8 Innovative Ways to Amalgamate Artificial Intelligence (AI) with E-commerce!

Artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the E-commerce industry has been booming since the past few years. The combination of these two, that is, using AI in the e-commerce industry makes a powerful impact on the overall online shopping experience. AI is all set to go for a turbo drive in the coming years as big names, such as Google and Microsoft, are heavily investing in the same.

85% of the customer interaction will be handled without any human resources by 2020, says a current study by Business Insider.

As we see AI almost everywhere today, many e-commerce businesses have already embedded AI in processes like eCommerce data entry, enhancing customer experience, and customer engagement. Let us discuss why they are doing the same?

1. Customer-centric search experience

It is observed that customers usually abandon e-commerce platforms because the product search results presented are often irrelevant. With the help of AI, this problem is tackled as e-commerce search engines these days use natural language processing to contextualize, narrow, and in turn, improve the search results for online shopping.

Advanced image recognition feature in the e-commerce platforms is also empowering businesses to provide a customer-centric experience. The visual capabilities of AI software have increased manifolds, and hence, they help the customers in finding relevant products by providing smart suggestions and tags based on size, fabric, brand, etc.

2. Predicting sales and services

Advanced technologies like TV adverts and social media has profoundly impacted the sales techniques in today’s modern age. This change makes sure that customers are no longer offered products and services that are irrelevant. For example, a large e-commerce retail company, The North Face, uses IBM’s AI solution called Watson and helps customers buy their perfect jacket.

It prompts the customer for information like ‘where they would be using the jacket’ and combines this information with its own research like weather conditions in that area etc. Hence, it is evident that once the collection and interpretation of information are automated, AI helps in the sales prediction.

3. Enhanced customer service

E-commerce has benefited a great deal by the use of AI in providing world-class customer service. With the implementation of chatbots, e-commerce platforms have inculcated a personalized experience for the customers. A chatbot is a computer program that indulges in a conversation with customers over the internet.

It results in saving a lot of money and speeding up the time of response, freeing human resources from many challenging routine tasks and providing solutions to repetitive questions. This personalized touch in any online shopping platform eventually results in increased sales and impeccable customer service.

4. Acquiring potential customers

Today, the face of sales is changed, thanks to AI, with e-commerce industries responding directly to the customers. Businesses can almost read the mind of the customer with developed AI technologies. Potential customers can now be acquired depending upon their dwell time in the store.

For example, if a customer spends noticeable time next to any specific product in the store, say an iPhone, facial recognition AI software can make use of this data and prompt the customer with any offers on iPhone upon their next visit to the store or send them offers regarding the same on their mobile phones or email addresses.

5. Empowering human resources

As chatbots are enhancing the customer experience over online e-commerce platforms, AI has implemented something similar for empowering the human resources in the physical stores. Today, automated robots are used in the stores which carry out various tasks and free the resources for other core activities.

For example, Lowe, a home improvement store, introduced LoweBot, an autonomous robot assistant that greets the customers, guides them through the store and helps them with relevant product information. This saves both money and human resources linked with the store.

6. Intelligent agents

Following the vast development of artificial intelligence, new agent negotiation systems have gained popularity throughout the e-commerce industry. The primary functions performed by this automated agent are making transactions easier, matching buyers with sellers and providing institutional infrastructure.

These automated agents have their own language, not only reacting to their specific environment but also setting their targets accordingly. For the e-commerce industry, it is AI at its utmost brilliance!

7. Bridging the gap between personalization and privacy

Whenever we talk about personalization in technology, there is often a trade-off concerning user privacy. Brands are actively trying to achieve transparency, honesty, and security at the highest levels in their business. However, they cannot compromise personalization for this, given its critical role in e-commerce. AI comes into play to bridge this gap.

Users become a little more comfortable in sharing their details when they know they are making something valuable out of it. For example, if you give your account access to Google Now, it will sync your emails, calendar, and search habits and provide you with customized user experience. Users are happy to share their details for such an experience. AI, hence, is bridging the gap between personalization and privacy.

8. Tackling fake reviews

Customer reviews have become a milestone for trust in the online shopping world. Where the users cannot see what the products are like before they buy an item, customer reviews and ratings play a preeminent role. Some e-commerce platforms are investing in AI to fight against fake reviews and ratings by putting more focus on verified and helpful reviews.

Amazon uses AI to fight against fake reviews and any inflation in their star ratings. Their in-house built AI machine learning system makes sure that verified customer purchase reviews are enhanced. Their business continuously reviews multiple characteristics like ratings for detecting fake reviews.

Conclusion

As much as the importance of AI is evident in any industry, e-commerce is no different. The amalgamation of AI with e-commerce has taken the customer experience of online shopping to a new level. Analyzing millions of interactions each day and targeting various offers down to a single customer is something that the advancement of AI in e-commerce has achieved.

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After reading this, you might have queries related to eCommerce business improvements. If yes, feel free to contact Cogneesol, we will be happy to help you. Call us at +1 646-688-2821 or email at info@cogneesol.com.