We have smart devices to bring anything with a few taps. Now, those same devices are capable of doing anything with a few sentences you speak to it! Yes, I am talking about a rapid transformation of technologies from a tip of Finger to Tongue.
Artificial Intelligence and associated technologies such as Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, and Business Intelligence are behind the scene.
Insights into Shopping Behavior of Ecommerce Shoppers
Today people accomplish their shopping through digital devices and multiple digital channels including websites and mobile applications. Modern shoppers love to search for a product using a smartphone browser or an ecommerce app and fix whatever they want to buy. Later on, they switch the device and use tablets or desktops like large screens for checkout and payment quickly and safely.
Such complex behavior, different preferences, and various constraints seemingly involved in modern ecommerce and making an online business a challenge for everyone involved in it. Disruptive technologies have impacted ecommerce a lot in recent years, and the contribution of Artificial Intelligence and associated technologies is great.
AI to Shape Future of Ecommerce
So, today we are going to discuss how AI would shape the future of ecommerce industry in 2019 and beyond.
Recently, Gartner has predicted, “By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships with the enterprise without interacting with a human.”
It is pinpointing towards AI and associated technologies as non-human interaction. Recent reports on investment by the leading giants on technologies backing the predictions of Gartner fully. Google has purchased DeepMind, an AI company in £400 Million, and FB, IBM, and Microsoft are on the way to focus on AI and ML in the coming years.
The success of ecommerce greatly depends on how a business provides excellent user experiences and customer satisfaction at all levels. Therefore, AI and alike disruptive technologies are targeting the same while providing solutions for the ecommerce industry. Let’s check where the potential of AI in the ecommerce industry in the coming years.
Enhanced Search Experiences with AI on Ecommerce
The prospective visitors of an ecommerce land on the first interface in the app or a site, it aims to find whatever they want and search bar or search UI becomes an obvious choice. Ecommerce visitors have little time to know whether the goods or services they desire exist in ecommerce storefront or not.
Therefore, modern and advanced search engines are capable of using NLP and AI technologies to narrowing search in the right contexts and delivering quick results. For example, Twiggle is an advanced search solution with AI capabilities. Therefore, it understands the search queries as humans do. Its catalog enhancement functionality standardizes the structured data and various product attributes, as well as carry automatic clustering to find a product in a snap.
Another product is Clarifai, with computer vision AI technology. It enables a shopper to take a photo of the product and run visual search engine to get it on your ecommerce. Of course, Pinterest has achieved the same capacity but limited in many senses.
Recent data on the web indicates that nearly 20% of searches on Google are through voice inputs. So, the future of search engines with AI in ecommerce is bright with multiple modes of inputs including texts, voice, and visuals.
Conversational Ecommerce using AI Capabilities
We already have discussed multiple modes of input from the shopper on the digital landscape for shopping. Now, if we add predictive capabilities of AI into written, vocal, and visual searches, it turns into a new paradigm, which is famously known as Conversations Commerce, and Chatbot like chat/conversational interface with AI power will begin a new era on the ecommerce. How? Let’s see it.
Chatbot like conversation ecommerce products are not mere chatting software to answer the queries of visitors of an ecommerce as a human being can do, but it extends its functionality beyond it.
Chatbot used to integrate with shopping cart solutions of an ecommerce business, and it provides seamless integrations with a number of known shopping cart solutions of today.
A chatbot can automate order processes of an ecommerce, and best example of AI in ecommerce. Chatbot extends its reach to various social media including Facebook to enable social media visitors to go shopping without leaving the existing page or interface on the app.
Thus, it proves a low-cost yet highly efficient solution for an ecommerce to attend queries of ecommerce visitors with a limited and trained staff. Customization ability of Chatbot solutions enables an ecommerce business to leverage product details, quantities, and shipping terms of an ecommerce in highly personalized ways suing AI technologies.
The Amalgamation of Robotics with AI Technologies
If Chatbot is for online retailers, what about physical stores with a huge inventory and large premises? It is robots with AI powers. Lowe has experimented an AI-powered robot with same capacities we see in Chatbot for an ecommerce. Lowebot, a tall machine acts as a shopping assistant. It stays at the door of the retail store and can greet visitors as a human sales representative can do.
It can guide visitors by moving around the store and precisely locate the products the guests or visitors are looking for in the store. Apart from these, the robot is capable of helping the staff in inventory management. It has capacities to make many meaningful interactions with customers. Thus, Omnichannel ecommerce with a physical store or chain of stores may not deprive of AI technology miracles!
Due to space constraints, I am not able to paint my all imagination based on the present facts and tech advancements for AI capabilities for ecommerce of tomorrow. Therefore, I am giving you a short list to narrate some glimpse here.
- AI will help ecommerce to tackle fake reviews and combat to counterfeit products.
- Mingling of AI with wearable technologies to generate sales of ecommerce, and Apple Watch, Fitbit, etc. are excellent examples of it.
- AI can bridge the gap between personalization and privacy.
- AI provides an opportunity to create assortment intelligence engine for a large ecommerce with multiple storefronts to combat with pricing structure and differences existing in prices.
- AI enable ecommerce to create an automated and intelligent agent to match buyers and sellers, helps in transactions, gives institutional infrastructure.
- NPL, AI, and ML technologies enable ecommerce to provide virtual assistant to the shoppers in B2C and brands in B2B ecommerce.
- AI enhance recommendation engines for ecommerce.
- AI technologies enable ecommerce to create highly efficient sales process based on prediction engines and voice assistants.
Conclusion
We have visualized the future of ecommerce with AI and associated technologies based on existing and emerging technology trends, solutions, and experiments in real life market, not imagination. M-connect Solutions is a leading Web And Mobile Software Development Company working extensively on AI and associated technologies.
Reliable solutions, freedom to customization, and cost efficiencies are our distinguishing characteristics when you set with ecommerce development. Our AI tech experts have delivered astounding solutions, and ready to serve you for your bespoke needs for AI in ecommerce.
About Hemant Parmar
Hemant Parmar is an eCommerce expert and a keen Magento consultant who specializes in meeting the needs of businesses in the e-commerce space. Years in the eCommerce market make him a perfect choice for sharing his expertise on eCommerce and Magento 2 development. He believes that customers need to be met no matter how challenging it might be.
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