Using artificial intelligence to enhance online sales is among the most promising “moves” an eCommerce business owner can make. The major reason for this is that modern technology automizes processes and thus takes care of numerous things, so humans don’t have to, simplifying the work of your employees.
For instance, you can use AI for sales forecasting, cross-selling, product picking, and so much more. And the coolest thing about it is that just like your actual real-life staff, AI learns, progresses, and grows, getting better by the month.
On this page, we’ll be more than glad to share the 5 specific ways how artificial intelligence technology can be beneficially used to boost the productivity of your employees, help make your online clients more satisfied with their shopping experiences, and how all of this can consequently grow your sales and revenues.
On this page
1. Leave It to the Chatbots
Yes, you can add the newest technology to your online store, get the freshest available redesign, or build a progressive web application for uplifting mobile conversions, but what are the “for sure” elements that you need to get a hold of?
One of the major ways that artificial intelligence can be advantageous for your online business is by handling a part of your customer service inquiries. AI-powered sales assistants and chatbots are truly a helping hand.
To begin with, they are available round-the-clock, unlike actual human employees. Therefore, this greatly reduces the waiting time for responses (which is amazing for improving customer satisfaction). Furthermore, this “unloads” real customer service staff who don’t have to waste their time on unnecessary repetitive work.
Functioning based on pre-defined scripts, the bots are smart enough to perceive the user’s intent, i.e., three different people can ask about the same thing using different wording, and the bot understands them all.
But the neatest part about the chatbots is that they can learn on the go, jotting down those cases when they weren’t successful at helping the client.
Take a look at the AI virtual sales assistant that’s present on the official Tommy Hilfiger website. As seen in the screenshot below, the Digital Assistant introduces itself in the pop-up box and offers the user to ask a question.
For convenience, the topics are broken down by the most commonly asked question blocks. Users type in their messages and get instant responses, which is very handy.
2. Allocate Your Best Product Combos
AI in sales can be your “magic wand” for pitching top-notch selections of products for your recommendation sections. Did you know that according to the statistics found by Business 2 Community, shoppers who tap on product recommendations are over 4 times likelier to put such products into their carts?
That said, such an increase in cart sizes and the average checks can only be reached if the shown products are selected properly. Artificial intelligence tools integrated into the store can monitor the most often purchased product combinations and note such data to be pitched on the site.
This ultimately means that your store can move several steps up from guessing the top choices (or leaving it to certain employees’ responsibility who should share their expertise manually). You basically pass the task on to a smart solution that can track the best-fit combos and handle this matter systematically.
As a rule, such matching product selections are placed within up-selling blocks right on the product pages. Here’s how it’s done on the Hugo Boss website shown in this screenshot example of the “Complete the Look” block below.
3. Personalize Each of the Product Pitches
A similar use case of AI for sales and marketing revolves around personalization. When you shop in an actual physical store, you can always count on the advice of a shopping assistant. In a way, personal product picks work just like that.
This section (unlike the one covered previously) focuses on what this exact client might find to their own taste. In this case, the artificial intelligence-run tool “spies” on the shopper’s behaviour and which products they’ve browsed and paid for.
Based on the data, the tool can make conclusions regarding what this or that person likes and shows only those items that the user can be interested in, not just the similar items or common picks of other users.
To give an example, this is such a block on the official Puma website. It considers the preferred style based on earlier browsed or bought products.
4. Try It On Virtually
Another case of artificial intelligence in sales is the amazing collaboration of AI with augmented reality tools. Face masks and other real-time background-changing features are a blast to use; they can make us look better and definitely have the ability to entertain. But what does this have to do with online retail? Well, a lot.
With the mirror-like effect of virtual reality, such AI technology can be a game-changer. Imagine how a user is browsing goods online and thinking about how’ll they look or whether it matches or suits them.
These doubts become history the second that the user gets the chance to turn on their device’s camera and see what the item looks like through the screen.
Be it a piece of furniture in the corner of a house, an accessory like sunglasses, a pair of sneakers, or the various colours of lip gloss; the technology convinces you to buy by showing the result straight away.
Many renowned brands are already using this tool on their sites and official social media accounts. The official MAC Cosmetics site has Virtual Try-On for testing products online (without actual testers).
Yes, the customer won’t have the chance to “feel” or test the quality of the product as in a physical store, but when it comes to online sales, the difference in shades, shapes, and a bunch of other details can be displayed straight on to remove doubts.
5. Boost the Capabilities of Search
Speaking of other ways you can implement machine learning in sales and marketing, we cannot mention the possibilities of image search and voice search. The thing is that the habits and methods of how users look for things are changing.
People are currently switching from the casual “text type-ins” directly into search bars, preferring to send the request by voice either to the search bars fitted with microphones with voice recognition or via their virtual assistants like Alexa.
These types of searches are gaining popularity because everyone tends to save their time, wishing to find the top-fit result as fast as it’s possible. For instance, AI is irreplaceable in cases of image search.
Just look at the example below; these are screenshots from the Amazon StyleSnap page. People can upload a photograph or image that features some goods that they want to get, and the system scans the picture and finds the things that look similar.
Just take a moment to think about how much time this saves and how much satisfaction a shopper can get because they don’t have to waste long hours scrolling and to look for what they need! Obviously, this can bring more sales.
Over to You
Summing up everything covered in the article, this is just the tip of the capabilities “iceberg” that artificial intelligence has and that we’ll see in the advancing future. For online retail and the sphere of eCommerce in general, it is crucial to keep in step with time, answering users’ needs.
And what’s for implementation? The points covered in the article are worth thinking about as automation, better customer journeys, and experience can lead to bigger revenues and more satisfied users!
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