Naitik Mandalia

AI & Machine Learning - two effective catalysts for the eCommerce industry Table of contents ● Introduction ● Human and machine are parallels and not divergent ● Customer experience equals Conversion rates 1. 2. 3. 4. ● Don’t make them feel they’re shopping alone Pulling the shoppers back in Be their personal shopper Special price for you (quite literally) Conclusion According to Deloitte’s report CX marks the spot: Rethinking the customer experience to win 57% of customers bounced off to competitors that offered a better customer experience than the ones that didn’t. And, you won’t even have many chances to mend things. A report by PWC states 1 out of 3 customers report that they’d leave a brand after a single case of bad customer experience. Note that they said it for the brands that they loved! Human and machine are parallels and not divergent Using AI and Machine Learning wisely can allow us to have an epic end-to-end eCommerce strategy. From providing seamless payment options and to co-browsing, personalized rates, and excellent chat support. Even though it is predicted by 2020 over 80% of all customer interactions will be handled by AI only 47% of executives admit that they understand AI and machine learning improves eCommerce conversion rates. Customer experience equals Conversion rates. Here is how AI and machine learning can help revolutionize the eCommerce industry… 1. Don’t make them feel they’re shopping alone It is always good to provide customer support 24/7, but it is not a necessity. You can always have smart AI bots to meet the needs of the customers, for frequently asked, common concerns. For nuanced issues, these bots can always allocate time to the customer to talk with a human customer support member. “Customer service shouldn’t just be a department, it should be the entire company.” - Tony Hsieh 2. Pulling the shoppers back in Research from Invesp Consulting shows that existing customers are 50% more likely to purchase your products again than and also spend 31% more than the new customers. Furthermore, an article by Forbes asserts that retaining an existing customer is 7 times less expensive than acquiring a new one. Now, isn’t it apparent that business owners should be focusing more on the retention of existing customers than the acquisition of new ones? “There’s a place in the world for any business that takes care of its customers after the sale.” — Harvey MacKay The most effective way to reinforce a behavior is through reward (and punishment). This is psychology 101. A well-crafted, relevant and rewarding loyalty program is a worthwhile option for this. Discounts, rewards, cashback, free merch, coupons, early access are the things that will boomerang your customers right in! 3. Be their personal shopper Patrons love to shop and businesses love to sell. This is the simple reason why personalized suggestions are so rewarding. You can even upsell or cross-sell by analyzing the customer’s browsing pattern and purchase history and providing data-driven suggestions based on it. Personalized suggestions create a win-win strategy for both parties, it saves the customer the time to search for their required product and the server to handle much fewer requests while the customers browse. “Personalized marketing and advertising is not about sales. It’s about building a relationship with the customer.” – Julian Hillebrand Showing customers relevant products, better options and complimentary products will give you leverage over other eCommerce competitors. 4. Special price for you (quite literally) It all boils down to the best, competitive price, doesn’t it? Intelligent negotiation systems are being evolved to serve the same to the customer base for generating revenue. Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make.” -Nick Bostrom Through machine learning, the artificial neural networks can understand the purchase history of a visitor or a customer, and in accordance to their taste, loyalty and buying spend -- attractive offers and special prices are provided to the existing customers. This method works for customer acquisition as well, the simplest example giving them offers and discounts on their couple of first orders, etc. Final Thoughts Technological advancements like AI Machine Learning, and NLP will help e-commerce businesses deliver great customer experience and meet the needs and wants of the modern-day customers. In order to get a competitive advantage over the competitors in terms of customer experience, businesses should invest liberally in these technologies.