AI in Ecommerce: The Future of Retail

It’s estimated that by 2024, 95 percent of all purchases will be through eCommerce. If you’re currently in the eCommerce space, you’re already ahead of the game. 

However, like any industry, eCommerce is constantly evolving. With the recent rise of more and more AI products, it’s worth looking into how these tools can benefit you as a business owner. 

AI in eCommerce has a variety of uses and benefits. Keep reading to learn more about how you can leverage the latest technologies and grow your brand. 

How Is AI Being Used in eCommerce? 

As of 2022, 35 percent of companies were already using AI, and 42 percent were exploring implementing AI in the future. AI has many uses and benefits, so it makes sense that more and more businesses are leaning this way. 

However, the implementation of AI will look different for every business. Needs dictate use, and that’s why you’ll see that the uses vary widely. However, there are some common uses in the AI space you should explore. 

Personalized Product Recommendations

Do you ever feel like Facebook or other platforms are stalking you? You do research about a product, and suddenly all of your ads are targeting that theme. 

The truth is that Facebook is kinda stalking you. They’re able to target ads based on internal factors and external factors on sites that have the Facebook pixel. 

They use factors such as: 

• Profile information
• Content someone engages with (both on and off-platform)
• Page likes
• Groups someone is a member of
• Purchase behavior (through the Facebook pixel)
• Websites visited

And to be honest, sometimes it can be eerie how spot-on these ads are. However, a significant benefit is the fact that this type of targeting can get your products in front of new consumers. 

However, Facebook isn’t the only platform that has the ability to target ads. AI can help you with giving your customers personalized product recommendations as well. 

Data is collected, and then AI gives recommendations based on past behavior and lookalike customers. They use the data gathered and machine learning to determine what other products you may be interested in. This is a great way to target your audience and make sure they’re seeing the products that they’ll be interested in. 

Optimize Your Pricing

How much are you charging for your product? Should you offer a discount? Dynamic pricing can help you know what to price your products and when. 

It does this by setting the prices of your products or services based on current market demands. AI can help with this process by analyzing the vast amount of data collected to make these predictions. 

Artificial intelligence can also tell you when to provide a discount and how much of a discount to offer. 

Customer Service Via Chatbots

Chatbots are an excellent tool for low-level issues. These bots can’t fully handle your customer service and should not. However, they can free up your support staff. 

With the help of chatbots, your customer support staff can focus on more high-level issues. 

Write Product Descriptions, Copy, and More

Is the copy for your product effective? Writing copy isn’t easy, and when you want to optimize for SEO as well, it can be even more difficult. Especially when you’re not knowledgeable about SEO and you’re not a writer. 

However, AI tools can help you generate content for your website. You can create product descriptions, social media posts, landing pages, blogs, video scripts, and more using AI. 

While AI isn’t always spot on, this can give you a base to build from and edit, which can help you save time. 

Create Videos Using AI

There are also AI tools that can help you create video content for your product. The right tools allow these videos to be personalized, and you can add branding. 

You can also create highlights and shorts to repurpose existing videos for other platforms. Finally, you can edit your video using AI. This speeds up the process of editing and can ultimately save you money and time. 

The Benefits of AI in eCommerce

Our list of potential uses of AI in eCommerce is far from comprehensive. However, it’s a great place to start. 

There are many benefits to using AI in eCommerce. We’ll cover a few. 

Increase Loyalty and Retention

Customer acquisition is important. However, we would argue that customer retention is just as important, if not more important. A recent study found that just a five percent increase in your retention rate has the potential to increase your profit by up to 95 percent. 

That makes loyalty and retention an essential metric for your brand. Retained customers will spend more, and they’ll tell the people in their life about your products and services.

How can AI help with this? The tools you use shape the customer experience. Around 66 percent of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. 

Because AI has the ability to predict trends and customize the customer experience, you can provide a unique experience for each of your customers. Chatbots can also help because they answer questions about products and give instant information. 

Targeted Marketing and Powerful Segmentation

The eCommerce space is seeing more and more competitors every day. How do you stand out from your competition? 

Targeting the audience that wants your product or service can help. You want your messaging to reach the right people at the right time. 

AI can help with that. It can segment your audience using data. This data includes demographic and psychographic information. It can include some of the following information about your customers:

• Their biggest challenges
• Past browsing behavior
• Lifestyle 

You can then use the data to target your marketing efforts on different channels. AI can even predict the most useful channels for you. 

Finally, you can use AI to send messages. How many times have you left a product in your cart and then forgotten about it? Using AI, you can gently nudge your customers, encouraging them to go check out. 

Automation 

Put the robots to good use with automation! When you have repetitive tasks, it can take a lot of time and energy. 

However, AI allows you to streamline things by automating some of these processes. For example, you can automate simple low-level support issues through the use of a chatbot. 

This will free up your customer support team to handle high-level issues and focus on sales. 

Take the time to think about the tasks you do over and over again. Those are some of the tasks you should look into automating. 

How to Get the Most Out of AI as an eCommerce Business

AI is constantly evolving and changing. It has some great capabilities, but it’s still not a human. You can implement AI solutions, but to get the most out of it, you need to ensure that you’re implementing it correctly. 

Here are a few tips to help you get started. 

Pick One Process

Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to incorporate every type of AI in one go. Pick one process first. Once you’ve got that flowing smoothly, you can start looking into other AI tools. 

Make the Most Out of Free Trials

Not every AI tool will be right for you. However, many AI tools offer free trials or demos. Take advantage of these!

Learning to use AI tools can often be a learning curve. They all work differently, and it sometimes takes a little bit of trial and error to get it down. 

Before you pay for it, make sure it’s a tool that works for you. Make sure you only try one tool at a time; this will help you get the most out of the experience. 

Pair Your AI Tools With the Right Freelancer

Freelancers with experience in AI tools and eCommerce can help you integrate new AI tools into your business. This can help smooth out the process. 

Freelancers can also help with maintaining and implementing recommendations from AI. If you choose to use AI for content creation or video editing, freelancers can help create and quality-check the finished product. 

Step Into the Future of eCommerce

AI in eCommerce has the potential to help you scale your business. However, you need the right tools and the right team to help you implement new processes. 

Are you ready to see your eCommerce business grow? Find out how our freelancers can help. Schedule a call with an account manager today.