In the past few decades, artificial intelligence (AI) has been the focus for several technological and research companies, organizations and institutes. AI is an inherent part of our lives now. Starting from cash registers in supermarkets to advanced security checking in airports, it has applications everywhere. The trend will continue, with AI playing a major role in revolutionizing technology.
How artificial intelligence used in Ecommerce industry to increase sales
What is Artificial Intelligence?
AI is a branch of computer science that deals with creating human-like intelligence in machines. It is now a major part of the technology industry. Initiating AI commonly deals with programming knowledge, reasoning, problem-solving capability, perception, learning, planning and manipulating in machines through advanced programming.
Machines can act like humans if they have plenty of information relating to all processes. This includes access to different categories, properties and relationships. Enabling common sense, problem-solving capacity and reasoning in machines is difficult and time-consuming but a potentially useful process.
The Future of AI?
Tech giants like Microsoft and Google are investing heavily in AI. Recently, Google purchased a start-up called DeepMind that specializes in machine learning and algorithms for better impact. Others like Yahoo, IBM and Facebook have expressed their interest in developing artificial intelligence as a new line of business. Many experts have predicted that many businesses will embrace AI to automate processes currently taken care of by humans. In fact, a study by Business Insider predicts that as much as 85 percent of customer interactions will be handled without humans by 2020!
Artificial Intelligence in Ecommerce Industry
More recently, e-commerce has embraced AI for improving business and constantly coming up with innovations in the rapidly growing field of online shopping. Online shopping is already popular in many countries and is growing in many others. At this point, AI plays a major role in e-commerce for business, generating new ideas and providing better and quicker customer service.
Enabling Customer-centric Search
For ecommerce to offer outstanding online experience, it is necessary for search engines to think like humans do. Many ecommerce sites lose customers when product results display wrong or irrelevant items to a search. The solution to prevent customers abandoning a site due to unsatisfactory results is to improve the experience. This is possible through natural language processing and contextualizing to improve search resultsAI with Vision Advantage
A major boost for the ecommerce industry would be possible by building smart apps that can ‘see the world like the customer does’. Advanced image and video recognition in shopping sites would take the shopping experience to the next level. Developers have now designed AI software capable of automatically tagging, organizing and visually searching content using features from video and images.
If a customer sees a shoe or a bag that a friend owns, it’s not necessary to know the brand… just taking a snap of it is enough to do a search. Customers will be able to easily search for products using keyword tags or visual similarity.
Target potential customers
Gone are the days when marketing or sales team were solely responsible for bringing in customers. Ecommerce companies are exploring the possibilities of identifying when a customer spends sufficient amount of time looking at a product and then storing the data for future use.
The next time the customer goes online, the same product with or without special offers, is posted through advertisements in certain sites.
The Age of Virtual Assistants
Cloud-based AI software has revolutionized virtual communication. Some of the most popular virtual assistants used now include Siri, Alexa and Google Now. Using a phone, tablet, laptop or a compact home device it is easy to ask questions and receive answers. With a device like Echo and Alexa, it is possible not only to order products from Amazon, but also arrange for other services or order dinner from other companies.
Home Assistant
Consumers, these days, look for a modern and convenient shopping experience. Better than one-click selection is a voice command.
Understanding the advantage of this, Amazon introduced the Alexa home assistant to assist with shopping through a simple command, ready for delivery the next morning. Verifying your voice is all that is needed to process the order and make payment.
AI for Combating Fake Reviews
Access to anyone with an internet connection is both a boon and a curse. Customer reviews are important for online shopping sites. Genuine reviews can help customers make useful decisions. Fake reviews can give a wrong impression about the product and ultimately result in customers making a wrong decision. Ecommerce sites like Amazon use AI to provide computer secure experience for shopping. This helps control inflation of star ratings and fake product reviews. Higher preference is given to reviews rated by others as helpful. This is useful for building customer trust and retaining them.
Improved Product Recommendations
AI is helpful for efficiently scanning through massive amounts of data for predicting customer behaviour. It is essential for ecommerce sites to attract the first-time customer to visit often. Starbucks recently launched the ‘My Starbucks Barista’ to enable AI to help customers to place orders through messaging or voice command.
Personalization using Chatbots
Even though there are several ways for providing customer support like phone calls, chat and emails, it is the chat format that is fastest and most convenient. Many e-commerce sites have developed ‘chatbots’ that are capable of driving conversation with customers, understanding their needs and helping them in the same way customer service executives do. A chatbot is actually a computer program designed to simulate conversation with humans by understanding and responding to keywords in the conversation. In the near future, chatbots can help confirm orders and authorize shipping.
Even though artificial intelligence is often perceived as a negative force that is all set to make people lose jobs, it is actually a valuable tool for improving online shopping experience. Every day, with the help of AI, online shopping sites can analyze large quantities of data and use the information to provide the best possible user experience and enable customers to visit their site repeatedly and maintain loyalty by providing the best possible service.
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