Interview. AI: "It's normal that small businesses quickly took it up."

According to your study (*), 84% of retailers have already adopted artificial intelligence. Isn't this surprising, given that most other sectors are still thinking about how to use it?

"That's indeed the big surprise of this study. But on the other hand, it's not all that surprising. Independent retailers as a whole are eager for new technologies. And many of these professionals have numerous constraints in terms of schedules, workdays, and the succession of tasks (administrative, accounting, sales, etc.). Anything that can relieve their burden or save them time is therefore immediately adopted. In a way, it's therefore completely normal that independent retailers have very quickly taken up artificial intelligence."

These professionals have no hesitation in using AI in the face of data protection issues?

"This is the second lesson of this study. Less than 20% of the retailers surveyed are worried about their data when using AI . In England and Germany, this figure even drops to 11%. There is, however, a second level of interpretation. Retailers only use it for tasks for which they trust AI: inventory management, data analysis. On the other hand, they will not use it to send mailings, develop their communication campaign or anything related to customer contact. For this, they continue to trust only themselves."

Is AI currently only a management aid?

"Above all, it saves time, and therefore productivity and money. The retailers surveyed say they save around 9 hours per week thanks to artificial intelligence. They therefore generate additional margin by saving money. But it can also become a revenue-generating tool. Ask an AI to enhance a product photo and you will immediately sell it much better..."

To stand out from the competition, aren't the quality of a product, its guaranteed origin and ultimately customer relations the best ways?

"Yes, of course! The way our members use our platform tends to prove it. The most common filter on Faire is: "Not on Amazon." In other words, with us, merchants are looking for products that can't be found on Amazon. And the two other most used filters are: "women's items produced by women" and "locally manufactured." Ultimately, digital technology (AI or not) remains, for independent merchants, a concrete, almost material tool for their products.

And in the face of Asian competition from online sales platforms like Shein and Temu, can AI do anything?

"Independent retailers are relatively unaffected by this competition. This is probably because quality, materials, history, and brand value are so important to customers and, therefore, to store managers. Furthermore, they are not alone in these matters. We support them by providing information and links to the latest regulations protecting them against this foreign competition."

And tomorrow, what could AI bring to independent traders?

“What will be very interesting is to see to what extent AI will enable retailers to discover brands and products they would not have thought of. More and more people are asking us, for example, if this artificial intelligence can help them identify current trends? The challenge of offering the best product at the best time remains. With data aggregation, for example, it will soon be possible to determine what customers want based on the weather, the region where they are located, and of course the latest fashion even before it becomes a trend.”

(*) Study carried out by Onepoll on behalf of Faire, on a representative panel of 250 retail traders from March 21 to 31, 2025.