TLDR: Artificial intelligence plays a big role in how businesses connect with customers. With so many products and brands competing in the market, AI for ecommerce tools is even the playing field for small-time market players limited by tight budgets.
The shopping season is on the horizon. You know what that means for the ecommerce industry—cut-throat competition. Most retailers are aware of how keeping up with innovative solutions determines if turn out successful or not. Online conversion rates seem to have stagnated alongside the costs of customer acquisition (CAC), making it harder for smaller players to compete. AI solutions for ecommerce such as Lookfor, are today addressing some of these challenges.
In this article we shall examine:
Understanding AI applications in ecommerce
6 real-world examples of AI in ecommerce
Integrating AI into your ecommerce business
The future of ecommerce
Now, let’s go right to it.
Understanding AI applications in ecommerce
Ecommerce today has less to do with human prowess but rather with learning technologies and algorithms. Personalized shopping experiences powered by AI boost ecommerce sales. As the holidays approach, Artificial intelligence will change how we shop. According to ADC, 21% of retailers globally are investing in Generative AI solutions to deliver personalization for shoppers. Technologies like generative AI are doing the most from helping people build spreadsheets, adding captions on images, writing poems and essays, making presentations, and much more.
5 real-world examples of AI in ecommerce
lookfor is a versatile AI-powered retail solution that helps cosmetics ecommerce brands to personalize the shopping experience from end to end. AI prompts that are optimized for conversion provide users with questions that are personalized and contextually relevant throughout the customer journey.
This acts as an occasional nudge as they browse through the site, ensuring they do not lose focus till they make the purchase.
Similarly, AI product recommendations suggest additional items that complement that which is already in the customer’s cart. This capability aims to increase the average order value by promoting upselling and cross-selling. With a tool like this, you can increase your business profitability.
lookfor also creates quizzes for specific collections, generates potential questions about each product to enhance customer engagement, and compare products in real time to offer best assistance. It's an all in one tool that boost sales and conversions for Shopify merchants.
Bronze ($29/mo)
Silver ($59/mo)
Gold ($99/mo)
Vue.ai saves scaling businesses the trouble of managing product images which takes time and is prone to error. Features like the image moderation solution are great for businesses dealing with a large number of images, i.e., purposed for marketplaces.
It is intelligent enough to understand that guidelines might vary on different marketplaces or categories. Businesses implementing Vue.ai’s image moderation tool realize a significant reduction in the number of inaccurately tagged images resulting in fewer contact tickets raised by their vendors.
Contact sales
Big Sur AI is a virtual assistant that is very popular in retail. Imagine walking into a retail store and talking with a sales representative to get that assurance of why you should spend your hard-earned money on an item.
Well, that’s exactly what Big Sur AI does. It is knowledgeable about the items you want and smart enough to pick up on your needs, recommending only items that match your style or taste. Now that’s referred to as personalized product recommendations. Big Sur AI can suggest accessories based on your product searches, compare products in real-time, and track orders—while remaining available 24/7. Boosting sales conversions is best achieved through this personalized approach for your customers.
Contact sales
Octane AI, known for its smart quizzes is a customer engagement tool for ecommerce brands. It helps you find out what the customer behavior, tastes, and preferences are through quizzes and surveys. These innovative techniques help develop relationships with customers where only the right products and information get in front of shoppers.
The Shoppable Quiz feature looks to take the retail consultation process online. As a brand, you can design your quiz on the drag-and-drop interface. Customers can add products to their cart from their results page. Based on the answers shared on the quiz, you can further send personalized follow-ups. It is fully customizable and equipped with advanced quiz logic.
Businesses retailing their product on Shopify can ask the customers questions to build a buyer profile. Alternatively, personalized messaging can also be relayed to customers on Messenger, Facebook, or SMS to recommend products. Octane AI allows your business to implement both strategies on one platform. It’s not enough to have an online presence, boosting conversion requires interactive content like quizzes to help across the customer journey.
Octane ($50/mo)
Octane Pus ($200/mo)
Enterprise ($500/mo)
‘Shopify Magic’ leverages a suite of AI algorithms that automates different types of content. Ecommerce brands can use it to craft captivating product descriptions that are engaging, informative, and SEO-optimized optimizing the visibility of your products increases web and mobile traffic. Natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning technology interpret and contextualize different aspects of a product, in turn generating content that is relevant, accurate, and unique.
SEO is what gives your site and products visibility on Google search. Optimize your content by writing down a description acceptable to search engines. AI technology also helps when creating content like FAQ pages, product descriptions, and other marketing materials—significantly reducing the time and money you might have spent on content creation.
Shopify Magic’s media editor simplifies the background editing of images with a simple click. You do not need Photoshop experience to do this and the end product is just as good as any other professional image. The AI editor can offer background or style suggestions that can match product images in the merchant library. This is very helpful to ecommerce small-timers as most lack access to studios or display mannequins.
Basic ($32/mo)
Shopify ($92/mo)
Advanced ($399/mo)
$2300/mo)
Integrating AI into ecommerce businesses
Search & Discovery
A search and product discovery process helps the customer's ecommerce journey. Through customer data analysis, AI-based tools personalize what customers see and order while retailers customize their search results through product recommendations. For instance, when a customer visits a cosmetics online store AI analyzes their browsing history, past purchases, and browsing behavior with a tailored list of products.
Personalization With Product Descriptions And Images
A significant upside of AI in ecommerce is a personalized shopping experience. It runs through your data by browsing past purchase history, and other social media activity then tailors recommendations to an individual's preferences. This personalization goes way past generic marketing while creating an engaging customer experience.
Predictive Analytics
AI tools can be used to predict how customers act in the future based on how they behaved in the past. This looks at the customer’s chances to make a purchase, the relay of messaging channels, and chances of churn. The goal is to make decisions that increase the lifetime value of the customer.
The future of ecommerce
Integrating AI tools for ecommece can significantly boost your online retailers, especially if you are looking for ways to keep those sales numbers consistent. A good number of leading brands like Amazon are developing their own tools to simplify the ecommerce user experience for store owners. There are thousands of AI solutions for ecommerce doing practically everything from customer support that would have taken time, expert skills, and money. It’s now all available online—go for it!
