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Artificial intelligence(AI) is one of the most revolutionary technologies that has changed the way we live our lives. It has changed the landscape of how we shop online too. There is aggressive competition amongst eCommerce players to integrate AI technology into their stores, and there are a gazillion reasons for doing so.
In this article, we look at 10 reasons why implementing AI in your eCommerce store is a must.
Haven’t we all been witness to the incredible beauty that is “recommended products?” Based on your previous search history, you will get recommendations of products that would make sense to buy along with the ones you’ve added to your cart.
AI greatly impacts customer purchases based on its knowledge of previous purchases, searched products, browsing habits, etc. It uses visual data to show them products similar to the ones they’ve already viewed. The recommendations from eCommerce, especially for customer support. They can replace your support agents in most cases, except for cases where human intervention is needed because of the complexity. They read customer databases, previous chat history, extract customer details, and so on, to give you the most personalized support possible.
The best part about chatbots is that it can handle as many queries as possible. It doesn’t tire. Nor does it require a break. It is your Man Friday, except that it literally happens to be a virtual robot. Your customers expect the best service possible and chatbots help you achieve just that. It takes the monotony of answering repetitive questions and gives ample time for your support agents to work on high-value queries.
Maintaining the right level of inventory is pivotal since it will directly impact your bottom line. AI helps in inventory management by managing your warehouse with the help of automated robots.They can store or retrieve products 24*7 for immediate disbursal of online products.
Since artificial intelligence is advanced when it comes to number crunching, its inventory management is not just based on your current stock levels. It uses the following data to maintain stock levels:
The AI algorithm constantly monitors cycle times, quantities, lead times, temperatures, errors, downtime, etc. AI analytics can also automate the warehouse processes, right from the first stage of quoting to the last process in the supply chain.
Retargeting is usually a strategy that is used to lure your existing/old customers or those who have recently visited your store. If they have left the products on the cart or have brought from you previously, a remarketing campaign works perfectly well.
AI identifies the behavioral pattern of customers based on their search and purchase history. It knows the items that your customers always purchase from you. AI can even give you data about the highest selling product in the month of January or which category gave you the highest returns. All these unitary pieces of data can be used to attract customers back to your store.
Remarketing campaigns are usually sent in the form of push notifications. They are brief messages and don’t tend to annoy customers. For example, if a customer left the shopping cart, you can send them a reminder to complete the purchase by sweetening the deal wth a 10% discount.
AI has the ability to understand whether the browsing patterns of the customer matches someone who is genuinely willing to purchase or is visiting the store out of sheer boredom.
One of the easiest ways to increase the order value of each purchase is to upsell and cross-sell to customers. Most online shopping platforms use these techniques as they have been a standard part of the sales process since yore. But what makes AI-enabled upselling and cross-selling more effective is because of the preciseness with which it recommends. You don’t want to show a random product as an upsell or a cross-sell. It should be driven by pure data and behavior.
Your AI uses attribute-level product tags, customer data, and other preferences to improve the chances of upselling and cross-selling. If you are a returning customer, the recommendations will be even more precise since the AI tracks the browsing activity of users.
For the uninitiated, synthetic media refers to videos, sounds, images, or any content that is generated or synthesized by AI. It even includes “deep fakes.” Synthetic media in eCommerce can help businesses engage, retain, and convert customers. The rising requirement for digital content and the fact that customers want more personalized digital experiences has increased the demand for synthetic media.
Since synthetic media offers a rapidly scalable solution for producing digital content, it has been embraced greatly by eCommerce stores as well. For example, synthetic media can be used to create virtual environments, virtual try-ons, digital humans, content localization, human-like voice, etc. It can entirely automate content production, thereby reducing the cost, effort, and resources required to create content.
80% of customers read online reviews and comments on products and services before making the purchase decision. Some of the reviews can be fake or they can be used to promote products that are not worthy. AI uses natural language processing to understand and analyze text. The algorithm labels the content source’s credibility as low, medium, or high by comparing similar content from more than 100,000 sources. They check for metadata and images too, not just the content.
AI-powered predictive analytics can forecast transit times, demand levels, and even shipment delays. It uses real-time information through RFID tags and sensors to better forecast demand. Unreliable delivery time is a huge problem in eCommerce and can easily cause rifts with customers. When you can accurately predict the time at which customers will receive the product, you create trust.
In eCommerce personalization, one of the most effective strategies should be the proverbial search result. If an eCommerce store doesn’t show the right products when a customer searches for something, you can bid them goodbye. They will not waste time in wading through your site. The onus is on the store to provide the right search results. This is where AI comes like a fresh breath of air. AI understands natural language, thereby interprets human semantics to generate relevant results.
AI provides you the ability to select any photo to identify similar items in the eCommerce store. Without a doubt, this is one of the favorite features for shopping aficionados. Pinterest users know the usefulness of the AI-enabled image recognition functionality. The image recognition software recognizes the images and places a shoppable tag for it. These tags let the customers know where they can purchase the product from.
Implementing AI in your eCommerce store is as basic as adding a shopping cart to it. You cannot scale or make data-driven decisions without artificial intelligence. Thankfully, there are advanced tools and technologies that allow you to get things rolling. Work with a trusted technology partner to build a strategic AI roadmap. Provide the best possible shopping experience for your customers by finding successful AI use cases which meets your business objectives.
Grow your eCommerce store and drive revenue with 99minds, a customer engagement and retention platform. Get in touch with us to see how exactly we can help your store.
