Have you ever played World of Warcraft? Sure you did.
Remember how many hours you spent in the virtual showroom trying different pieces of equipment? Why did you do that?
Simply, because it’s cool. Because it’s fun.
Imagine features like that, in real life, equipped with powerful AI. Did you?
Ok, let me welcome you to a new reality.
The leading providers behind fashion’s new showrooms are delivering more sustainable and customizable virtual experiences.
All fashion events around the world, from Tokyo to Paris and beyond, are canceled because of global pandemic restrictions. Luxury brands are turning to digital solutions instead of relying on large crowds and runway shows.
Physical presentations of collections and showroom visits aren’t an option anymore.
Physicality has always played a major role in the fashion industry. Buyers not being able to be in the same room as the garments mean the industry has had to get creative.
The fashion industry needs to dramatically rethink the way brands sell.
Virtual showrooms have emerged as the answer.
If new purchasing habits are to truly take root and survive in the post-COVID-19 reality, businesses will have to carefully nurture the customer buying experience. Against this backdrop, artificial intelligence (AI) is not only a tool to help improve the user experience and increase customer satisfaction, it can also facilitate payment management and detect potential fraud.
This is made possible by modern technology and AI development. Check out our previous article to find out more about the role of AI in improving various business processes.
But how can we use artificial intelligence in eCommerce?
AI is beginning to embed itself into all aspects of our lives. From the growing number of self-checkout cash registers to advanced security checks at the airport; artificial intelligence is just about everywhere.
If you search for AI online, you will stumble across hundreds of articles that predict a marketplace dominated by artificial intelligence. Many eCommerce businesses are already using forms of AI to better understand their customers, generate new leads, and provide an enhanced customer experience.
Let’s take a look at several ways in which AI is going to affect the eCommerce industry.
Personalization
Personalized shopping is essential for eCommerce business growth.
Consider those eCommerce personalization stats:
Marketers see an average increase of 20% in sales when using personalized experiences. (Monetate)
80% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a company that offers personalized experiences. (Epsilon)
44% of consumers say that they will likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience with a particular company. (Segment)
77% of consumers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides a personalized service or experience. (Forrester)
However, in another Forrester survey, 53% of digital experience delivery professionals said they lack the right technology to personalize experiences.
This is something that is greatly going to improve with the development of AI.
Soon, it is quite likely that AI offers a completely personalized experience for every new customer. The system is collecting data about customers, and when they come back to the eCommerce store, they will be greeted with items they’re going to like.
So, we’ve already had the technology, knowledge, and raw data.
If we use raw collected data and process it with AI, it’s going to make the whole process way more efficient, making the user experience better.
Using AI, brands can more intelligently and efficiently scan through petabytes of data to predict customer behavior, and offer relevant and helpful recommendations to individual consumers.
AI devours a variety of customer data, such as account information, customer preferences, purchase history, third-party data, and contextual information. This allows brands to create and deliver more personalized messages and recommendations for their customers.
Without any doubt, eCommerce revolutionized the way a consumer shops in our mobile world. Many eCommerce businesses desire to bring the best of the offline shopping experience to the online space. They do it by offering customers a seamless way to discover products they are actively looking for.
Web merchants put all their efforts in ‘hyper-personalization, by learning genuine consumer behavior and making predictions with gargantuan amounts of data that are collected from user activities on smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
AI is already being put to good use in providing personalized recommendations to subscribers based on their preferences and this trend will develop even further within the next few years.
Increasing the number of sales
Selling more is one of the primary goals that every eCommerce business has.
However, with the further development and implementation of AI, this is going to be a much more efficient process.
AI will have all the necessary data from the purchase history to create incredible upselling offers, while still keeping the right profit margins contributing to the new revenue the right way.
Improved image searching capabilities
Image processing is moving forward fast. A form of AI technology and machine learning concept for a self-driving option is implemented in Tesla through capturing images and sharing them with their entire network of vehicles.
It is only a question of time before a person is going to be able to enter the picture he or she likes, and precise results are going to be presented.
This is going to make the shopping experience a more pleasant one.
It’ll also help the bottom line of the retailer, as they’re offering exactly what the customer is asking for.
Better merchandise management
Amazon is already using advanced algorithms for managing their goods across the country. Amazon Prime took these steps to make the service functional.
According to the data they collected, Amazon is now not only able to store the right merchandise in the right locations but predict what changes regarding order numbers are going to occur. All this enables “Anticipatory” shipping, speeding up the delivery times.
This is only the beginning.
In the coming years, we can expect this process to be taken over by AI, making it easy for all eCommerce stores to lower their delivery times and provide better service to their customers.
Voice shopping assistants
Voice is already becoming important in everyday life experiences. We can only predict what the future uses of it are going to be. But, as Amazon is investing hard in Alexa, you’re likely going to be able to buy things by talking to a device.
With simple words like: “Show me the new fall collection”, you’ll be able to see items on your TV and tell the system what purchase you would like to make and in which way.
Not to mention, Amazon Prime subscribers can already do this, but the technology is still new, and it is yet to improve in the future.
This sounded impossible only a couple of years ago, but as voice control is going forward fast, it’s a plausible option that might enter the eCommerce business in the future.
Whenever it comes to discussing the topic of personalization, there is often a trade-off with concerns to user privacy. Privacy has been a hot topic in recent years as users value it more than ever.
Brands are actively striving to take transparency, security, and honesty to an entirely new level. However, to do this, brands can’t forget user personalization, given its critical role in any successful e-commerce venture.
So, how can eCommerce retailers tackle this problem? Many brands believe the answer lies with artificial intelligence.
Users are a little more comfortable with sharing their details on the promise they’re getting something truly valuable in return.
For example, if you give Google Now access to your account, it will sync your calendar, emails, and search habits.
Each morning, it’ll greet you with a small briefing of what you currently have on your plate and will let you know if you’re going to be late to the office due to a train cancellation.
Amazon’s Alexa applies the same magical approach to daily life. The modern shopping assistant puts your day-to day-routine first and even helps with daily house chores. Most recently, Amazon added the required intelligence for Alexa to buy on your behalf.
So, what’s the result?
More consumers know about Amazon Alexa-based products including Echo and Dot. A big percentage of them even use it daily.
AI enables retailers to provide outstanding experiences throughout the day even if they aren’t physically browsing the e-commerce store.
For such an experience, users are happy to share their precious details. A fine example of how AI is bridging the gap between user personalization and privacy.
Conclusion
These are different ways in which artificial intelligence is going to affect the eCommerce industry.
Generally, it means that customers are going to have a much better experience with online shopping. And businesses are going to be in a much better position to make more sales.
We can only sit back and wait, but one thing is clear.
AI will certainly make some groundbreaking changes in the future.
Don’t miss this opportunity.
