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According to E-commerce giant Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic among all the industries especially e-commerce across the globe for quite a time now. Machine Learning and its subset Artificial Intelligence have been digitally enhancing the tools that are being used in the e-commerce industry. With the advancements in voice technology, AI tools like Alexa, Cortana etc., the e-commerce industry is getting revolutionized.
Let’s take a look at the pace of growth of AI in one of the most scalable platforms i.e. Magento:
Enabled Context-based Search
One of the integral parts of the Magento e-commerce stores is the Product Search functionality; as the shopping process begins with the search for relevant and desired products. Usual searches rely on the keywords given by the users and the end result of this kind of search appears only when there is availability of the matching product(s) which carries the same keyword as entered in the search bar. But, the AI-powered product search looks for the context of the search, utilizing the capabilities of the Natural Language Process (NLP) to generate context-based search terms rather than the typical keywords entered by the customers. One of the examples to understand this is the way Amazon is using AI; Amazon utilizes AI to systemize its Alexa context-based search for its Gen X customers. Artificial Intelligence holds great capability in upgrading the context-based search in the coming future.
Provides Enhanced Personalized Experience
With the emergence of e-commerce platforms like Magento, the “click-and-mortar” model’s growth has been in full swing. But, there is still a long way for the e-commerce stores to provide personalized shopping experience as found in the stores.
To personalize the shopping experience of the customers, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has proved to be the best way. Using AI customer-centric campaigns can be run and targeted to the right audience at the right time from multiple channels. AI can offer up-to-the-minute personalized shopping suggestions through the push messages to the smartphones of potential customers. Magento’s new addition offers these advanced features already. Personalized recommendations, shopper based loyalty programs, gift card options, customized tier pricing and cross-selling and upselling options etc. are offered by the Magento’s latest version for the e-commerce retail owners.
Creates Customer-Centric Search
Powered by Machine Learning and cognitive computing, AI programs can rely on self-learning algorithms which deconstruct Big Data of thousands of customers and create targeted user experience. Artificial Intelligence creates purchase assistants that focus on the target audience and send the right messages at the right time, ruling out any chance of human error and enhancing customer-centric search.
Facilitates Purchase Decisions
According to the study by Adweek, 36% of shoppers spend 30 minutes and 65% spend close to 16 minutes researching online before making a purchase. And, this time spent by the users is a great opportunity for the businesses to popularize their brand to the target audience. AI backed virtual shopping assistants are a great way to save the time of the customers and popularize special offers and discounts to the customers. There are many companies which use virtual assistants to help shoppers in buying products without wasting too much time.
With the advanced Machine Learning algorithms, the analytic bots have the potential to carry and analyze a large sum of data through millions of touch points to make purchase decisions stress-free. By integrating technologically enhanced AI with the Magento store, e-commerce business will definitely grow to new heights.
Personalize the Shopping Experience with Chatbots
Chatbots are specific computer programs which are designed to interact with existing customers as well as returning customers over the internet landing on the e-commerce websites. These chatbots eliminate the need for a dedicated employee to answer the queries of the customers. These chatbots provide a valuable and faster customer support solution for the e-commerce retailers 24*7 throughout the year.
A Smoother Shopping Experience
Magento has become a favorite of both B2B and B2C customers because of the advanced search feature and an array of customized extensions. With the AI, the context-based search functionality of Magento gets amplified for enhancing the customer experience. Store navigation on the Magento platform has become faster and more user-friendly with the AI’s superior context-based search.
Prevents Frauds
Financial transactions form a major part of the e-commerce industry and to no surprise, these digital transactions are most prone to cyber-attacks and frauds. According to a study by Reitblat, e-commerce merchants lose a whopping $4 billion due to fraudulent activities. Different channels like desktop, mobile, tablets, social commerce, and business lines face new risk vectors now and then and the frauds through all such remote channels is 7 times more difficult to prevent as compared to the in-person frauds.
In order to prevent such loses due to frauds and cyber-attacks, integrating AI with the e-commerce platform solves the problem. In the case of Magento, integrating the security standards with machine learning addresses this problem well. This integration results in superior precision, an impeccable judgment of behavioral and buying patterns, superior precision and augmentation when compared to the human brain and reduced dependency on humans which leads to reduced time in detecting the fraudulent transactions.
After knowing all these benefits of AI, there should be no e-commerce retailer to trail behind to embed AI as a part of the business strategy. Including AI in the e-commerce strategy will help to make your e-commerce store a proactively selling online store. At the present time, when everything is available at a low cost online, personalization and uniqueness is the requirement to be successful in the e-commerce industry and looking at the way AI is growing its capabilities in upgrading the Magento stores, integration is a must.
