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Magento is gaining popularity across the globe with every passing day and is expected to become the favorite of all the e-commerce retailers. In Alexa’s top 1M e-commerce stores (Alexa Internet, not to be confused with Amazon Alexa), Magento was ranked #1 out of 384 e-commerce platforms, holding 19% of the market share. There are timely advancements made in the Magento keeping up with the latest technology.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are two trends which have helped in enhancing the functioning of almost all the industries. E-commerce industry being the one among booming industries has also embraced the advancements made using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Magento provides many features which are backed by artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve the customer experience. Let us take a look at some of the features which are provided by Magento using machine learning:
1. Context-based Search
Magento already comes with enhanced search extensions which are capable of providing the relevant results to the users whenever the user enters a keyword. These extensions automatically show up the relevant results if the keyword typed in the search bars matches with the ones stored in the database. But, in case the keyword entered by the user does not match with the keywords present in the database then, no result shows up.
To eliminate this problem, Magento has come with a technology backed context-based search to enhance the customer experience. AI-driven context-based search looks beyond the keyword given by the potential customer. It tries to understand the context of the search made by potential customers. This feature enhances the customer experience by providing them with quicker and more relevant search results to the users’ queries.
2. Visual Search
By now, almost all of us are familiar with the visual search, thanks to Google Image Search and Google Assistant. All a person needs is to capture a clear image of a thing and search by uploading the image in the Google Image Search Bar. The search engine shows up the results related to the picture uploaded considering the special points in the picture. This kind of search is possible because of the advancements made in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Soon, this kind of search can be expected to be made available to customers in the e-commerce industry. In the present time in India, big e-commerce platforms like Myntra can be seen using this feature already to enhance its customer experience. On the global level, the mobile application of Tommy Hilfiger too has added the visual search feature for its users. In the future, more applications and e-commerce companies can be expected to integrate a visual search to enhance the customer experience. There are many companies like Impresee which offers visual search extensions for Magento stores enabling search-by-image and search-by sketch for the customers.
3. Targeted User Experience
One of the factors which improve the customer experience and increase sales is the getting relevant messages displayed on the screens of potential customers at the right time based on their search and purchase history. We all might have experienced that while looking for a particular thing on any e-commerce store and similar recommendations starts showing up whenever we again open the store or any other social media platforms. This is all because of machine learning algorithms. These algorithms take Big data as input and use it to target the customers at the right time. In this time where customer experience is central to every e-commerce store owner, machine learning is crucial to integrate with the stores.
Magento helps in increasing the leads by offering advanced features such as geo-targeting and behavioral targeting to reach out to the target audience in a particular area in their preferred language.
4. Protection from Frauds
With the increase in e-commerce stores, there has been an increase in the online frauds as well. There are thousands of potential, new and returning customers and numerous accounts, fraudsters can easily overtake these accounts without letting it come in the knowledge of the customer and e-commerce store owner.
To detect such frauds, e-commerce owners used to rely on human resources who carry the potential of looking into such matters deeply. And, because of such reviews by the people, sometimes orders of genuine customers also get delayed, which is not good for the e-commerce stores.
These issues can be easily resolved using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. Using AI and ML algorithms, behavior analysis can be done over a large amount of data and the results obtained can be used to protect the e-commerce stores from frauds and scams. Although, Magento stores come with great security measures to protect the e-commerce store from such frauds but still there are many fraudulent attacks, scams etc. online which can be easily tackled used AI. Using the power of AI, Magento stores can prevent their financial data as well as customer information from being stolen.
5. Virtual Purchase Assistant
Almost all the e-commerce stores, as well as websites, are having chatbots readily available to solve customers’ queries without waiting to send an e-mail or contact customer support. The artificial intelligence and machine learning backed chatbots have completely revolutionized the way customers get answers to their queries. Just like this, it is predicted that soon virtual purchase assistants too can be integrated with the e-commerce stores.
Just like the real assistants guide the visitors while shopping, virtual assistants too are expected to provide the same guidance to the visitors. Not only this, but these machine learning backed virtual assistants can also help in adding items to the cart and placing orders for the customers. One example is Facebook Chatbot for Magento 2 which enables the store owners to cater customer queries via Facebook chat feature.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have made it possible for the e-commerce industry to offer technologically smart and enhanced features to the customers. Magento has always embraced the latest advancements in technology and has provided many extensions which provide enhanced features to the customers.
