Artificial Intelligence in E-commerce: Tools and Strategies

Everyone’s talking about AI, and rightly so. Long before the launch of ChatGPT, artificial intelligence was already transforming how we create, and many businesses were already realizing its benefits.

Whether you’re a content creator, artist, or entrepreneur running an e-commerce business, AI can make you more productive and efficient.

From optimizing content like product descriptions to enhanced customer targeting, AI in e-commerce has multiple applications for your business.

If you haven’t introduced AI into your e-commerce marketing, it might not be long before you do. A survey by Intuit QuickBooks shows 83 percent of people surveyed already use AI at work, while 70 percent say it could help their business compete with larger companies.

Throw benefits like reduced costs and enhanced productivity into the mix, and you can see why businesses want to use AI.

Ready to find out more about artificial intelligence in e-commerce? Here we go.

Essentials on AI in E-Commerce

AI is set to streamline how we do business and provides opportunities for companies to increase productivity, cut costs, and boost efficiency.

This transformative tech has multiple applications in e-commerce, such as AI-powered chatbots, generative AI for content creation, dynamic pricing, voice commerce, virtual assistants, analytics, and fraud detection.

Implementing AI can improve customer experience, automate tasks like inventory management, improve efficiency in data-driven decision-making, and reduce administrative time and costs.

Use cases for AI in e-commerce include fraud detection and prevention, demand forecasting, sentiment analysis, customer segmentation and targeting, inventory management, supply chain optimization, and email marketing optimization.

AI tools can come with a learning curve and be costly in the short term, but they provide cost savings over time.

Current Applications for AI in E-commerce

According to Insider Intelligence, global spending on AI systems increased by 27 percent in 2023, and by 2026, the AI market is likely to exceed $300 billion.

So what exactly are AI systems helping businesses do? Currently, there are several applications for AI in e-commerce, like:

AI-powered chatbots: E-commerce chatbots respond to customer queries, provide customer support, and enhance customer engagement. They’re available 24/7, allowing customers to get instant answers to their questions and helping to improve the customer experience.

Generative AI for content: Using ChatGPT for e-commerce content helps streamline the creation of marketing emails, product descriptions, blogs, and website content. 

Dynamic pricing: If you’ve noticed prices of products on your favorite e-commerce platforms fluctuating, that may be down to dynamic pricing. AI algorithms can analyze market trends and competitor pricing. This enables e-commerce businesses to stay competitive and maximize revenues.

Voice commerce and Virtual Assistants: Siri and Alexa offer personalized shopping recommendations and help with shopping tasks, like ordering items online. Voice commerce enables people to buy online with voice commands.

Analytics: AI can process large amounts of data quickly and accurately, providing insights into customer behavior and allowing better-targeted marketing. Retail analytics can also help with supply chain and inventory management.

Fraud detection: AI algorithms guard against financial losses by analyzing patterns and spotting fraudulent e-commerce refund claims.

Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in E-commerce

There are many benefits to using AI in e-commerce, including:

Improved customer experience: In a 24/7 culture, customers don’t expect to wait for answers. Twelve percent want answers in 15 minutes or less! Using AI in e-commerce chatbots enables businesses to provide instant support.

E-commerce automation: Inventory management and order processing are essential but time-consuming tasks for business owners. However, AI can take over these tasks, freeing up vital time for you to run your business. For example, a tool like Linnworks can track inventory, forecast demand, and automate re-ordering.

Better efficiency: Successful e-commerce businesses shape their marketing strategies using data-driven decisions. AI can streamline this process by effectively processing large volumes of data, freeing up time and resources.

Cost savings: By automating various tasks, you limit labor costs and allocate resources to other areas.

Reduce admin time: Using artificial intelligence tools in e-commerce limits your time on re-ordering, managing inventory, and other backend tasks.

Use Cases for AI in E-commerce

Aside from offering numerous benefits, AI has a significant range of use cases for e-commerce, like:

Fraud Detection and Prevention: Use AI to analyze transaction data and customer behavior to identify and flag potentially fraudulent activities, protecting businesses and customers from financial losses.

Demand Forecasting: AI algorithms analyze historical sales data, market trends, and external factors to predict demand patterns, optimize inventory management, and minimize overstocking.

Sentiment Analysis: Use AI to analyze social media sentiments and customer reviews to gain insights into customer opinions, helping businesses understand customer preferences and improve products or services.

Customer Segmentation and Targeting: AI algorithms can analyze customer data to segment customers based on various characteristics, enabling businesses to target specific customer groups with personalized marketing campaigns.

Inventory Management and Supply Chain Optimization: Use AI to optimize inventory levels, delivery routes, and logistics, reducing costs, minimizing delivery times, and improving overall supply chain efficiency.

Email Marketing Optimization: AI can help analyze customer behavior and preferences to optimize email marketing campaigns, improving open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.

That’s before we get to things like personalized recommendation engines, chatbots and virtual assistants, visual search, and dynamic pricing.

I’ll discuss these next along with other AI tools you can use in your e-commerce business.

AI Tools for E-commerce

If all of this sounds overwhelming, relax. You can use some AI tools for e-commerce to simplify some of the tasks.

Here, we’ll look at some AI solutions for e-commerce that could change the way you do business.

Personalized Recommendation Engines

AI-powered recommendation systems analyze customer data to provide customized product recommendations, increasing sales and customer satisfaction. One example is the Vitamin Shoppe. 

It uses Bloomreach Commerce Experience Cloud, which allows customizable algorithms so businesses can prioritize what’s important to them. Vitamin Shoppe increased its average value order and revenue per visitor by using this tool.

How it helps:

Enhances e-commerce personalization based on real-time customer and product data.

Uses AI to understand customer intent and which metrics to prioritize to improve the customer journey.

Optimizes workflows for e-commerce teams to leverage data quickly and generate results faster.

What it costs:

Prices are scalable and you can tailor your package to suit your needs as a business.

Chatbots and Virtual Assistants

AI-powered chatbots like Intercom engage with customers, answer queries, and provide assistance, improving customer support and enhancing the overall shopping experience.

One example is the buy now, pay later business Zip. It saved $500,000 in less than seven 

months due to bots and automation, and the resolution bot automatically resolved 33.6 percent of conversations.

How it helps:

Improved customer experience through instant support.

Enhances the user experience with personalized assistance.

Increases sales and conversions through personalized product recommendations.

24/7 availability for round-the-clock support.

Automated customer service tasks save costs and reduce the workload for human agents.

Enables data collection about customer preferences, issues, behavior, and purchase history to provide valuable insights for marketing strategies.

What it costs:

Prices vary depending on the complexity of the solution required and the capability of the AI platform you use. For example, simple, clickable chatbots cost less than more sophisticated conversational virtual assistants.

Visual Search

AI enables e-commerce platforms to incorporate visual search capabilities, allowing users to search for products using images instead of text for added convenience and improving product discovery. Examples include Google Lens, Bing visual search, and Pinterest Lens. 

AI tool Clarifi provides visual search tools that enable improved product recommendations with its visual similarity search feature. This enables faster checkout and up to a 15 percent increase in customer revenue from product personalization. 

How it helps:

Enhanced user experience, allowing shoppers to quickly find products based on images rather than inputting text or keywords.

Improved product discovery.

Increased conversion rates when customers find products that closely match the items they have in mind.

Competitive advantage as businesses can differentiate themselves by offering a convenient, fast, and streamlined customer experience using visual search.

Improved inventory management

What it costs:

Clarifi provides packages ranging from free for community organizations to $300 and up for professional and enterprise packages.

Dynamic Pricing

AI dynamic pricing tools use algorithms to analyze market trends, competitor pricing, inventory levels, and customer behavior to adjust product prices in real-time, optimizing revenue and competitiveness.

In one case study, e-commerce businesses used Flipkart Commerce Cloud for predictive analytics, pricing optimization, and pricing intelligence.

The result was an up to 67 percent gross profit lift and up to 84 percent long tail gross profit lift.

Frase

This AI tool creates content. It differs from some tools in adding facts and background research from search results.

How it helps:

It also helps with SEO research, allowing you to analyze your competitors, develop outlines, and create optimized content.

Frase includes a built-in topic model, enabling you to find keywords in your content and “help you craft content Google will love.”

You can compare your keyword usage with that of your competitors.

There is a live product walkthrough and crash course to help you get the most from it.

What it costs:

Frase offers a free five-day trial, and paid subscriptions start from $12.66 for yearly subscriptions.

ViZense

If you’re looking for a tool to enhance product discovery, then ViZense could be what you need. 

How it helps:

Its Discovery Suite has several “Smart” features designed to maximize sales, like:

Recommendations that show the most relevant products for upsell opportunities

Search allows searchers to find what they want quickly by using a photo, screenshot or saved picture

Tagging uses AI to optimize your product catalog and match shopper intent automatically

Data to get actionable insights from the customer journey

What it costs:

Pricing isn’t available on the website, but you can request a demo to learn more.

LivePerson

The LivePerson tool uses conversational AI to enable you to understand what customers want and aid in making actionable business decisions. 

How it helps:

Conversational Cloud to deliver personalized digital experiences

Voice AI for automated customer experience

Access to data and insights to help optimize your customer conversations.

Products available for various niches, such as retail, travel, and financial services

What it costs:

New customers get unlimited voice pricing and messaging. You can choose the pay-as-you-go model or annual subscriptions. Pricing isn’t available online.

Pixelcut

Every e-commerce store needs amazing photos, and Pixelcut uses AI to make this possible. According to the website, Pixelcut allows you to create product pictures ten times faster.

You can download Pixelcut to your phone, change images with one click, access templates, and use its virtual studio.

How it helps:

Image upscale

Background removal

AI-generated backgrounds

Magic eraser

Recolor images

Bulk editing

AI shadows for a professional-looking image

What it costs:

Pixelcut is available free from the App Store; in-app purchases are available.

Descript

Descript is a video and podcast tool that allows video editing, screen recording, transcription, clip editing, and more.

How it helps:

AI voice cloning and text-to-speech generation

Edit videos like you would a document

Collaboration tools

A green screen effect

What it costs:

Take the video tour to understand it better, and then you can sign up for a free subscription. Paid subscriptions start at $12 monthly.

Future of AI in E-commerce

As you can tell, AI is already transforming e-commerce, and there are plenty more advances to come.

AI in e-commerce will continue to evolve to empower hyper-personalized experiences and increased conversions. Increased adoption of AR and VR to enable virtual try-ons, immersive shopping experiences, and 3D product visualizations could reduce returns. As technology improves for AI chatbots and virtual assistants, these tools could also provide personalized customer experiences. 

In addition to automating price reductions and improving the allocation of resources, AI has the potential to assist with pricing strategies. This will enable e-commerce owners to keep pace with competitors and monitor seasonal fluctuations. 

In the future, using AI in e-commerce could also help:

Improve decision-making and enhance agility

Create fresh data-driven business models

Develop innovation in products and services

Forecast market conditions

Assist with hiring and training employees

Aid long-term strategic decisions

Naturally, there are going to be some downsides, too. Using AI means increasing technology dependency, which could lead to greater vulnerability to system failures or cyber-attacks.

Then, there is the possibility of job losses in the e-commerce sector as AI bots manage and task automation becomes more common. 

Overall, though, it’s safe to say the future of e-commerce is looking bright.

FAQs

Conclusion

Running an e-commerce business isn’t easy, but AI can simplify the task. From reducing mundane jobs to optimizing prices and stock levels, AI can transform how your online business functions.

Just like the rest of the business world, AI is transforming how e-commerce works, often for the better.

It allows greater efficiency, improved customer satisfaction, and cost reductions—all things every business owner would welcome.

Although using AI in e-commerce isn’t without challenges, embracing AI will completely change how you do business.

Do you use AI in your e-commerce business? Share your experiences below.