The demand for Artificial Intelligence, or AI, in eCommerce, is surging by degrees. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way of shopping utterly. As a result, Artificial Intelligence services have come to this field to assist buyers and resolve their issues. It has been markedly contributing to the astounding transformation of the eCommerce sector!
Here’s What AI Do
From responding to customer queries and handling business data to sales forecasting and detecting fraud, artificial intelligence is transforming the eCommerce industry Unreservedly!
AI is not only easing the eCommerce chores but also helping businesses to stay ahead of the curve.
Besides, AI does well for both consumers and retailers.
Let’s read more to find out about how AI brings advantage to the eCommerce sector.
How AI Is Helping Transform eCommerce
The eCommerce industry is availing itself of AI in a plethora of ways. Below are mentioned the top 12 ways AI is aiding eCommerce transform notably:
Automates Repetitive Tasks
AI technologies are effective in performing tasks that are repetitive. They enable automated tasks and processes, for instance, order fulfillment, payment processing, sending emails, reducing labor costs, and enhancing operational efficiency.
eCommerce business owners can now save time, energy, and operating costs, thanks to the automation that AI comes with! It helps in managing and executing monotonous tasks.
The use of AI in eCommerce automates a variety of tasks, from syncing sales and marketing new products to detecting high-risk transactions to providing discounts to loyal customers.
Combines Merchandizing & Search
Almost every eCommerce site has a search box for customers to help them find products. There’s a high probability that customers who use it will make a purchase than those who don’t. But some may encounter issues finding their desired product. Even when they use pertinent keywords, many people still have trouble finding what they’re seeking for.
AI solves this issue with smart search or searchandizing, a combination of merchandising and search. It blends product merchandising techniques with on-site search practices.
The process of searchandizing involves combining established methods with advanced features, such as faceted search, product recommendations, recent searches, navigation, autocomplete, and many others.
Makes Product Recommendations
Personalization is the key to a pleasant customer journey! Whenever a customer shops online, AI collects and analyzes their data and makes personalized product recommendations and search results accordingly. The data may include the customer’s buying behavior, click-through, online browsing habits, previous purchase history, etc.
This makes customers feel that the company understands them and their needs. And results in improved customer engagement and loyalty.
Apart from that, AI analyzes a customer’s needs, preferences, tastes, and pain points. With its data, AI can show recently viewed or most purchased items, make a personalized product list, or even send a customized email automatically.
Manages Inventory
Storage facilities lack abundant space or cash to always keep everything in stock. Therefore, it’s essential to prioritize the required products when you need them. Based on the predictions of your customer demands, you must keep your inventory up to date, ordered ahead of time, and stored correctly.
AI can be of great help when it comes to inventory management. It helps merchants save money by managing inventory and reducing waste satisfactorily.
Using predictive analysis, AI technology makes predictions about the future demands of the market. The accuracy of this AI technology’s forecasts about the inventory you should order and how much of it you must always have on hand improves over time, thanks to machine learning. These AI systems can perform preventive maintenance on your technology, predict sudden fluctuations in demand, and even automate some packaging processes to boost efficiency.
Writes a Copy for You
In the digital marketplace’s clutter, a copy that is well-written and so compelling that it can make customers take action is essential.
Using an AI copywriting tool lets you create copies within seconds, saving you time and making you more productive. It can also produce an ad copy, product description, social media content, blog post, article, and so forth. Besides, it can optimize your content by analyzing keywords, backlinks, and other elements. What’s more, the writing generated from AI tools eliminates spelling mistakes.
There are several AI tools eCommerce merchants can use, such as Jasper, Writesonic, Copy.AI, ChatGPT, etc.
Offers Personalized Pricing
AI enables you to personalize your pricing. You can adjust your prices and offers depending on how your current customers and how they behave.
Moroever, you can even modify your pricing according to global supply and demand. For instance, when your competitor’s stocks are running low, you can increase your prices.
Often, customers are interested in buying the product faster. So, they will happily pay a higher price if they can get it sooner from your store.
Generates Synthetic Media
The content that AI generates, edits, or synthesizes is referred to as synthetic media. It includes images, videos, sounds, or content in any other form.
Synthetic media has ample applications in eCommerce. It can help businesses engage, convert, and retain customers with image enhancement, human-like voices, content localization, and virtual environments.
Now, it has become possible to almost wholly automate content creation by using AI tools, including Natural Language Generation (NLG) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs).
Detect & Prevents Fraud
Globally, eCommerce retailers suffered a staggering 20 billion U.S. dollar loss from digital fraud in 2021. Fortunately, AI proves to be an efficient solution to prevent fraud.
AI has the ability to quickly and unerringly spot irregular and suspicious behavior and transactions that people would overlook. The use of machine learning can help merchants minimize financial losses by detecting chargebacks, money laundering, and credit card number thefts in real time. Additionally, AI-based fraud detection aids in cutting down customer service costs by resolving disputes, refunds, and returns automatically.
For instance, a customer had placed an unusual amount of orders during a particular period, entered a wrong address, or skipped filling out the basic information required for delivery. It is hard for humans to identify these details and evaluate them immediately.
Predicts Future Sales
Sales forecasting has become extremely vital for businesses to prevent any unforeseen shortages or stock run-outs. Using AI, eCommerce businesses are able to predict and produce correct forecasting of future sales and market trends. It becomes possible by:
Analyzing data (including historical data)
Studying eCommerce trends (both past and current)
The data gathered from an analysis like this allows business owners to make better decisions about their operations. Additionally, it can provide insights that enable them to make the most of the available resources to improve the company’s performance and drive sales and revenue growth.
With software such as Mintigo, decision-makers can predict future sales based on consumer patterns and determine the results of their marketing campaigns.
Tackles Fake Reviews
There’s no denying the fact that online reviews have the power to either make or break your brand. Even one fake review from a bot or competitor can turn things around for your brand, whether it’s bad or good.
In the case that your potential customer identifies a good fake review, it is probable that they’ll get an awful message. As a result, they might not even buy that product with fake reviews.
To solve this issue, AI comes to the rescue. Some companies have already started using AI to fight fake reviews. For example, Amazon has created an in-house AI system that identifies a review’s characteristics and detects if it’s fake or not. Furthermore, it builds a customer’s trust in a product by giving prominence to reviews made by verified customers.
Answers Queries Via Chatbots
Chatbots are taking over the ecommerce industry like wildfire! They are available 24 hours a day to provide support to all their online customers while they shop even on weekends or holidays, making the customer experience worthwhile. Several organizations are already making use of it.
A chatbot powered by AI can answer routine customer questions, saving time and allowing human customer service agents to focus on more complex situations. Besides acting as customer service representatives for rapid questions, chatbots also facilitate the shopping process by offering information and tips.
Therefore, you should consider introducing chatbot to your website or hiring an agency to build such products.
Helps Users Via Virtual Assistants
In eCommerce, voice virtual assistants also contribute a lot by providing users with a seamless experience, making a sales process efficient, and being available 24/7. These assistants use language processing and machine learning technologies to comprehend customer queries and deliver the helpful support accordingly. They communicate with users to get their preferences and dislikes and provide them with a shopping experience that is intuitive and tailored to their needs.
Many users prefer voice commerce because they don’t have to type anything to find a product. Today, some of the most refined VAs people use in eCommerce are Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google Assistant.
Although some may say that voice or virtual assistants are no longer useful and becoming outdated, with advanced integration and newer technologies, we believe they still have a lot of potential for improvement.
AI’s Effect on Human Jobs
There’s no doubt that AI is helping humans in reducing the workload massively. But according to one report by The World Economic Forum, AI will replace 85 million roles worldwide in the coming years. The same report says that AI may create 97 million new jobs.
AI can replace jobs requiring repetitive and mundane tasks, such as data entry or processing.
For example, a company named UPS has integrated AI into its business for optimizing its delivery routes, which saves their fuel costs by millions. It uses AI for analyze package volume, weather, and traffic. This has helped them cut down the time and distance their delivery vehicles travel, ultimately saving costs.
However, AI cannot wholly replace roles that demand skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and empathy.
Instead, it can create new job opportunities. With the surfacing of smart home appliances and digital assistants powered by AI, hardware engineers, software developers, and data analysts have a new horizon of career opportunities.
Why Your Business Needs AI – The Benefits
Every business that wants to lead the way ought to use AI in their eCommerce business! AI will benefit your business by increasing productivity and profitability and saving time and money. Below are the prime advantages of using AI in your eCommerce business:
Jacks Up Accuracy
AI can analyze your customer’s data. It then uses this data to make predictions that are far more precise and fulfill the needs of the consumer.
Saves Everyone’s Time
AI can also automate certain tasks that require human labor. By doing so, AI saves substantial time so your workforce can concentrate on tasks that AI is unable to perform.
Slashes Your Costs
In addition, AI in chatbots or virtual assistants helps reduce costs for hiring staff to perform repetitive tasks. It also saves money through fraud detection.
Some Examples of AI In Businesses
Businesses are increasingly making use of artificial intelligence (AI), and many success stories and case studies have emerged from its use. Here are just a handful of examples of how different businesses utilize AI to gain a competitive advantage.
Amazon
Amazon has been benefitting from AI for 20 years. It collects customer data to analyze customers’ buying behavior, items viewed, products in the cart, and most searched items and then predicts customer wants and manages the inventory accordingly. This satisfies customers and improves sales.
Starbucks
Starbucks uses AI in its business to personalize its customer experience. The company’s AI system analyzes the customers’ ordering history and preferences to give personalized drink recommendations. Due to this, Starbucks has seen a rise in its customer service and loyalty.
Netflix
Netflix makes use of AI to personalize recommendations. Netflix’s AI algorithms analyze their users’ watch history, ratings, and search terms to recommend movies and shows that are likely to interest each user. This strategy has helped the company draw and keep viewers.
Uber
Uber is using AI to optimize its pricing strategy. The business’s AI system analyzes rider demand, driver availability, and traffic patterns to determine prices for each trip. By doing so, Uber has been able to increase its revenue and keep its costs competitive at the same time.
Twitter also uses AI to identify harmful content. The AI algorithms analyze fake accounts or news, hate speech, racist content, content from extremist groups, etc. Its AI-powered bots also take down accounts that promote such tweets. This improved the content quality on the platform.
6. Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson uses AI to improve drug discovery. The business has created an AI system that can forecast which chemicals will most likely treat a given disease successfully. As a result, it’s helping the company not only streamline its drug delivery process but bring new drugs to market faster.
7. Coca-Cola
Coca Cola also uses AI to optimize vending machine inventory management. Its AI system, after analyzing out-of-stock items and drinks customers buy most, predicts which drinks will sell most and ensures each machine has the right mix of beverages. This minimized waste and maximized revenue.
Incorporating AI Into eCommerce – The Challenges
Apart from the benefits, AI also poses some challenges and risks for businesses that they need to address. Some of the frequent challenges they may encounter while implementing AI include:
AI System Development Cost
The software and hardware required for AI may cost good money. Additionally, the engineers and data scientists that you’ll hire to develop and implement your AI system will also require money.
Data Processing
AI uses mammoth amounts of data to run. These large amounts of data are expensive to implement and maintain and cause an increase in complexity and price.
Bias & Discrimination
If an AI system is trained on biased or discriminatory data, it will reflect those biases. This may lead to unfair treatment of certain groups of people, significantly affecting your eCommerce.
Data Privacy & Security
AI algorithms bank on customer data for a personalized experience. However, collecting and processing this data presents issues with data and privacy protection.
Bring AI Into Play!
Despite the challenges and risks AI comes with, the benefits that it brings to the table are too great to ignore! So, you must plan to implement AI in your business.
If you wish to outsource your eCommerce business for implementing AI in your business, you are welcomed to contact us. We are a reliable eCommerce solutions services provider equipped with a genius workforce that assists eCommerce businesses in boosting their productivity and profitability and saves loads of time.
Closing Thoughts
Artificial intelligence, or AI, is one of the latest trends and technologies in eCommerce. It is bringing tremendous changes in the eCommerce field. Businesses are automating repetitive tasks and using chatbots, voice assistants, and virtual assistants to speed up their daily operations and offer customers a personalized experience for greater revenue.
The above ways show how AI aids in maximizing efficiency and accuracy, minimizing costs, and freeing time for both sellers and buyers! Thus, with artificial intelligence growing in eCommerce, any brand that doesn’t invest in AI will be left out in the cold!
FAQs:
- What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
The ability of digital computers or computer-controlled robots to perform some of the tasks typically done by humans is called artificial intelligence or machine intelligence.
- How is AI currently used in the field of eCommerce?
The eCommerce industry is using AI for personalized product recommendations, answering questions 24/7 as a chatbot, inventory management, fraud detection and prevention, voice assistance as Alexa or Google Assistant, image recognition, and price optimization.
- How can AI improve the customer experience in eCommerce?
AI can improve customer experience in eCommerce via customer data and behavior analysis and chatbots:
- AI algorithms analyze customer data and behavior and use it to provide personalized product recommendations, promotions, and pricing, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- The AI-powered chatbots provide 24/7 customer service by responding to common customer queries instantly.
- Can AI help eCommerce businesses streamline their operations?
Yes, through automation. By automating repetitive tasks like customer service, order processing, inventory management, and so forth, AI helps eCommerce businesses streamline their operations as well as save their time.
- Will AI replace human jobs in the eCommerce industry?
No. Although the eCommerce industry is getting help from AI, it still needs that human touch, including storytelling and emotions. Besides, it lacks creative problem-solving like humans.
- What are the potential benefits of using AI in eCommerce?
The potential benefits of AI include:
- More targeted marketing and advertising
- Increased customer retention
- Seamless automation
- Smarter decisions
- Efficient sales process
- Improved customer experience
- Are there any challenges or risks associated with implementing AI in eCommerce?
Yes, there are some challenges and risks of implementing AI in eCommerce:
- Insufficient data
- Customer privacy
- Potential lack of transparency
- Technological complexity
- Biasedness and discrimination
- Handling returns and refunds
- How can an eCommerce business get started with AI implementation?
If an eCommerce business wants to implement AI into its business, it first needs to get familiar with AI, identify the problems it wants AI to solve, and evaluate different AI solutions. Next, prioritize concrete value, bring in experts and AI consultants to build the program, form a task force to integrate data, and apply AI to a small sample of data. Also, include storage and optimize it. Finally, incorporate AI as part of its daily tasks.
- What does the future hold for AI in eCommerce?
The future of AI in eCommerce is promising. It will continue to benefit the eCommerce industry with repetitive tasks automation, 24/7 availability, hyper-personalized pricing, advanced recommendations, supply chain optimization, and cybersecurity. This will enhance customer experiences incredibly and save plenty of time for the eCommerce people, allowing them to work on more important tasks efficiently.
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