E-commerce: new technologies to overcome major challenges

📅 Published on September 5, 2024

Introduction

The e-commerce market is currently highly saturated, with new players constantly emerging and fierce competition among established platforms to capture market share. This intense competition drives companies to reduce their margins, continuously innovate, and find ways to stand out in order to attract and retain customers.
The advent of artificial intelligence opens up new opportunities for companies eager to stand out and offer an exceptional customer experience.

I/ Dominate the competition with AI

AI is transforming businesses by enhancing customer experiences, optimizing operations, and driving innovation with new products and services. Here are some concrete examples of how it can be used to stand out:

a. 24/7 Customer Support Across All Channels

The first step to succeeding in modern e-commerce is offering 24/7 customer support across all channels. Thanks to AI, chatbots can instantly respond to customer inquiries, handle requests, and even close sales, providing a smooth and uninterrupted experience.

Beyond chatbots, it’s also possible to add more realism to these virtual assistants, such as 3D avatars, presenting them as mascots alongside the product being sold for better illustration.

AI enables companies to deliver impeccable customer support at all times, instantly addressing questions and requests. This 24/7 availability across all communication channels (website, social media, mobile apps) boosts customer satisfaction and builds loyalty among a demanding clientele.

b. Enhance Cross-Selling Strategy

AI can analyze customer data to identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities, enabling businesses to recommend complementary products or services to existing clients, thus increasing sales and profitability.

These analyses include shopping behavior, search history, and preferences, offering an ultra-personalized shopping experience. Targeted product recommendations, exclusive offers, and customized content cater to the specific needs and desires of each customer.

The same applies to targeting repeat customers, as they are the backbone of any successful business. Retaining existing customers typically costs much less than acquiring new ones, and they are more likely to make repeat purchases, spend more per transaction, and recommend your business to others.

Therefore, it is essential for businesses to implement a strategy that targets repeat customers. This involves understanding their needs and preferences, offering personalized experiences, and rewarding them for their loyalty.

c. Immersive visualization with 3D digital twin or augmented reality

II/ AI: Your ally for an exceptional customer experience

AI can transform the customer experience by offering an unparalleled level of personalization, efficiency, and relevance.

a. Total personalization: a personal assistant for every user

b. Simplify the purchasing process

A smooth purchasing process is essential for customer satisfaction and the success of online sales. AI integration plays a crucial role by considering customer queries and feedback and indicating the number of steps remaining before payment.

AI can be used to gather and analyze customer queries and feedback from various sources, such as chatbots, feedback forms, surveys, and online reviews. This valuable information helps identify friction points in the purchasing process and implement targeted improvements.

Transparency is also key to a positive shopping experience. Clearly informing customers about the number of steps remaining before payment can be managed by a virtual assistant, allowing them to better manage their time and reduce anxiety. This can be achieved through progress bars or real-time updates, thereby reducing cart abandonment rates.

Finally, AI can offer navigation assistance and personalized recommendations to enhance trust and brand loyalty.

c. Customized emails in the funnel

Personalized emails are a powerful marketing tool that can be used to nurture leads, retain customers, and drive conversions. When utilized within a sales funnel, they help guide customers through each stage of the purchasing process, generating dynamic content or notifications for each user.

This enables direct and effective communication between your business and your customers. Personalized emails provide a more intimate approach compared to social media.

Start by showcasing the benefits of subscribing with welcome emails, use thank-you emails after a purchase to promote your offers, highlight products with discounts or gifts in promotional emails, and encourage customers to complete their purchase by reminding them of products and associated offers in cart abandonment emails—all automatically powered by AI.

III/ Optimizing delivery and returns management

AI can revolutionize delivery and returns management by offering enhanced efficiency, accuracy, and convenience for both businesses and their customers.

a. Logistics: AI for greater efficiency

An AI Virtual Assistant can provide real-time information on package deliveries and send notifications to customers regarding the status of their shipments. Additionally, AI analytics can optimize delivery routes by considering factors such as traffic, weather, and driver locations, as well as manage delivery exceptions like incorrect addresses or damaged parcels.

This approach can help reduce delivery costs, improve delivery times, ease customer anxiety by allowing them to better manage their deliveries, and quickly and effectively resolve any issues that arise.

b. Simplifying returns with AI

Optimizing e-commerce also involves simplifying the return process.

AI can facilitate this simplification by creating return labels online and enabling real-time tracking of these returns by customers.

AI can also analyze return reasons to identify potential issues related to products or processes, allowing businesses to improve product quality and reduce the number of returns.

Customer support for returns requiring after-sales service can be provided by a virtual assistant or AI-based FAQ systems.

IV/ Exploring new possibilities of AI: What else can AI do?

AI offers a wide range of possibilities beyond those already explored. It can determine customer satisfaction and recommendations, which is valuable for crafting marketing strategies based on genuine references. By gaining deeper insights into user needs, AI paves the way for the creation of highly targeted and meticulously studied content, such as blogs or other forms of media. This approach allows for more precise responses to user expectations, thereby enhancing engagement and customer satisfaction.

Furthermore, analyzing data generated by AI can be used to enrich marketing content. For example, incorporating relevant videos, organizing interactive webinars, or publishing practical guides on products can provide customers with a more immersive and informative experience. The more useful and relevant the information in a blog post or other content is to the customer, the more likely they are to be convinced and make a purchase.

Conclusion

AI is a true catalyst for transformation in e-commerce. By integrating it into their strategy, businesses can stand out from the competition, offer unparalleled customer experiences, explore new business models, and propel their operations to new heights.