Artificial intelligence has already had a significant impact on our lives. What effect will it have on online shopping? In a world full of choices—how does your ecommerce site stand out? What if your customers were directed to the right place instantly? Would that save them time and improve the user experience?
According to the AI experts, the answer is personalization. Here are a couple of ways AI is changing the way we shop online and the reasons why ecommerce companies need to incorporate AI to stay competitive.
A Personalized Shopping Experience
AI takes the guess work out of learning your customer’s preferences. Powered with historical data captured through online accounts, AI creates a personalized shopping experience from product views, historical purchases, colors, sizes, and related product suggestions. The more customers shop online, the more personalized their shopping experience becomes.
The Price is Right
AI uses data to develop dynamic pricing as customers shop online. For example, a customer commonly purchases household products on Amazon. AI recognizes how much they are willing to pay and can serve options based on brand, retailer, and price. The algorithms push flash sales or hot deals toward likely buyers as well.
Intelligent Site Search
Have you noticed your site searches are autocompleted? AI data enhances natural language processing using tons of search data. In fact, AI generates suggestions with only a few letters and auto corrects misspellings to arrive at the right result.
Redeeming Recommendations
AI uses data to make smart recommendations on related products or refills that your customer might need. For example, if a customer bought paper towels two months ago, the probability that they will need them again in the next two months is high. AI also recommends items that are frequently bought together. If your customer is buying sponges, they probably need dish soap too. AI recognizes these buying patterns and places the right products in front of the right customers at the right time.
Automated Customer Support
When a customer is having trouble using your site, the likelihood of an abandoned cart increases. An abandoned cart is an online cart that a buyer abandons before completing the purchase. AI utilizes big datasets to enhance chatbots and virtual assistants when customers need support. The instant solution keeps buyers on the site longer and happier with the user experience. Automated support is also very convenient for ecommerce retailers. Virtual assistants offer 24/7 support for free and have a consistently helpful tone. A win, win!
Enhanced User Experience
Ecommerce retailers should always be perfecting the user experience on their sites. AI allows us to take a deeper look at customer navigation patterns such as how quickly they found what they were looking for or ease of checkout. Using AI to identify patterns of behaviors makes it easy to drive improvements to your site.
AI-Powered Advertising
Leading ad platforms are using AI to sell, target, and place ads in front of buyers. Online shoppers are a ripe audience for digital advertising. Shoppers who abandon their carts on an ecommerce site can easily be retargeted on other sites or social media. This keeps buyers interested in a product several days after viewing it, and hopefully motivates them to complete the purchase.
Social Commerce on the Rise
In addition to advertising and sponsored posts, social commerce is on the rise. Social commerce is the act of selling products online through social media networks such as Instagram or Facebook. The AI-generated algorithms that showcase sponsored content in newsfeeds or ads are also impacting sales through social platforms.
As ecommerce continues to grow, so does the technology that supports it. AI is an asset to helping consumers find the products that they are looking for, quickly and painlessly. The more data AI collects, the smarter and more effective it becomes. Thank you for shopping!