Ecommerce has been thriving over the past few years as customers are prioritizing convenience over in-store shopping. Businesses are competing to reach customers across multiple online platforms. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can be key differentiators in competitive markets because they can help ecommerce businesses increase sales, drive customer acquisition and improve customer experiences.

Machine Learning can detect patterns in customer data and generate insights into customer demand, preferences, and market trends. ML can help businesses understand what’s most important to different groups of customers and which variables impact their decision to purchase products. It can identify patterns in the behaviors of customers and categorize them into segments based on shared characteristics. 

The in-depth knowledge of each customer segment from ML enables marketing & sales teams to build a targeted strategy to maximize the impact of marketing activities on customers and the likelihood of successful sales. Furthermore, AI tools can help businesses leverage live and historical marketing and sales campaign data to autonomously adjust the content and distribution of campaigns across platforms. Additionally, AI can identify the most effective campaign placement and duration based on customer preferences. 

AI allows ecommerce sellers to personalize customer experiences. AI can recommend products to a customer based on previous product interactions, purchasing history, and popular products amongst corresponding customer segments. It can determine which products resonate the most with customers, how often to advertise, identify which products a customer is most likely to buy, and so on. Ultimately, it can help improve the customer experience by presenting the most applicable products. 

Remarketing helps businesses target customers who they have previously interacted with: customers who have previously purchased products visited the business’s website or left the site just before completing a purchase. AI can provide businesses insights into what factors influence customer decisions to purchase and not purchase products. Furthermore, AI communication tools can engage these potential customers in minimally intrusive ways to attract them back to the ecommerce business.  

Intelligent inventory management is critical for businesses to ensure cost efficiency. ML algorithms can use customer data from sales and marketing channels to predict patterns in customer demand for different types of products. ML can also predict market demand over time, based on market and customer data. Businesses can use predictions to plan and make strategic inventory decisions based on projected demand and market trends. Furthermore, they can determine how much inventory they will need at any given time.  

Excellent customer support is an important part of customer acquisition and retention. AI chatbots and virtual assistants ensure customers have round-the-clock access to support and assistance as necessary. They can detect and diagnose customer requests and rapidly respond to both routine & complex customer queries over several channels. It can be highly beneficial when minimizing response times, which is vital to ensure customer satisfaction. Reducing time spent dealing with customer support requests subsequently reduces operational costs and resource usage.