Artificial Intelligence (AI) has forayed into almost every sector. Starting from banking and finance to healthcare, education, retail, and eCommerce, the essence of artificial intelligence (AI) can be seen in any industry. Today, it has become the next big thing, which is hard to ignore. In fact, according to a report by MarketWatch, AI in retail and eCommerce is thriving incessantly and is poised to touch the revenue of $19.37 billion by growing at a CAGR of 42.8% from the time period 2019-2025.
The sudden spurt of artificial Intelligence (AI) in the eCommerce industry is paving the way to improve customer experience by recommending products to your customers based on their last purchase or browsing behavior, offering drool-worthy discounts on the products that customers are likely to buy from your store, and targeting prospects to improve sales and conversions. With the rising competition in the eCommerce space, retailers are embracing this next-gen promising technology that holds immense potential to streamline your business operations, improve customer experience, and drive your revenue to the next level. This informative post will walk you through how artificial Intelligence (AI) is disrupting the eCommerce industry. Let’s get started.Â
#1 Advanced Visual SearchÂ
There are chances that you may have noticed products that are not relevant to your query appear in search results when shopping online. Despite entering the right keywords, many times irrelevant products appear in the search result page. Right? Well, there is nothing more infuriating for customers than irrelevant search results that tend people to leave the website.
This is where the role of artificial intelligence (AI) comes in. It allows you to find a similar product in a jiffy. For instance, if you are looking for sneakers, glasses, and denim that your friend wears for the gym, simply click the picture of that ensemble from your phone and upload it on the application while shopping. Within a few seconds, AI will find similar shoes, glasses, and denim that your friend wears.
Today, many popular eCommerce brands like Amazon, Myntra, etc. have already incorporated this amazing visual search feature on their mobile application. Introducing this exciting visual search feature on their shopping application not only offers great convenience to customers over text-based search queries but also improves their sales, conversion, and profits. The key thing to note here is that AI utilizes the power of natural language processing (NLP) to decode the search query and improve the search result. In short, artificial intelligence (AI) has made shopping easier for customers than ever before.
#2 Voice Assistants Â
With the advancement in technology space, people have started using voice assistants for shopping products online. Today, finding products online at the best prices in the age of Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa is just one voice command away!
Simply give a command like – Alexa buy a protein shake for me. Once you give the command, Alexa will find the best product for you at the best price.
Wondering How?
Alexa and Siri are your AI-backed voice search assistants that allow customers to find what they are looking for without the need to type the query in the search box every time. These voice-powered search assistants not only offer better search results but also provide a smooth user experience on a real-time basis. This may be the reason why popular eCommerce brands have incorporated the voice search feature into their website or mobile applications. In fact, it is predicted that voice-based shopping is predicted to cross $40 billion by 2022 across the United States and the United Kingdom.
#3 Personalized Recommendations
Believe it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken personalization in the eCommerce business to a whole new level. Before the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), personalization was also there in the eCommerce industry but of limited value. Today, online retailers are leveraging the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to offer a personalized shopping experience to customers, which in turn, improves their engagement rate, sales, conversions, profits, and ROI. In fact, you would be astonished to know that 80% of customers are more likely to buy from an eCommerce brand that offers personalized experiences. What’s more interesting to note here is that last year, 72% of customers engaged with brands that customized their marketing messages as per the interest of their customers.
AI allows you to keep a tab on your customer interactions on multiple avenues such as mobile applications, websites, newsletters, etc. Further, with the help of data analytics, you can create personalized product recommendations or offers to your customers. Having such a personalized customer-centric approach, you can win more customers and improve your business bottom line. In a nutshell, AI helps to map your customer journey and find out what your customers are looking for. This provides you an opportunity to create personalized recommendations or offers for your customers and increase your sales and conversions.
#4 Strong Customer Support With AI-ChatbotsÂ
AI has redefined customer support services in the eCommerce industry. Long gone are the days when customers used to wait for countless minutes before their call got connected to a customer care executive? Or, sometimes, they have to wait for a minimum of 24-48 hours, in the case of dropping an email regarding their query. Such things result in poor user experience. Now, with technological advancement, you can seek instant customer support from AI-powered chatbots. They have all the answers and possible solutions to problems that customers deal with on a regular basis. Apart from providing unmatched customer support, AI-chatbots can help you make the right buying decisions in seconds.
Over To YouÂ
Artificial intelligence (AI) has enabled eCommerce businesses to offer a smooth user experience to customers. Today, online retailers are moving beyond traditional marketing tactics and are embracing the latest tools and technologies to offer a personalized shopping experience to customers, which drives profitability. If you also know some other benefits of AI in the eCommerce, you can let me know by commenting down below. Thanks for your time 🙂
Author Bio
I’m Nathan Smith, a seasoned eCommerce web development expert. Over the years, I have developed robust and feature-rich eCommerce solutions for global clients. In my spare time, I shared my knowledge by writing insightful blogs and articles.
