Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of retail businesses around the world were forced to adopt an online-only shopping model. Moreover, with customers realizing the convenience that comes with the process of shopping online, this trend is quite likely to stick.
Customer experience is the heart of any retail strategy. While in a typical brick-and-mortar store, this experience shall be largely defined by the expertise, demeanour and knowledge of the retailers and sales representatives; artificial intelligence is commonly used by online marketplaces to ensure a smooth and engaging customer experience.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has considerably revolutionized the way people shop online. It specifically drives a change into the areas of customer service and searches. Advancements in AI, machine learning and deep learning, combined with the rise of mobile commerce is significantly improving the shopping experience delivered to online customers. Companies like Neuronimbus especially leverage such technologies to develop powerful e-commerce platforms for their discerning clients.
Ways AI is being integrated into retail
AI-enabled solutions are still in the process of progressing and growing. Here are some of the solutions that have especially proven to be profitable for businesses:
AI-Powered chatbots
Over the years, chatbots have improved considerably from their early days of impersonal communication and rule-based pathways. Modern-day chatbots are equipped with natural language processing technologies, and help retail businesses with marketing, operation, sales, and most importantly, customer relationships. These chatbots are capable of conversing in a distinctive human-like fashion, effectively understand the query entered by an online visitor, and provide them with the needed assistance as per its accordance.
AI chatbots have the capacity to interact with online visitors in a natural, conversational way while providing prompt response to complex customer queries 24×7. They can facilitate search, suggest relevant products and send notifications all by themselves. Chatbots integrated with machine learning responding to future questions additionally learn continuously from customer queries, to become more accurate while responding to future questions.
Neuronimbus is renowned for being among the most reliable Chatbot providers in India. Their -powered, self-guiding chat programs are integrated with websites seamlessly and go a long way in enabling retailers to elevate the online customer experience.
Voice Search
Voice search is becoming a highly popular feature when it comes to online shopping today. As per reports, about 31% of smartphone users across the globe use voice search at least once a week, and this percentage is expected to climb up in the future. With the advent of AI integrated voice search technologies, customers simply have to ask for the product they need, without having to type and visually invest in the procedure. Today, voice search is becoming among the most in-demand features in any software solution, to maximize user convenience.
Visual Search
While this technology has not become too common yet, it is gradually gaining traction in the global retail market. Such an AI-powered system allows customers to upload images and subsequently find products similar to certain aspects of the picture, including its pattern, shape and colour. AI coupled with image recognition technology is quite innovative and has a lot of scope in the world of retail.
Mood tracking
AI can help detect the mood of the customers, and provide retailers with valuable feedback and cater to their needs on that basis. By competently leveraging the feedback provided, retails can develop stronger relationships with their customers and ensure their satisfaction.
Product Categorization
Through the usage of AI and ML, retailers can classify a wide range of products and fit each one of them in the right category. The sellers simply have to upload a picture of their product, and ML technology shall identify it and classify it accordingly. With this smart classification, customers shall get to find the right products under the categories of their choosing quite easily.
In addition to the methods underlined above, by relevant products to customers based on their previous buying history and ratings,AI can significantly help retail businesses to boost their sales prospects. AI algorithm can be integrated with the infrastructure of an online store, to up-sell and cross-sell their products in the most competent manner. In addition to increasing the chance for further sales, it also encourages the customers to grow their loyalty to the brand as they feel that it truly understands their choices.