Is Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce industry a game changer?
Artificial Intelligence solutions are poised to disrupt the entire eCommerce industry. An interesting convergence is taking place; one that will have enormous implications in the way retailers sell their products and services and the way consumers buy them. Artificial Intelligence capabilities and applications are attempting to solve real-world issues that eCommerce industry are facing. How Artificial Intelligence in e-commerce can play an important and game changing role, moving beyond customer segmentation to help them achieve the best possible results?
Image Recognition and Visual Search Engine
The visual Search engine is one of the most exciting trends of Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce. It is an AI driven technology that enables users to discover what they want with just a single click. Visual search reads images to find color, size, proportions and shapes, even text to identify product names and brands. This offers a convenience over keyword matched search, in which results are provided on the basis of searcher’s ability to describe a product. With keyword search, keywords must exist in both the query and product description. It should match with the database which depends on the description of the product in the same or similar way. More often than not, this does not go as planned.
The key here is to utilize the power of Artificial Intelligence combined with Natural Language Processing (NLP) potential, putting the human element back into a digital experience. By doing this, eCommerce platforms will be able to engage a huge number of customers offering them a better experience. Natural Language processing explores to understand the text as humans understand text applying the contextual understanding.
With NLP understanding supported by their eCommerce search engines, customers will be able to express their needs, wants and requirements in deep detail and in intuitive daily language.
Visual search and Image Recognition Engine
The web usability maxim “don’t make me think” is fulfilled by visual search when a picture is worth a thousand keywords. Visual search done on the basis of the photo can lead to faster and more accurate outcomes. Customers just have to do one thing, click a picture of what one likes and put it on the search bar. The search engine would search through all the possible matches and priorities the products for the users. This can also boost the keyword search. Visual search and image recognition offer users a very contextual way to search deeper with the help of Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce.
Personalized Product Recommendations
Product recommendation is extensively practised by eCommerce companies to help their customers find the best of what they are looking for. The customers often give the signals about what they are looking for or what they like. Product recommendation engine analyses these signals and identifies preferences of each customer, which category they prefer, the brands they follow and the rates they are comfortable with. Recommendation algorithms work in numerous ways. eCommerce sites recommend products to its users depending on their activities in the website and past purchases.
Personalized product recommendation
Voice Powered Personal Shopping Assistant
Although the technology is still growing, once it will be developed optimally, it can make the shopping experience for the customers more interactive and pleasant. It will enable them to have a real time smooth voice conversation with a virtual Shopping assistant on the eCcommerce platform. This will give more personal and human touch to the online shopping experience, which may increase customer’s engagement and retention.
Intelligent Agent
Currently, Intelligent Agent negotiation system has gained lot of popularity in E-commerce with the development of AI in eCommerce , E-commerce chatbot and Agent Technology. Three major functions which are performed by these automated virtual agents are:
- Determination of price discovery, product offerings, search of sellers for buyers and vice versa
- Providing Payment gateways or facilitating transactions
- Providing institutional infrastructure (regulatory and legal)
These automated agents are fully controlled and managed. They interact via an agent communication language. They not only act in response to their environment but are capable of taking initiatives like generating their own targets and perform to achieve them.
Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce will impact the productivity metrics such as increased transactions, customer retention, increased customer loyalty and satisfaction. By providing eCommerce with improved understanding and human touch, the eCommerce Industry will be laid bare to extraordinary efficiency, consumer knowledge and automation. The convergence of Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce poises a rich industry on the precipice of a complete and utter transformation, one that will change the way we buy and sell online.
