The Ultimate Holiday Gift: Improving Customer Experience with AI & Machine Learning
The holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year — and the busiest time for ecommerce businesses. As customers flock online for their shopping needs, the pressure is on for companies to deliver exceptional service and experiences. This is where AI and machine learning can make all the difference.
Paragon Cloud Consulting, with our experience and expertise in all things AI and Cloud are consistently helping businesses this time of year prepare for the holiday rush. By leveraging these technologies on the secure and scalable Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, companies can gain actionable insights into customer behavior, create personalized recommendations, and even automate customer service. The result is happier customers (most of the time) and increased holiday sales.
The Rise of AI and Machine Learning in Ecommerce
AI and machine learning have become indispensable in handling the masses of customer data and tailoring shopping experiences. Chatbots like Amazon Lex and machine learning-based recommendations use AI to engage customers. According to Insider Intelligence, ecommerce sites could potentially gain $25 billion annually from the effective use of AI applications, which is a pretty big deal. Now let’s move on to discuss the potential of what AI can accomplish.
Understanding Customer Behavior with AI
Analyzing clicks, purchases, demographics and browsing behavior reveals how customers interact with ecommerce stores. Identifying user intents and building customer profiles allows for customized landing pages and tailored content for individual shoppers. Big enterprises understand that knowing what your customers want is key to year-over-year sales. For example, just by means of data analytics alone via their website and mobile application, Target’s revenue growth has increased by up to 80% in the past decade.
Enhancing Product Recommendations with Machine Learning
Sophisticated machine learning algorithms study customer data and product information to deliver personalized recommendations. During the 2021 holiday season, 35% of Amazon’s revenue came from its AI-curated recommendations driving add-on purchases and customer loyalty. Walmart similarly boosted sales during holiday promotions by 12% with machine learning recommendations. And all of this was before the 2023 AI revolution!
AI-Powered Customer Service Solutions
Conversational AI and chatbots allow ecommerce sites to provide 24/7 automated assistance for handling routine customer queries and issues. Now we aren’t advocating for replacing people. However, there are times during off hours or high call volume that additional customer service solutions may be required.
This self-service approach reduces customer service costs while freeing up staff to focus on addressing more complex complaints and needs, especially crucial during the high-volume holiday season. Implementing the right AI-powered customer service solution creates the capacity to resolve customer needs around the clock while enhancing overall satisfaction through quick, efficient interactions.
The Role of Cloud Computing
AI and Machine Learning can be expensive to create from scratch. But fortunately for businesses out there, cloud hosting platforms like AWS found ways to make it more accessible. The AWS cloud provides on-demand and low-latency access to computing resources — ideal for data-intensive AI and machine learning applications. The cloud’s scalability to manage sudden traffic surges also makes it perfect for handling holiday loads. Migrating to the cloud allows companies to reap these benefits without upfront infrastructure costs.
Preparing for the Holiday Surge with AI and Cloud
As an ecommerce business, you can leverage AWS AI services like forecasting and personalization to optimize operations for the holiday surge. Demand planning and inventory management can help you align staffing, stock levels and supply chain to anticipated customer needs. Personalized promotions powered by AI algorithms also encourage add-on purchases from your customers and help you manage promotion costs.
With the scalability of the cloud, your supporting technology infrastructure can accommodate volatility in traffic, transactions and catalog size during peak events. Consulting firms like Paragon help ecommerce businesses design and implement customized AI solutions on AWS tailored for your specific holiday readiness needs. With the right strategies, AI makes the holiday season smooth and profitable for ecommerce businesses even under increased loads.
This holiday season, keep customers happy and boost sales with AI-powered customer experiences on the flexible, enterprise-grade AWS cloud. Contact us at Paragon Cloud Consulting today for a consultation. Our team of experts can help you deliver the ultimate gift to your customers — exceptional service.
