The influx of new technologies is constantly changing the way we do things in different spheres and live our lives. Transformation of the traditional shopping experience is observed nowadays thanks to the growth of Artificial Intelligence in e-commerce.

An extremely personalised shopping experience and making smart business decisions are two major points that make a great influence in ecommerce and why AI will particularly benefit in this sector.

Looking through the research by Accenture, you could take note of potential boosting profitability rates with the help of AI by an average of 38% across 16 industries by 2035.  

According to Statista, in 2022 e-commerce sales worldwide are expected to amount to $5,5 trillion. In 2025, the sum is expected to reach $7.4 trillion

Let’s have a look at the most notable improvements AI can offer small and large e-commerce businesses.

Personalization

Features customers will enjoy with the help of AI

• user’s keyword hints so that they can choose the needed products faster by just clicking on the appearing options in the search bar;
• accurate product recommendations and advertising;
• personalized offerings shortening their search time based on the investigation which items people buy together, what adjectives and synonyms they use to search for products, and other product-relevant information;
• a more well-ordered sales process by gathering data about your customers, automate follow-up abandoned cart inquiries, and more.

Assisting you to define your audience and create localized content to fit your audience (or multiple audiences), AI is of use to you giving your customers a more enjoyable and streamlined experience.

Automation

AI can play an important part in helping you automate the repetitive tasks that keep your online store functioning.

With AI, you can automate

• product recommendations,
• AI-enabled dynamic pricing,
• loyalty discounts,
• follow-up abandoned cart inquiries,
• customer support via chatbots and virtual assistants,
• collecting and analysing data, and more.

One of the most important factors that set AI-powered businesses apart from traditional ones is their ability to fully track the business.

Analysis

To lead your business to a higher level you need to collect, track, and analyse data to understand how customers engage across digital channels and the hurdles you need to overcome to reach them.

Why is it considered to be important?

With the help of AI-powered business models the business owners know exactly what their customers want, where they come from, what age group they belong to, things they recently purchased, and what’s currently on their minds. This allows reach out to their customers with better products and stellar service.

With advanced algorithms, you can use AI to forecast demand, velocity of orders and plan inventory management using various factors including past performances of products. At the same time, all the gathered data can be used to compare and contrast the aspects of your business with the peers in the market.

The combination of programmatic ads and behavioural and sentiment data is a potent way for brands to push the right products and offers to the most receptive audiences in moments of intent.

Another area of e-commerce where AI’s predictive analytics are reshaping the terrain is in the context of inventory management. By analysing inventory levels and the history of purchases, AI can predict sales. This gives businesses the opportunity to better adjust their budgets, ordering only the items in demand and improving their warehouse management, preventing product long-term storage and expiration of supply items.

Harnessing the power of AI analysing the date can help you more accurately target marketing and advertising to your ideal customers, increase customer retention, implement seamless back-office automations and find efficiencies in your sales processes.

The last point but not the least is that data based on customers’ feedback and reviews is just what you need to address your shortcomings and take corrective action. AI differentiates genuine reviews from the fake ones to provide dependable, legitimate data. Customer reviews are critical for your success since 87% of consumers rely on online reviews and only 48% of consumers will consider a business with less than 4 stars.

Chatbots and virtual assistants

Using Chatbots and virtual assistants is increasing popularity and can add value to your online store imitating the presence of shop assistant in a physical store.

What are the benefits?

• Communication with the customer coming up with the best purchasing decisions through a discussion.
• Providing 24/7 support to all their online customers
• Great lead generators, as they capture customer data directly from the chat. (For instance, clicking on the download report button opens a chatbot pop up. If you want to get the report, you need to enter the email. Classic lead generation strategy. However, you can then download it instantly in the chat. It eliminates the need to verify your email address to download it.)

• Offer personalized suggestions based on the customer’s queries.
• Automating post-purchase support.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, by incorporating AI, you can better understand your customers’ purchasing habits. AI could offer you the opportunity to identify new prospective target audiences and observe competitors’ activity. It can also help you achieve new levels of automation and optimization. Artificial intelligence’s future in ecommerce promises more complete solutions.

If you want to deliver the best possible shopping experience on your ecommerce website, look into the various benefits of artificial intelligence. It can help you make better use of your customer and business data to set a plan for your future that will work.

Do you find using AI useful for your ecommerce project? What seems to be the most effective for you? Feel free to share your thoughts in comments.
Our team at Altabel Group will be happy to help you with your business ideas. Let’s move to the next level together.