Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Ecommerc

Ecommerce has been around for a couple of decades globally but has gained immense popularity since the COVID-19 times. With an increase in the number of customers being a good indication for businesses, there is also some stress factor associated with it. There is a lot of pressure on businesses to ensure a smooth running of sales and customer service to prevent any mishaps from happening. At the end of the day, your customer’s satisfaction should be your utmost priority as this can make or break your business. Apart from providing good quality goods and services to your customers, you must also pay heed to your customer service. Your customer should always have a smooth shopping experience with your brand.

To cope up with this great influx of customers, businesses have started relying on artificial intelligence and machine learning to help automate various tasks. With artificial intelligence and machine learning, you can provide your customers with a unique and smooth experience that would bring them back to your store. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are not just used for customer satisfaction; they are also used for the smooth running of the various store and business operations.

Artificial Intelligence is a technology that relies on powerful computer systems and machines to simulate human intelligence. To explain this in simpler terms, it means to make use of technology to carry out the tasks conducted by humans- in short replacing humans with technology to carry out various tasks.

Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence and they both go hand in hand. It helps in data analysis that automates the analytical model building. Machine learning mimics the decision-making process of humans.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning, both collectively, have been taking the ecommerce experience for business owners and customers to newer horizons.

THE NEED FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING IN ECOMMERCE

With the passage of time and the evolution of technology, humans have started to rely more and more on technology. Although technology may not be able to replace humans altogether, it will, and it has managed to replace humans to a greater extent in all industries.

Depending on the nature of your ecommerce business, a lot of tasks can be automated. This has various benefits for ecommerce, such as:

1. Save money

Although investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning for your ecommerce business is expensive, but consider it to be a one-time cost. Instead of hiring numerous people to carry out tasks, you can just rely on your system to carry out those tasks. This helps to save up on overhead costs.

2. Less room for error

In inventory management, if your staff does not re-order items timely that are low in stock, it could cause your customers to be unhappy. With an automated system, items when they have reached a certain number, are automatically re-ordered, to prevent any over orders from occurring. Your online store and inventory will always be in sync. Furthermore, your staff does not have to carry out monotonous tasks.

3. Save time

With various tasks being automated, a lot of time would be saved as operations would be carried out swiftly.

4. Better targeted marketing

By analyzing purchase history data and other interactions, you can map out what customers are looking for. You can use this to your advantage and deliver to your customers what they want to see.

5. Better sales process

With artificial intelligence, you can gather data regarding those customers who abandoned their carts and send them reminder emails. With better engagement with your customers, you can get higher sales and a higher ROI (Return On Investment).

USES OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING IN ECOMMERCE

Artificial intelligence and machine learning in ecommerce can be used in the following ways:

1. Chatbots

Chatbots are used by businesses to initiate conversations between customers and a computer program. This is an example of conversational commerce that has become increasingly popular. Running an online business will become much smoother with a chatbot as they help to automate the order processes and provide prompt customer care to customers. Once integrated with shopping carts, they can retrieve details from there to answer certain questions accurately.

2. Improved ecommerce search results

Artificial intelligence allows businesses to provide a customer-centric experience to show the most relevant results to the users. This allows customers to find the exact match to their search query, getting the products they would most likely be interested in.

3. Virtual assistants

Alexa and Siri are the most common virtual assistants that are seen. Alexa is Amazon’s virtual assistant who can help customers purchase online by showing them relevant search results to their queries. Alexa can be a good virtual personal shopper too.

4. Providing better recommendations to customers

Artificial intelligence and machine learning study the purchasing or viewing pattern of the customer and offer them suggestions accordingly. To explain this further, let’s talk about Netflix. From the previously watched movies and tv shows, Netflix recommends shows and movies from the same genres. Similarly, while shopping online, you get product recommendations based on previously viewed products.

5. Handling fake reviews

Reviews help your potential customers to decide if the product is worth it or not, but fake reviews can have a big negative impact on your business and customers. Thus, these reviews need to identify and removed from the review section. With the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, these reviews are verified before they are published. This protects your business’s name from getting tarnished.

6. Price optimization

With artificial intelligence and machine learning, you can change the prices of your products and services, based on the customer’s purchasing pattern (supply and demand). The data collected can be used to decide which products can be provided at a discounted rate, when should they be discounted, and the minimum discount required for the sale.

7. Predicting customer’s shopping behavior

You can predict the behavior of your customers with the help of artificial intelligence and prepare your inventory accordingly. Understanding the consumer demand would be beneficial in supplying the customers accordingly. The demand and supply for products would allow you to price your products accordingly.

8. Better logistics and inventory management

The transit times, expected delivery dates, and any unforeseen delays can be forecasted in real-time. This helps in preparing the inventory accordingly.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING INTO ECOMMERCE?

Jumping right away into technology is not a feasible approach. before you take a plunge into it, you must be able to identify the goals you wish to achieve or improvements you wish to make to your business. One piece of advice: let the experts manage this for you. Even if you think you are well-versed with artificial intelligence and machine learning, you might still struggle with it. For this reason, it is best to consider help from professionals.

One such team of professionals is DigAptics, who provide their customers with the relevant and required artificial intelligence solutions. They work closely with their clients to understand their needs and goals and propose plans accordingly. Once when both parties are on the same page, the plan is implemented to help the client achieve their goals. Contact them today to discuss how you can automate your business.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have become an integral part of the ecommerce world. They, collectively, have allowed businesses to achieve their targets seamlessly, with customer satisfaction being the utmost priority. With the automation of various processes, a smooth and optimized running of the business is ensured. Although it might be a big investment for some businesses, it is surely worth it.