GS1 Mexico boosted member retention by 30% in two years with the help of AI

Losing members? AI can tell you who’s at risk—and what to do about it. Here’s how GS1 Mexico boosted retention by 30% with analytics.

We interviewed Eduardo Ortiz, CEO of We Are The Robots Inc. (WATR), and we’re honored to bring you his thoughts on how artificial intelligence helped GS1 Mexico transform their member retention rates.

GS1 is the global standard-bearer of barcodes and product identification. Why are these important? As Eduardo explains, “If you want to sell your Tequila in Japan, you need to have your barcode and then you need to get that barcode into the catalog. And then you need to be a part of the association. Because if you’re not part of it, you actually don’t even have a barcode.”

The challenge GS1 Mexico faced was member retention, especially during the 2021-2022 period. As Eduardo points out, “If you don’t see the value that you obtain out of your membership, most surely you won’t renew the next year.”

Building the AI solution

The solution WATR developed was an AI-powered traffic light system.

“We created this machine learning model that is fed or trained with sources, different sources,” Eduardo says. “For instance, the CRM, the support desk… use Zendesk. So Zendesk has all the information of interactions between support, tickets, agents, problem solution, and customers.”

The system analyzes multiple data points to predict renewal likelihood. Eduardo explains, “If this member is in this tier of membership, they’re paying, let’s say, $100 per year. They only have one barcode. They have not attended any events. They haven’t logged into the platform. And they last signed into GS1 in 2020… maybe it will be red, and they won’t renew, you know, because they’re not taking value out of the membership.”

Early results and impact

The results have been remarkable. According to Eduardo: “Retention and renewals have gone up… it’s 25, 30% of renewal rate increased in the last two years.”

From insights to action

The traffic light system doesn’t just identify at—risk members—it provides specific recommendations for action.

“You have a customer agent… that has all this information… in the computer and has the insights and has the recommendations… and knows that this client is at risk of actually not renewing, then you know you can drive the conversation there,” Eduardo explains.

The system is particularly effective at identifying three key member segments:

– For red-flagged accounts, Eduardo notes: “They’re not going to renew. All indicators are telling us this guy is going. He’s leaving us.”

– Yellow-status members require attention but aren’t immediate flight risks.

– Green-status members present opportunities for growth: “The green ones also have a strategy, because you can work with the green ones, because they’re your customer success stories,” Eduardo says. They’re the ones who will recommend your company because they’re the ones who actually see value, who understand how to leverage your business and how to use it for their own growth.

Continuous improvement and evolution

The platform continues to evolve. “We’re updating the rules and the algorithms,” Eduardo says. “Like if a client enters the platform 10 times a week, maybe it’s a good sign, but maybe it’s because he’s having problems and he’s trying to solve them and he’s not solving them.” WATR is evolving to make sure they can differentiate between two situations like that using data.

The power of recommendations

Beyond basic predictive analytics, the system includes a recommendation engine. These recommendations enable proactive engagement.

If the customer loves GS1 events and has attended three of them in the last four months, the system can prompt the customer service agent to recommend an upgrade to the next membership tier that gives the customer access to six additional access passes to GS1 events.

Moving beyond traditional analytics

The system goes beyond simple analytics to provide three levels of insight.

– Historical analytics
– Short-term predictive analytics
– Prospective analytics
“You can analyze the data based on the historical, then you can project and try to foresee a little bit what’s going to happen and take a course of action based on the traffic light, depending on the probability of renewal,” Eduardo says.

The platform includes what Eduardo calls “prospective analytics.”

“The forecasting and the prospective [are] where you can play with different scenarios: What happens if we increase the price of the membership? What happens if we lose 5,000 members? And what happens if we increase the price of this platform?” Eduardo explains.

This approach represents a significant evolution from GS1’s previous marketing efforts. As Eduardo explains: “For me, understanding these marketing efforts with technology, it’s not just automating campaigns, right?… It’s not just using AI to enhance your Google Ads campaigns… Everyone can do that.”

Conclusion

The success of GS1’s AI-powered retention system demonstrates how machine learning can transform member engagement when properly implemented. As Eduardo concludes, “You have the 360 view. You can analyze the data based on the historical, then you can project and try to foresee a little bit what’s going to happen and take a course of action based on the traffic light, depending on the probability of renewal.”

For organizations struggling with member retention, GS1’s experience shows that AI can do more than just automate existing processes—it can fundamentally transform how organizations understand and engage with their members. The key is combining sophisticated backend analytics with simple, actionable frontend interfaces that empower customer service teams to take the right action at the right time.

Interested in more insights from Eduardo? View the full video interview here.

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