Artificial Intelligence Powered Ecommerce Websites

There are a lot of new technologies that could have a massive impact on ecommerce. The popularity and improvements in artificial intelligence (AI) and voice recognition are much better and significant today. This week, we will learn on the above aspects with respect to its ecommerce & retail applications in our ‘AICommerce’ series.
Here is our 1st part today in which we will run through the innovations made by AI on ecommerce websites. Growing importance of the user experience in general has led to the following developments in the customer touch points such as ecommerce websites:
- The search glitch
A common scenario that plays out something like this: a shopper inputs “smartphone android” into the search bar. While a human representative would either understand the meaning or probe for more details, the current digital results are far from promising. The result is often pages upon pages of smartwatches, phones, cases and other android devices.
By design, search engine algorithms adhere to specificity, a characteristic typically absent in everyday vernacular. So, why can humans understand what the person searching for the “smartphone with the best camera” hoped to find, but a powerfully programmed search engine database gets it wrong?
The answer is simple: the average search engine algorithms of today lack the ability to understand a given search query with the nuances of language, as a human would. They lack the contextual knowledge, the practical intelligence, and the ability to understand natural language expressions — abilities humans possess and often take for granted.
The key is to utilise the power of artificial intelligence combined with natural language processing capabilities (NLP), essentially putting the human element back into a digital experience.
By doing this, ecommerce platforms will be able to turn massive numbers of failed experiences into successful conversions. Natural language processing seeks to understand text as humans understand text. That means not merely computing words in a vacuum, but applying contextual understanding.
With natural language understanding supported by their ecommerce search engines, shoppers will be able to express their desire, needs, and associated requirements in greater detail and in intuitive everyday language.
1.Personalizing The Customer Experience
For online stores, the right person needs the right message at the right time in order to drive conversions. AI is able to analyze what a customer has done and predict what they are going to do. This has resulted in machine learning systems and cognitive computing which are subsets of AI. With self-learning algorithms, they can deconstruct Big Data to create incredibly targeted user experiences.
Increased transactions, increased customer satisfaction, increased retention, increased conversion — these metrics are but the start of all that will be AI’s impact on ecommerce.
2. Creating Virtual Buying Assistants
AI can be used to create virtual buying assistants. For instance, users can be notified when an airfare drops which is very much subject to change. Howeverin the near future, AI can not only detect a low fair but also make a purchase on your behalf. So, rather than an alert, you’ll be sent a ticket confirmation which has been achieved at the lowest price. This function can be tailored across all ecommerce situations.
For example, ecommerce platforms tend to change the products prices each day. You can be notified when a price on an item you are looking at drops.
3. Chatbots
Chatbots will be valuable when they can operate autonomously in a variety of contexts. For example, if a chatbot was connected to customer relationship manager (CRM) system. A customer can chat to the chatbot to check where their order is:
The chatbot looks through their personalized profile and the delivery status to provide the right response. This response is personalized and helps to improve customer satisfaction and the fulfillment process with real-time updates being available to customers. In the future, based on your previous conversations and history, chatbots can enrich the customer experience in comparison to a formulated question-and-answer machine.
So, what we will see is:
- A customer service that is scalable
- Customer Intelligence will improve
- A better navigational experience
- Personalization
4. AI Example
IBM’s Watson was created to replace traditional replenishment and merchandising systems can do:
- Analyze large volumes of unstructured data,
- Determine product attributes or hidden trends both in real-time and dynamically
For instance, Wayblazer, an AI platform for the online travel space, provide a solution to B2B companies who merchandize hotel, activities, and to businesses who want to generate revenue though hotel bookings. It uses Watson and its natural language capabilities to personalize recommendations for travel.
Sources: (redstagfulfillment, information-age, divante.co)