AI to Improve Customer Experiences in eCommerce

AI is proving its worth today by providing eCommerce companies with comprehensive analytics about their customers. These tools give insight into customers’ habits and histories. Once AI analyzes this data, it can make predictions about what the customer might do next. In this article, we’ll take a look at how eCommerce brands can leverage AI to improve customer experiences.

This powerful combination helps you provide clients with a better online experience. Whether anticipating their needs, solving their challenges, or engaging them with custom content, AI can step up your eCommerce efforts. And that can turn prospects and customers into loyal fans. The process begins with data analysis.

Using AI to Analyze Your Customer’s Needs

AI provides a range of tools for just every touchpoint with your customers and in nearly every department. There are so many options that it may seem overwhelming. 

First, it’s helpful to know a bit about AI in eCommerce and the technologies it uses.

• Natural Language Processing: This function helps AI better understand human communication, focusing on how language is used.
• Data Mining: This allows AI to dig into information provided to it, including sorting and organization.
• Imaging: AI uses a technology called computer vision to view and understand image and video data.
• Machine Learning: AI’s programming helps it to learn from the data it collects to generate more detailed responses and predictions.

All these processes allow businesses to perform many tasks. One of the most critical is improving customer communications. Customers don’t like wasting time. Providing realistic, personalized information based on their preferences helps them achieve their shopping goals more quickly. 

It also helps your company better understand their needs so you can create a memorable shopping experience.

Personalizing the Customer Shopping Experience

Shoppers want a seamless and speedy eCommerce experience. There are several ways AI can contribute to a memorable customer experience:

1. Predictive Planning

While AI crunches the numbers, machine learning seeks out patterns and trends in shopping habits. This includes analyzing the patterns of customer behaviors, such as buying history and website tracking. This information helps AI generate predictive insights into what they will likely do next. These insights can potentially lead customers to make a purchase. Customers get a more seamless shopping experience while you get valuable insight for your marketing campaigns.

2. Customized Recommendations

AI can accurately pinpoint what appeals to a shopper based on prior buying habits. It is so skilled at this that it can offer products the shopper didn’t even know existed. These recommendations provide potential benefits to the customer, particularly if they find a less expensive product that meets their needs.

3. Improving Communications

AI will also track and score engagement. Leverage the information from emails or chatbot communications to improve your strategy. For example, you can build better relationships with existing customers and nurture leads into customers more effectively knowing what they usually ask about. 

Unfortunately, even the best relationships experience rocky times. Strategic use of AI can help with that, too.

How AI Helps with Customer Complaints and Problems

Every business should understand customer complaints and find an effective way to handle them smoothly and quickly. There are five categories of complaints, and AI can help you with each one of them:

1. Poor Service 

You can improve customer service with proper staff training. To tackle this challenge, AI can analyze customer feedback and surveys to help you gather data to develop customer service training.

2. Delivery and Shipping Delays

AI can use GPS and route optimization tools to speed deliveries and inform your customers when problems occur. This is critical during a systemic malfunction. For example, whenever you have a supply chain breakdown, provide customers with tracking tools and real-time delivery data.

3. Poor Product Quality

Gathering feedback on product problems helps determine if a machine malfunctioned or the design was flawed. Integrating AI into your manufacturing process helps you to create a better product. 

4. Billing Problems

Whether it’s an error, a missed refund, or an unclear invoice, customers need their problems to be heard and resolved. Companies should proactively make all financial policies clear to customers and prospects. Moreover, they should review these procedures periodically. Using AI to help personalize all communications can also help support customer relationships, even during challenges.

5. Communication Challenges

Whenever a customer has a problem, response time is of utmost importance. Many customers are frustrated when they can’t get an answer immediately so instant communication is necessary.

There’s no better way to interact with your clients in real time than by using a chatbot.

Realistic AI Chatbot Technology Improves Customer Service

How can you make customers feel heard 24 hours a day? Realistic AI chatbot technology is a must-have tool for eCommerce companies to ease challenges. But chatbots should not be limited to handling complaints. With NLP you can make customers feel like a real-time expert talking to them. They will appreciate this prompt guidance through the online experience with your brand. 

Human Element

Chatbots should have a name and be friendly in a human manner, like saying “hi” when the interaction starts. Allow it to engage with your customers in many ways, such as getting a product recommendation. AI will do this based on their history.

Make sure that these interactions are realistic. The chatbot must accurately represent your brand’s voice and have a personality that fits. For example, if your brand is fun, you can instill humor into your chatbot.

Efficient Communication

While a person is waiting to connect to live help, chatbots are useful. They can offer interim suggestions or direct customers to the best department for their needs. With proper human oversight, chatbots can help customers accomplish their goals on your website.

The AI eCommerce revolution should authentically automate your communications with clients and others. For example, ChatGPT can craft a newsletter in a few minutes. However, it needs human interaction to ensure the email is written properly.

Constant Supervision

Keep your human-led marketing department on board to steer AI-generated content in the right direction. They have skills that AI can’t replace. For example, people understand constructive criticism. Moreover, they can leverage it to tailor content to the brand. Plus, they are great at double-checking facts and sources. 

Conclusion

AI is a helpful resource for improving customer experiences in eCommerce. It can personalize shopping interactions, respond to complaints, and realistically talk with clients through an AI chatbot. While it can’t replace human experience, AI will help your company go a long way toward building customer loyalty.

If you’re looking for additional support for your eCommerce strategy, reach out to Trellis for a free consultation on how to scale your business online.

Author bio

Charlie Fletcher is a freelance writer passionate about workplace equity, and whose published works cover sociology, politics, business, education, health, and more. Check out the full portfolio on https://charliefletcher.contently.com/.