E-commerce has drastically changed in the last decade. The infusion of Artificial Intelligence has helped retailers deliver individually customised experiences for purchases online. Not only that, a recent report states that almost 85% of customer interactions will be handled by AI in as early as the year 2020.
Here are some sectors that AI will revolutionise the most:
Data segmentation & analytics
Searched for a veterinarian in your area and now your social feed has been taken over by ads for pet products? That’s the power of AI. Through machine learning, etailers can discover dynamic patterns in customer habits and provide bespoke shopping experiences.
With the power of Machine Learning, etailers can now even predict customer choices even before the customer knows about their requirement. This article in Rudradeb Mitra covers in detail how Machine Learning can be used in predicting buyer behaviour (link). Thinking about buying pet food and suddenly pet food advertisements are all around you? — well, it’s not sorcery.
Customer assistance
Chatbots are currently used in only 10% of the e-commerce market for customer assistance and this number is on the rise. AI is rapidly improving chatbots to not just solve a set of queries, but also provide product recommendations and reviews. A virtual personal stylist for your fashion or a banking expert for your monetary transactions are some examples of the AI shift in customer service.
Design and Image Editing
An E-commerce store’s design and quality of product images play a critical role in driving sales. Designers have adopted responsive designs to adapt websites to various screen resolutions over the years. However, with the use of Machine Learning, designers are now attempting to personalize website to individual users! Imagine a store arranged & displayed you!
With AI, fashion e-tailers are also now moving away from traditionally expensive photo shoots and using machine learning to solve the apparel photography problem. Image editing services such as ImageEdit use Artificial Intelligence to create finished images within minutes with little or no human intervention at all.
Website content & layout
With the help of advanced Evolutionary Algorithms (EA), etailers can predict content marketing outcomes through testing groups of potential solutions. With dynamic learning, more groups of solutions are automatically developed and tested, based on the success of the previous groups. Brand messaging, site design and layout, the recommendation engine are some of the key areas that EAs can actively reshape.
This is just the tip of an iceberg!
With the advancement in Artificial Intelligence & better hardware, eCommerce experience is going to change drastically for both consumer & seller. The question is on the willingness of e-Retailers to seize this opportunity and stay in the game!
