By First world countries like the United States, UK and Australia are now using artificial intelligence to do amazing things in the field of e-commerce.
Check around these countries and you will see AI e-commerce startups springing up from everywhere.
Beginning with AI tools that helps to find trending dropshipping products to smart ecom tools that helps to spy on your competitors.
It may not be out of place to posit, “Technology is one of the greatest gifts of the 21st Century.”
Indeed, the proliferation of different technological frameworks in the last couple of years have been of significant interest to various sectors of the global economy.
The electronic commerce (e-commerce) industry is in the front line above the years, and for good reasons too.
E-commerce is one of the sectors that improved following the applications of various technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI).
What is AI?
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a technological innovation that empowers machines to perform the duties that had hitherto been under the control of humans or the traditional labor force.
In that instance, the paradigm shift implies that more machines in different forms like robots would now carry out some of the duties that humans were doing.
While that is impressive, it should also be noted that some inputs would still be expected of humans when it comes to running a successful e-commerce business.
Nonetheless, Artificial Intelligence (AI), from the functionalities in the last couple of years, would in the future, become “the future of work” as had been touted in various quarters.
What Does AI Have To Do With E-Commerce?
Here is one big puzzle that every stakeholder in the electronic commerce (E-commerce) is trying to understand.
What is the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the e-commerce industry? Are there outstanding benefits of artificial intelligence in e-commerce that could propel a startup founder to integrate it on their website?
Indeed, the roles it plays in the industry are many, as you would discover if you read further.
Worthy of note is that the global smart e-commerce industry is one of the biggest and breeds many income opportunities.
So, it is only right to adapt to a better framework that would take further. The application of AI is, undoubtably, one of the comprehensive approaches to facilitating the necessary improvements.
Highlighted below are some of the (positive) impacts of Artificial Intelligence on the e-commerce industry that most first-world countries are already implementing. Many are of the opinion that China is going to be the AI superpower.
Chatbots
There’s no gainsaying that many people in the world today are directly or indirectly pushing the drive for a paradigm shift in the e-commerce industry.
For instance, the advent of e-commerce came on the heels of the successes recorded by the delegation of the Internet to that regard.
Buoyed by that, the next approach was to enhance the supply chain system through the medium of online shopping and flexible last-mile deliveries.
Now, the online shopping experience attributed to e-commerce innovations has taken another path that would launch it to greater heights.
That is the use of Chatbots. If you’ve shopped on Facebook or similar web-based platforms where sales are facilitated, you may have noticed the initiation of conversations by a “third-party” that is not necessarily the merchant.
If you’ve seen that, then you just got in touch with one of the impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the e-commerce industry, which is the use of Chatbots.
Chatbots are Virtual Assistants (VA) that help potential/prospective buyers to arrive at an informed buying decision.
The integration by online merchants is a ploy to literally “lead potential buyers by the hand” until they make a purchase.
Besides, the Chatbots also opens up opportunities for prospective buyers to communicate with the merchant/vendor site using speech and texts.
Product Content Management
It is one thing to drive traffic to your merchant platform and another to offer the needed service.
In some cases, prospective buyers tend to be infuriated in the end when the products they seek are out of stock.
In other instances, they may place orders for the products but will find it challenging to get the same in good time.
Related: Top 5 Factors for Perfect Product Optimisation in Ecommerce
That opens up the doors for another application of AI in the e-commerce industry. In this instance, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (alongside the Internet of Things (IoT)) would help the merchants to have real-time data of their inventory.
So, the moment the stocks begin to go down, they would be alerted to get more.
Interestingly, AI’s impact in that regard also aids in the improvement of Product Content Management (PCM) whereby prospective buyers can shop for different products from anywhere online, especially when doing so over the Internet.
Retargeting Potential Customers
Retargeting is a concept that has gained massive traction in the digital marketing sphere. It entails the subsequent follow up of potential buyers that failed to purchase on their first visit to a merchant platform.
It comes in another form, which is Shopping Cart Abandonment. In that instance, it also goes the extra mile to “remind” potential buyers of the products they added to their cart but failed to complete the order. Here’s a quick trick you can use to drastically reduce shopping cart abandonment.
Now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) appears to have more enormous potentials in that regard. The integration of merchant platforms facilitates the consistent reminders sent to visitors to the platform.
More exciting is the fact that many merchants have installed the likes of Facebook Pixel on their platforms to “watch the activities” of the visitors.
So, the next time you visit a merchant or e-commerce platform, you can be sure that subsequent adverts in that regard would continually appear on your social media timeline until you take the needed action – to purchase the product.
Artificial Intelligence has Impacts on the E-commerce Industry
It’s now clear that the roles of AI in the e-commerce industry cannot be underestimated.
From the effective Product Content Management (PCM) to the use of Chatbots for hassle-free communications, and the retargeting of prospective buyers, it is evident that the matrimony between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the electronic commerce (E-commerce) industry is one that would not only be as old as Methuselah but would also be fruitful like the offspring of Abraham.
Majority of the obstacles e-commerce gurus are faced with can be completely dealt with when you integrate AI to your ecom store.
