Been there, doing that: How corporate and investment banks are tackling gen AI
How AI Is Quietly Transforming E-Commerce Search And Discovery
Digital search icon on future tech background. Search Engine Evolution. Futuristic search icon in ... [+] world of technological progress and innovation. CGI 3D render
gettyIn the age of Google and now ChatGPT, we take quality search for granted. We're used to having information at our fingertips, but this ecosystem of instant gratification hides complex processes that enable us to find what we're looking for.
Maybe because of search's ubiquity, good search and discovery is often overlooked in e-commerce. But getting this element right can have a huge impact on your business. Effectively matching customers and products increases conversions and reinforces trust and loyalty as customers realize you're relevant to their needs. Increasingly, AI is driving a revolution in search and discovery, being implemented by everyone from Amazon to Shopify to personalize search results and allow for deeper categorization of products that reaches beyond standard keywords.
Think of search as a two-way street, an interaction between your products and your customers. AI allows us to understand both points on this line better, and draw the shortest possible distance between the two. Here's how AI can help update your search and discovery.
Moving Beyond KeywordsSearch and discovery has traditionally been driven by keywords, returning products that are the closest match to a user's chosen search words. The problems with this approach are obvious: firstly, it requires both accurate classification of products. It also requires your customers to know pretty much exactly what they want to buy! While keyword search remains at the heart of most algorithms, including Google and Amazon, in e-commerce it has contributed to a failure rate in first searches of up to 17% and over two-thirds of consumers seeing irrelevant results.
For an online fashion brand or food delivery app, keyword search is a functional starting point, as customers often begin searching with a decent idea of what they're looking for, be it jeans or Chinese food. Brands must be alert to the diversity of customer needs, though, and keywords should include broader categories and common phrases such as 'healthy food', 'quick delivery', or 'relaxed fit'.
At Atom.Com, our focus is on brandable domains. These often contain unique naming styles that make discovery less linear than that provided by a simple keyword approach. The main selling point of our domains may be the metaphor or emotional invocations, so the connection to keywords is tangential or opaque. Across e-commerce, brands may have product categories where keyword relevance is unclear; moreover, an intelligent search algorithm should read between the lines of consumer keywords to present supplementary products that the customer may want without yet realizing.
AI and the Future of Search and DiscoveryIn September 2024, after months of testing, we fully integrated AI with our search. This enabled it to continuously critique and improve its own results. By training AI models to think like buyers, we were able to identify irrelevant results across thousands of keywords, helping us eliminate results that didn't align with buyer expectations. Since this implementation, we've already had some clear improvements: 17.4% better engagement and 14.6% increase in conversions. Here's how AI has enabled an optimized search and discovery process.
Deep ClassificationAI enables a deeper and more complex keyword classification than could ever be afforded by a manual process. Our buyers typically start by searching broad industry themes, such as fashion or beauty, as they work on building brands within these categories. With tens of thousands of domain names in these categories, reliably recommending the most relevant names is impossible, even with a huge base of root keywords.
We've implemented AI to build not only a deeper set of interrelated relevant keywords, including themes, emotion and name style, but also to generate accurate use cases for our domains. This means that if a buyer searches for use cases such as 'sustainable clothing brand' or 'natural skincare brand', our search will now prioritize the discovery of names like 'PurityCompass' which are highly relevant to the brand intentions without being rooted in direct keywords. Instead of returning names with the user's search terms forced in, our AI-based discovery process offers an intuitive solution based on end-use.
Deeper classification is essential for any e-commerce brand, even when many of your products may be found by more direct keyword search and it enables your search algorithm to return highly relevant answers even when buyer keywords are lacking specificity. Moreover, by offering customers diverse but relevant products, you will learn more about their behavior enabling individual personalization and accurate segmentation.
Connection With The Buyer JourneyDeep classification – and the accurate categorization it requires – is just one side of the coin of better discovery. The other side is your customers, those doing the searching. You must pair deep classification with data on buyer types and behavior. In other words, how buyers are browsing your marketplace. This will allow you to create meaningful associations based on real end-user search terms.
In most industries it's likely buyers will return to use your search function multiple times before making a purchase, as well as after an initial conversion. Data gathered through these touchpoints can be built into detailed user profiles. For example, if a buyer searches for a certain keyword and shortlists 5 different names, our AI begins building dynamic associations based on search intent and those domain attributes. With a dataset of 3 million unique monthly visitors, we're able to aggregate insights to improve the discovery experience across the board.
Deep classification is integral to this, as it allows our search algorithm to cross-reference the products that pique the buyer's interest and present personalized suggestions that are based upon how similar users interacted with those names in the past.
Of course, every customer is different. Advanced machine learning allows our dynamic user profiles to adjust in real-time, based on search behavior. The result is ever-improving search results that hone buyers in on the right products at the right time.
Search Is About Data And PeopleEffective search and discovery requires a two-pronged approach. Firstly, a deeper, more sophisticated product classification. Second, understanding your customers and their search intent.
Once you've perfected both, search is no longer a coin toss for your customers but an accurate and effective tool for bringing the right products to the right buyers. Search should be able to handle customers at all stages of the buyer journey, and provide relevant and desirable results for those with different degrees of knowledge and information about your inventory. It can be the final step to finding and buying a product, or a mid-funnel test of just what you have to offer, so it truly is a core part of your business as an e-commerce provider!
25 Ways AI Is Changing E-Commerce For The Better
AI and the Rapid Growth of E-Commerce
The e-commerce industry is developing rapidly, while AI, as you may know, aids the e-commerce industry in a big way. AI in eCommerce has improved this industry and keeping businesses functioning as they should.
Shopping online today is not just the next level of walking to the store and putting things in the basket. Today, due to the application of AI, e-commerce has become very efficient and quite easy.
Reality is that artificial intelligence is shifting the whole model of shopping towards a faster, more convenient and personal shopping experience.
AI is changing how we shop by making everything faster, more convenient, and more personal.
It's working quietly in the background to:
In this article, we will explore 25 ways AI is improving e-commerce. Whether we are shopping or selling, AI is our new best partner in this amazing online world!
Now, let's dive into the specific ways AI is revolutionizing e-commerce:
1. Personalized Product RecommendationsAI analyzes what you've bought and browsed to suggest items you might like. It's like having a helpful store assistant who really knows your taste.
2. Smarter Customer SupportAI chatbots are available 24/7, answering questions and solving problems when human agents aren't available, making sure customers always feel supported.
3. Virtual Shopping AssistantsVirtual shopping assistants guide customers, just like a salesperson in a store. They help you find what you need without wasting any time.
4. AI-Driven Voice AssistantsWith the help of the best AI voice generator technology, e-commerce platforms now have voice shopping options, making it easier for people to search for products by simply asking.
5. Faster Delivery PredictionsAI helps predict the fastest routes for deliveries, helping people get their orders as soon as possible—something everyone appreciates.
6. Improved Inventory ManagementAI predicts which products will be popular so that businesses can stock up. This means fewer "out of stock" issues and happier customers.
7. Fraud DetectionAI is great at spotting unusual activity, making online shopping safer by preventing fraud and protecting personal information.
8. Dynamic PricingAI can adjust prices based on demand, competition, and customer behavior, ensuring shoppers get the best possible deals at the right times.
9. Enhanced Search FunctionsAI can understand what people are really searching for, even if they type in something a little unusual. This helps customers find what they want more easily.
10. Customized PromotionsAI helps create personalized discounts for customers, based on what they like. It's always nice to see a deal pop up for something you love!
11. Managing Returns EfficientlyAI can help predict why customers are returning items, allowing businesses to fix issues and reduce the number of returns in the future.
12. Predictive AnalyticsAI predicts trends by analyzing customer data, helping e-commerce stores stock up on products that will be in demand.
13. Chatbots with a Human TouchModern chatbots are so well-trained that they feel like talking to a real person, providing better customer service.
14. Visual SearchCustomers can now upload a photo of an item they like, and AI will find similar products—perfect for those "I want that!" moments.
15. Easy Product DiscoveryAI ensures that customers see the right products that suit their style and budget, which makes the shopping experience more enjoyable.
16. Voice CommerceAI voice assistants like Alexa are allowing users to make purchases by voice. Thanks to the best AI voice generator, the shopping process feels natural and easy.
17. Customer Sentiment AnalysisAI tools analyze reviews and feedback to understand customer feelings, which helps stores improve and stay connected to their customers.
18. Efficient Marketing CampaignsAI helps identify which customers will be interested in certain ads, making marketing more effective and less annoying.
19. Product Descriptions Made EasyAI can write product descriptions that are both informative and easy to read, saving businesses lots of time.
20. Price OptimizationAI analyzes the market and suggests the best price for products to help businesses stay competitive while maximizing profits.
21. Better Email MarketingAI makes email marketing more effective by personalizing the content of newsletters, making customers more likely to open and click.
22. Recommending BundlesAI suggests product bundles that make sense based on customer preferences, often encouraging people to buy more but in a way that benefits them.
23. Improved Logistics and Supply ChainAI helps companies keep track of stock and predict shipping needs, making the whole supply chain more efficient.
24. Chat TranslationAI helps chatbots translate messages on the spot, allowing businesses to assist customers in many languages—making the world feel smaller!
25. Virtual Try-OnsWith AI, customers can "try on" clothes, glasses, or makeup virtually, which reduces uncertainty and increases confidence in purchases.
Benefits of AI in E-CommerceBefore we jump into the list of 25 ways AI is helping, let's first talk about the main benefits that AI solutions brings to the world of online shopping:
Personalization: With AI giving customers personalized experience, the customers are happy and there is more sales.
Time & Cost Efficiency: Both shopping and business becomes more efficient thanks to automation that saves time for both shoppers and businesses.
Better Customer Satisfaction: It results in faster support and better service for our customers.
Smarter Decisions: AI does data analysis to help businesses predict trends, manage stock and set prices.
Fraud Prevention: Online shopping is safer and can help build trust because AI identifies fraud.
The Bottom Line: AI and E-Commerce Are a Perfect MatchOf course, AI is largely about making e-commerce better and building a smarter system of shopping online. It makes things easier and less of a hassle for the customers, and this brings growth for business also.
Well, evidently, AI is the way forward in online shopping. It can recommend products, make voice shopping easy with the best AI voice generator and make inventory management seamless.
Since I am a shopping enthusiast, and AI is very fascinating to me, it is great to notice these changes in the industry.
If you are a customer interested in convenience or the business person anxious to embrace advances in technology, AI is here to help.
Phygital, Empathy And AI: Justin Racine's Vision For Reshaping Ecommerce
CMSWire 2024 Contributor of the Year Justin Racine on phygital shopping, AI buddies and the next big retail trends brands can't ignore.
The GistJustin Racine, principal of commerce strategy at Perficient, is a forward-thinking voice in the ecommerce industry. As one of CMSWire's 2024 Contributors of the Year and our first to be profiled over the next two weeks, Justin consistently delivers insights that resonate with brands navigating the evolving digital landscape.
And not only that, be brings a super unique, personal touch to his columns — often weaving real-life experiences into value business lessons.
From exploring the transformative potential of AI to redefining authenticity in customer engagement, Justin brings a mix of deep expertise and personal experience to his work. This Q&A showcases his thoughts on phygital experiences, AI-driven personalization and how brands can foster meaningful connections with their customers.
Editor's note: We've got a few more profiles of our Contributors of the Year to go. Enjoy them over the next two weeks.
Ecommerce EvolutionCMSWire: What emerging trends in digital shopping do you see shaping the future of ecommerce, and how should brands adapt to stay competitive in this evolving landscape?
Justin: Short answer, our entire world becomes "phygital" — that's right, the blending of physical and digital experiences to cook up a perfectly crafted meal of shopping workflows that delight and surprise customers.
Long answer, while the concept of phygital will start to take shape in the form of augmented reality, product visualizers and digital twins, it's more likely that brands first start with expanding their presence into new ecommerce channels, like social media. According to eMarketer – social commerce revenue will pass $100 Billion in 2025, a staggering 22% growth path from their last modeling in 2023.
While some social channel futures are unknown, like TikTok, many other channels still continue to surge. You'll start to see the entrance of product placement and buying opportunities within YouTube and eventually other streaming platforms like Netflix will start to adopt the ability to shop within your favorite TV shows.
Additionally, you will start to see large brands build out customer community efforts in an attempt to compete with smaller, scrappy niche brands. Consumers are human beings, and human beings love to interact with other humans who share similar mindsets, values and traits; the onset of these new digital communities will spawn enhanced elements of anthropomorphism between customer and brand, helping to create elevated levels of connection and ultimately, will drive increased ecommerce revenues.
Related Article: The Future of Ecommerce: Creating Blended Experiences
AI-Driven PersonalizationCMSWire: Platforms like Spotify have revolutionized personalization. What do you think are the next big opportunities for brands to leverage AI for creating hyper-personalized customer experiences?
Justin: Ah yes, good ol' daylists, one of my favorite examples of human like hyper personalization. In fact, as I write this, Spotify has cooked up some "Relaxing house Ibiza Monday morning" vibes for me.
As for what's next? I think it's a mix of Spotify's daylists and Elons Optimus robot, each of which I've covered this year.
Listen, the world of hyper personalization will start to become more and more humanized, and more and more predictive. Assisted shopping and autonomous shopping will be up next. AI will start to intimately start to understand your buying patters, preferences and previous decisions to start ordering products for you without any prompt.
From there, AI will start to move into something I like to call "empathetic personalization," where AI can start to understand sentiment, tone and emotion. Where AI models can start to recommend products or services that are based upon how we are feeling or acting within that specific day or environment.
Then, at some point, we all will have our own personalized shopping AI buddy, helping us with everything from scheduling the kids' summer activities to buying and booking travel for spring break. AI personal assistants will become the future way to do anything and everything.
Related Article: How AI and Data Analytics Drive Personalization Strategies
Retail InnovationCMSWire: With advancements like Tesla's Optimus robot and other emerging retail tech, how do you envision the physical and digital retail worlds merging to deliver seamless customer experiences?
Justin: Let's say you're walking down the street, and you see a pair of shoes that you absolutely love. Luckily for you, you happen to be wearing your Meta Ray-Ban sunglasses that cue up a blended augmented view of the shoes, where you can see where you can purchase them and also see what they would look like on your feet by simply looking down.
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View allThat's the future of retail.
Even more than that, retail will become more and more connected and unified. Brands will invest to leverage a 360 view of customer activity to personalize across the channel continuum. Once in-store beacon technology starts to take off, retailers will be able to personalize the entire shopping experience based upon where a customer is standing in the store, what they previously browsed through on that stores website, and what they previously purchased.
All while giving them a product visualizer mirror to see how those pair of pants would look without having to run to the dressing room to try them on.
Brand Authenticity and ConnectionCMSWire: As customers demand more authenticity from brands, especially during key shopping seasons, what strategies do you recommend for companies looking to humanize their approach without losing scale?
Justin: Easy. Find ways to get your customers connected to each other.
One of my biggest takeaways from Shoptalk fall this past year was the importance of brands fostering opportunities of community and connection. Of course, doing this at scale provides a unique set of challenges, but let me give you an example.
On a recent United Airlines flight, before we took off and after the safety video, a new type of video popped up on the screen. The video showed a young man who had just beaten cancer, and was on a United flight to a tropical location with his family to celebrate. In the video, they show the pilot for his flight coming on the microphone and sharing his story, stating that his wife had just beat cancer as well and that he wanted to celebrate his journey.
That. Do exactly what United Airlines is doing.
United Airlines calls this campaign Real Good Stories, and its injection of humanized, real world stories into their flight provides an exceptional opportunity to weave emotion into their customers experience. Regardless of if you're traveling for business, for a wedding or simply just a vacation, you can relate with the story on the screen.
That resonation curates anthropomorphism between the flyer and United Airlines, helping to humanize the brand, and to give you, the customer, an elevated perception of the airline that will create customer loyalty and future purchase intent.
Humanizing at scale really just comes down to understanding your consumer and knowing what type of humanized touchpoints will resonate the most.
Remember, connectivity strategies are only as good as the channel in which you provide them. Be sure to understand what channels your customers are active in first, then determine which stories you want to tell. And always, ALWAYS do the best you can to track the results to offer up pivots and lessons learned.
AI's Role in Unified CommerceCMSWire: How can brands use AI and other technologies to create a unified commerce strategy that aligns with customer expectations across channels?
Justin: I talked a little about this above, but once all of us actually have our own personal shopping assistants, the world of commerce becomes much more centralized an unified.
Think to the times where you consciously recognize that you need to go to the store to buy this, or buy that; personal shopping agents will be there to help build shopping lists, remind you of what you need to purchase and at times, purchase for you without your intervention. Taking it a step further, AI will start to have visibility into elements like product stock status and availability, giving you options and nudging you to make a purchase so that you receive the products in time.
"Hi Justin, remember – your calendar shows you have holiday party next Thursday, if you want to order your Santa costume and have it before then, please order today. Would you like me to place that order for you?"
That's the future.
Finally, AI will start to learn who we are not only as customers, but as human beings. AI will look to synthesize all of our buying behaviors, interests, intent and preferences to recommend products and services that are most in market for us at any given time.
To be honest, this concept seems a bit, well, out of this world. I'm interested to see how consumers react to the idea of AI technology knowing more about us than we know about ourselves. In my mind, it can go one of two ways.
First, consumers could reject this idea and choose to push back against the onset of AI technology being so intimately tied to our every action, every move, every purchase.
Or, secondly (and more likely in my mind), consumers start to adopt AI technology and become dependent on its insights, its understanding and its goal to give us the best possible cross-channel, unified experience.
Will we be as reliant on AI as we are on our smartphones? Yes.
Will AI become the dominate race on this planet and take over the world? The jury is still out on that.
CMSWir: Tell us something fun about Justin outside of his professional world (even though our readers know A LOT about that).
Justin: I'm in my late 30s, and I'm in the best physical and mental shape of my life.
If you've read my work, you know that my style of writing leans in pretty heavy on sharing my own personal experiences and life lessons as sort of cornerstones to the pieces I produce. I feel as though it helps writing become more relatable and digestible and, at times, provides a bit of comic relief at my expense to experiences that happen to me (some good, some not so good).
But, that makes answering questions like this even more challenging. However, if my first sentence attempt at foreshadowing did its job, and you've made it this far ...
Let me explain.
I moved to Austin directly in the middle of COVID, I mean RIGHT in the middle. Didn't know a person. Didn't know the city. But one thing I did know, this city is ACTIVE.
Listen, I was an active kid growing up and into college, playing as many sports as I could get my hands on. But as things tend to happen, some of those hobbies started to slip, and it wasn't until I moved to the capital city that I rekindled the passion of being active. Most of my close friends in the city are extremely active; in fact two of them are training for the Austin Marathon currently which is fun for me, because I enjoy training with them, spending time with them and watching them reach their own goals and journeys. That's what fills my cup.
Here's my point: it's never too late to invest in yourself. We all should be doing this. Just like big brands invest time in their customers, you need to invest time in the things that fill your cup, that get you up early on a weekend morning to go for a run when it's cold and rainy.
Life has a funny way of giving you not what you want, but what you need. And if I've learned anything this past year it's this. There's no substitute for spending time on the things that make you feel good, and sometimes the only way to get there is to go through hard, challenging things like training for a marathon, moving to a new city or spending time each day on activities that allow a late 30s guy to feel like he's in his 20s.
In all seriousness, I'd like to thank Brice Dunwoodie, Dom Nicastro and Sheryl Hodge of CMSWire for their support and enthusiasm for my contributions. For me, writing is one of my favorite creative outlets, and I'm humbled and grateful to receive this recognition again. If you read a headline, a sentence, a paragraph or an entire article this past year, thank you for your support, and thank you for spending some time thinking differently about the world and how brands can better create experiences that bring us as a humanity closer together.
As Stephen King once said, "Description begins in the writer's imagination, but should finish in the readers."
Check out some of Justin's content from 2024:
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