

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