If you run a business that sells products online, you know the struggles. It’s challenging to keep track of all your site visitors, set product prices, follow inventory details and shipping. For small businesses, this can feel impossible to do while also running the administrative aspects.
Fortunately, you don’t need to hire a big team to run a successful online store. There are several technologies and AI systems on the market which will take care of a number of tasks.
However, these systems can also be complicated. If you don’t know much about e-commerce AI, it’s challenging to choose the right ones for your business.
We have compiled a list of the top six apps that help e-commerce business models thrive. Picking up these apps will put your business on the right path.
What parts of e-commerce can AI help with?
All across the e-commerce industry, companies are employing AI to transform their businesses into a more manageable and self-sufficient model. One of the primary benefits is predicting shopping patterns.
AI can analyse your customers and see the products they like and when they buy them. It can then use these patterns to recommend sales and products to sell and discounts.
AI can also help restructure your inventory. Using selling patterns, they’ll ensure you don’t have idle inventory and keep your hot-ticket items in stock at all times.
Beyond that, you can also use AI for customer support. Through chatbots and digital assistants, your customers can get all the help they need regarding your e-shop. If they have a problem with an order or a product, these AIs can also handle it.
The top 6 AI apps for e-commerce
Below you’ll find a list of applications specifically designed to make your e-commerce business successful. You will find a diverse list of technology, all with their own application and advantages.
Sentient Technologies
Sentient Technologies has a glowing endorsement from massive tech companies around the world. They recently became the highest-funded AI company based in San Francisco thanks to receiving more than $143 million from independent investors.
Sentient technologies operate on a system of millions of computers worldwide. It combines their processing power and learning history to eliminate mistakes and prioritise successful endeavors.
Their primary objective is scalability, so they are working to build AI systems that can benefit from each other’s knowledge and work cooperatively. These systems can exist in various industries, from financial investment to obscure things like curing deadly diseases.
Right now, Sentient Technologies works primarily in financial markets. It analyses investment patterns to determine which ones are successful for a business. Then it uses this data to make recommendations on investments for companies.
What Can It Do for You?
In e-commerce, it can perform a similar service for your customers. The e-commerce site Shoes.com was able to help customers choose shoes by analysing their fashion preferences. For your business, it can help customers decide which products to choose, boosting sales and making the browsing process easier.
Pairing this with AI-based virtual try-on technology, e-commerce site owners can augment buyers’ shopping experience, enhancing customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
One of the most complex parts of e-commerce is digging through the shop to find what you want. With Sentient Technologies, you can bring the best selection to your customers right away.
ShopBot
A ShopBot is a tool that helps your customers research prices and other parameters for their search. A ShopBot usually controls the section of the e-commerce store where you can filter results and selections.
ShopBots can also refer to internet-scouring tools which hunt for the lowest prices on certain products. These ShopBots might hurt your small business if you’re not competitive with your pricing. You can use them to compare your services to others on the market and set prices that will attract more customers to your server.
However, you’ll also find Shopbots that assist customers along their retail journey. Often they appear in the form of Chatbots, which ask questions like “anything I can help you with today?” Customers will see these message windows pop up as they’re browsing your e-shop.
What Can It Do for You?
These chatbots will be incredibly helpful to your small business because they will fulfil the job of customer-support agents while costing a much smaller amount.
Chatbots are also very versatile and helpful with their aid. They can research previous systems at your company or other customer inquiries as a resource. It’s also faster to use them because you don’t have to rely on human response time.
Rare.io
Rare.io is an email marketing AI that helps companies distribute marketing and sales emails to potential customers. It also generates leads on interested entities. It researches customers’ data to find patterns in the people who visit certain websites.
Once it has this data, it can target specific groups or demographics interested in a particular product. The creators of Rare.io designed the software to help companies of all types generate clients. It was not explicitly designed for e-commerce. However, it is incredibly effective in that field.
In e-commerce, it will analyse the shopping patterns and origins of all your customers. Then it will use this information to build a customer profile where it can find new leads and additional customers to send emails to.
What Can It Do for You?
One of the hardest parts of running an e-shop is generating new clients. Facebook advertising can only take you so far, and there’s no guarantee your site will be advertised to people who are interested in your product.
Products are specific. If you run a dog food store, you don’t want to try selling to people without dogs. With Rare.io, you can directly target individuals who would be interested in purchasing from you. Rare claims it can boost your revenue by up to 24X.
TUP e-Commerce
TUP e-commerce begins its process by collecting your customer data. It will analyse things like where your customers are coming from, what products they like to buy, and what aspects of your website they spent the most time on. Like most AI, it does this autonomously while your website functions.
Then it focuses on personas. A persona can be anything from a website layout to the products you offer on your landing page. TUP will use your customer data to determine which personas are the most effective with your customer base. Then it will recommend the best persona for your business.
By using these personas, you’ll be able to deliver advantageous tools like custom style sheets. These sheets can be completely different depending on the customer, which means each person visiting your site will get an individualised experience.
What Can It Do for You?
Using TUP will make your customers feel more valued on your website. They’ll visit it and feel like the site was designed specifically for them and their preferences. They boast a massive return on investment on their website, and it only takes about 1.5 minutes to set up.
Prisync
Prisync will help your business stay ahead of competitors by tracking and monitoring their prices. It uses advanced search engine research skills to find all companies with similar products on the internet (after you have named them). Then it identifies their prices and strategies and delivers them to you in a report.
You will be able to target your top competition and have data on them instantly. It’s almost the same as having a spy in their company headquarters. It also gives you the ability to follow historical pricing trends and stock information so you can make plans for the future.
Their interactive dashboard doesn’t stop at delivering pricing and stock information. It will also tell you how many items your competitors have out-of-stock, your position in the market, and live price changes as they happen.
What Can It Do for You?
The internet is a competitive place. We already spoke about ShopBots and how they can instantly compare all prices for products online. If you want to stand out on a search engine, then using Prisync will keep you one step ahead of your competition at all times.
It will also help you keep up with the pricing standards of your industry.
Cortexica
Cortexica, now known as Zebra, is a computer vision technology solution. It will provide you with important information about the operational edge of your business. It will provide you with insights into the status of your assets. This will help you manage your manufacturing and distribution.
The factory isn’t as easy to monitor as an e-shop. Assets are constantly breaking down or being underutilised, and from your computer, there is little you can do about it. With Cortexica, you get the advantage of monitoring these assets so that you can generate the best outcome.
What Can It Do for You?
You can use this intelligent software to highlight shelf issues and keep your workers from doing tasks that are too repetitive. It is an AI that will help streamline the processes required during the production of your product.
Conclusion
Managing e-commerce isn’t easy. These applications can reduce your workload and automate your e-commerce, so you don’t have to spend your time worrying about it. By employing them, you’ll have an e-commerce store that works self-sufficiently, so you can focus on what’s important: your product.
Author bio
Romy Catauta works in the marketing field and is passionate about writing on web design, business, interior design and psychology.
