Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the business world.
Businesses are constantly coming up with new ways to improve customer service, streamline order processing, and provide a better experience to their customers.
E-commerce is one industry where AI will come in handy. Small business owners who operate e-stores on a smaller scale may be under the impression that there is no way to apply AI to their own businesses.
However, the use of AI is certainly not limited to companies that operate internet stores on a large or global scale.
The trend in e-commerce is definitely moving towards adopting artificial intelligence. The AI industry as it relates to retail, including e-commerce, is expected to grow to over $27 million a year by 2025.
Google also recently invested $400 million towards acquiring the Deepmind AI company. More and more businesses are following their lead.
As such, you can’t afford to be left-back. Incorporating AI into your business now will help you stay ahead of the curve.
Following are some ways small e-stores can adopt AI to increase their revenue.
1. Use Chatbots
Using chatbots is perhaps one of the easiest and quickest ways to get started with AI. They are easy to set up (there are many services out there that simplify the process) and are quite affordable.
Chatbots can be used on many different platforms and in many ways.
For example, you can use chatbots on your website to greet visitors as they enter your site. These chatbots, usually located in a bottom corner, can interact with visitors by asking them multiple-choice questions and holding a “dialogue” with them.
This can be used to help customers find the product they were looking for. If necessary, a live representative can take over the chat.
Chatbots are also useful for customer service. By asking customers multiple-choice questions, the AI machine can figure out what the problem is and pull useful help articles from a database.
Chatbots can also be used in Facebook Messenger. Facebook messages have a very high open rate, especially compared to email marketing.
2. Improved Search Results
Most e-commerce search engines rely on keywords and category tags to find relevant products.
With AI, search engines can detect and understand human lingo to come up with better-tailored matches.
This can also be taken a step further. Sometimes, people will see a product owned by someone else or even being sold in a brick-and-mortar store and want to buy that product or a similar product online.
Advanced artificial intelligence will allow users to simply upload a picture in order to search for and find a product that satisfies them.
3. Better Product Recommendations
Upselling and cross-selling are arts. By promoting products that you think your customers would be interested in via email, you will increase your revenue.
However, you have to be able to collect and analyze a lot of information and data.
You need to be able to figure out what a customer is interested in based on their previous purchases, product searches, and product views.
All this can be brought to the next level with artificial intelligence, allowing you to present products to your customers that are tailored to their individual wants and desires.
4. Inventory Management
AI will help you optimize your inventory management and order processing systems, regardless of the size of your organization.
It will help you prioritize the layout of products in your warehouse through data that is based on previous sales history.
Monitoring of your orders and your available stock will ensure that your stock count is updated based on the current demand.
There is much more that machine learning can do for inventory management, and we haven’t even gotten started on robot automation.
Robots are already working alongside humans in warehouses owned by large retail chains, and it won’t be long before they spread to smaller-scale operations as well.
Automated machines can often do better jobs than humans in manual tasks. They keep costs down and keep things efficient, resulting in a higher ROI.
5. Cybersecurity
Another area where artificial intelligence comes in handy is cybersecurity.
E-commerce businesses that rely on online sales for their revenue are especially susceptible to cyber attacks. A single cyberattack can knock out your entire business, disrupting operations and leaving you scrambling to get back on your feet.
In addition, cyber hacks can result in the loss of customer data, including credit card information that you store. This will result in a loss of public trust and customers.
Artificial intelligence can be used to detect suspicious activity. It can learn the difference between human activity and activity caused by a bot.
AI can also be used to detect fraud, such as someone making an unauthorized purchase on someone else’s account.
6. Detect Fake Reviews
Amazon is already using a complex algorithm to detect whether or not product reviews are genuine.
Fake customer reviews, which can be left by competitors through automated or manual methods (or even by a disgruntled customer with an ax to grind) can ruin the success of your business.
Artificial intelligence can be trained to detect the subtle nuances that give away a review as a fake.
7. Monitor Competition
Being able to spy on your competitors will help you stay ahead of the curve in your industry.
There are tools that help you analyze and manually figure out your competitors’ online practices, such as the keywords they use for SEO purposes.
However, with AI, you can go deeper than that.
You can monitor which products are doing well so that you can prioritize or start selling those products yourself. You can also monitor the prices your competitors are setting for various products so that you can adjust your own prices accordingly.
Final Words
AI still has a long way to go. However, there is no doubt that it is the way of the future.
Sam Zaman – Sam Zaman loves to write on technology and related stuff. E-commerce, mobile, and internet marketing equally drive her interest. She likes gardening and experimenting with new recipes. An avid reader and absolutely mad about donuts :). She is long associated with Mofluid.
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