How to Utilise AI for Your eCommerce Business

Artificial intelligence can be said to be the ability of machines to process data and perform tasks in a way that mimics human intelligence. Data processing, voice and visual recognition, decision making— all of it is AI. It’s this kind of technology that has enhanced experiences in a way that helps brands deliver more personalised and relevant content to it users. It’s this kind of technology that’s helping revolutionise eCommerce, and it’s this kind of technology that brands are looking to leverage.

Intelligent systems in eCommerce are becoming the new norm. Brands are looking toward AI to not only sort information, but deliver better results to users quickly and efficiently. Consumers are also completely blindsided by how prevalent artificial intelligence is on the internet. Currently, only 33% of users believe they interact with artificially intelligent systems, but the truth is 77% of users use an AI powered system or device.

There has also been an explosive growth of artificial intelligence in eCommerce because, on top of all it’s wondrous capabilities, AI is also very cost effective. This means that AI is attractive for brands, both large and small. In this blog post, we’ll cover how to user artificial intelligence for your brand and what it means for your bottom line.

Recommendations

Artificial intelligence and online shopping have almost become synonymous because AI helps improve the eCommerce experience, and brands know this. For instance, one AI-powered tactic that has become widely popular among fashion eCommerce businesses is recommendations.

By looking at a user’s previous browser history with a brand, AI can retarget that user and recommend certain dresses or jewelry they’ll likely find appealing. This is an excellent example of how AI empowers brands, as recommendations help increase engagement while effectively selling products. And for users, who doesn’t want to see more of what they like?

Customer Service

You may have an amazing product paired with a cool logo and beautiful branding as a whole, but all of that is irrelevant if you don’t have great customer service to go with it. Because of this, one of the biggest benefits of artificial intelligence in eCommerce is that AI can function as your fully automated customer service rep (and you don’t have to lift a finger)!

With the rise of AI, chatbots have become a major feature across the internet. By integrating chatbots with your website, you can give users access to the information they need and free up your team’s time to accomplish more important tasks — no messy back and forths, no angry eCommerce retail associates, just simple and easy questions and answers. Plus, you only have to train a chatbot once and they remember the training forever.

Voice Search

In the UK, the amount of adults who owned a smart speaker doubled in just six months. From Q3 in 2017, only 5% of adults had one of these devices and, by Q1 in 2018, that doubled to 10%. This application of artificial intelligence in eCommerce is great because it provides an additional revenue stream for businesses.

Keep in mind that choosing the right keywords for such a large responsibility can be tough, especially with so much online competition. Employing your local creative agency to help with this process can ensure a smooth SEO rollout. With voice technology and voice search becoming more dominant in the online space, you need to ensure your brand doesn’t get left out of the running. Begin thinking about how to optimise your website for these artificially intelligent devices with keywords.

You can begin optimising your brand for smart speakers by including long-tail keywords into your SEO strategy. These keywords will perform better than singular keywords because they help encompass a larger audience and add intent to the equation, which functions to deliver more targeted answers. You can further extend your reach on voice search SEO by using synonyms that unsuspecting users may write in their query. When optimising for these terms, remember that it’s voice search, so choose words that are colloquial as opposed to formal. This is an eCommerce agency approved tactic, so start building your brand with your voice, literally.

Accounting

Accounting is the bane of more than one creative’s existence. Numbers. Numbers, numbers, numbers… sometimes they just aren’t your thing. Thankfully, artificial intelligence can help take care of accounting for you. While we would still recommend maintaining your relationship with your current accountant, there are certainly aspects you can handle by yourself, with the help of artificial intelligence, that is.

For example, Botkeeper is an AI-powered bookkeeping system that uses advanced learning methods to help keep your brand’s accounting in check. Botkeeper can be integrated into your current software and systems, and functions 24/7. They have been featured on large publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur and Inc. Plus, it costs 50% less than an outsourced firm. Consider using AI as your eCommerce business’ accounting solution and you could end up saving a ton of money.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation and artificial intelligence have been known to make a harmonious couple. From personalised advertising capabilities, to market research and even content marketing, AI has a huge impact on this industry. To leverage that power for your business, start thinking about where your marketing strategy needs a bit of help.

Do you want to know how to use artificial intelligence in your website to enhance your marketing skills, or are you thinking about AI from a more technical standpoint for eCommerce data? Once you’ve determined where you want AI to fill in the gaps in your marketing strategy, you can start figuring out which intelligent tools you want to use. Just to name a couple:

• Oribi – Use this tool if you need help with analytics
• The Grid – Use this tool if you want help with web design
• Unmetric – Use this tool if you want help with social media marketing insights
• MarketBrew – Use this tool to help empower your SEO team with the power of AI

These are just a couple of our favorite tools to help dip your toes in the water.

Tip Wrap-Up

Our hope is that these tips have shown you how you can utilise artificial intelligence for your eCommerce business. The capabilities and applications of this technology are limitless. There are literally dozens, if not hundreds  of different ways you can integrate AI into your business to help improve how you service your customers and enhance your brand. All you have to do is figure out where you want or need to the help.

Let’s see those tips again:

• Use the power of AI to give recommendations to your users and provide them with more relevant experiences on your website
• AI can function as your customer service rep, delivering fast and easy responses to user queries
• If numbers aren’t your thing, AI can help keep your accountant keep the books balanced
• Optimise your brand for voice search with long-tail keywords to appeal to artificially intelligent speakers
• Enhance your marketing strategy by using AI powered tools to lighten your load

As always, good luck!