The Best AI Solutions for Marketers
Aug 16, 2024 • 7 Minute Read • Stephanie Nardone, Content Marketing Manager
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What to Look for in AI Solutions: An Ecommerce Guide
Jan 03, 2025 • 8 Minute Read • Thomas John, Commerce Practice Lead
Artificial intelligence is reshaping industries worldwide, including ecommerce. In 2022, AI-enabled ad spending reached $370 billion, and projections show it could surge to $1.3 trillion by 2032. Beyond advertising, generative AI is estimated to contribute up to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy, making its potential in digital commerce truly transformative.
But leveraging AI is more than adopting automation tools. It's about strategically integrating AI into your operations to maximize efficiency, deliver hyper-personalized marketing, and elevate the customer experience. Done right, AI can drive measurable results across key metrics like click-through rates (CTR), annual contract value (ACV), and return on ad spend (ROAS).
Consider this: AI-driven product recommendations can boost CTR by up to 254% compared to traditional methods. Similarly, using AI in marketing can increase revenue by 3-15% and improve campaign ROI by up to 20%. The potential for growth is undeniable.
However, businesses must approach AI thoughtfully. Overusing AI or selecting tools that don’t align with your objectives can dilute its impact. With so many tools available, the challenge lies in identifying the ones that truly fit your needs.
This article explores four impactful areas where AI can revolutionize your operations: product and content recommendations, chatbots, content creation, and search. With the right strategies and tools, your business can chart a clear path to success in the evolving landscape of digital commerce.
1. Product and Content Recommendations? Not Without Data
Recommendation systems are great in theory, but they're only as good as the data you feed them. Those product and content suggestions fall flat without properly leveraging your customer insights. However, leveraging AI to analyze user behavior and product data in your recommendation systems will generate personalized suggestions based on customer knowledge.
AI's Strategic Impact on Personalized Recommendations
User Impact: Think enhanced user experience (UX) with recommendations that align with the user's interests, making shopping more enjoyable and efficient. AI can also predict future behavior, helping users discover new and relevant products they might not have otherwise found and encouraging them to purchase products they aren't already buying.
Business Impact: Effective recommendations assist in cross- and up-selling endeavors, generating more sales. Alongside revenue growth, leveraging AI for customer insights accelerates decision-making. Improve your marketing using insights to tailor content to your audience and schedule content delivery to be at the right time. Your oto be at the right time. Your operational efficiency gets a nice boost, too, from AI. Insights from AI tools can help with inventory planning to increase ROI.
Product Recommendation Engines Tools & Tech
- Sitecore Personalize is part of a larger digital experience platform (DXP) that delivers tailored experiences across every touchpoint.
- Dynamic Yield offers personalization and experimentation solutions, including product recommendations and dynamic content in the ecommerce experience. It helps you understand user behavior, analyze traffic, and more.
- Nosto is an AI-powered solution that delivers personalized recommendations, emails, and data-driven popups.
- Klevu allows you to sync your ecommerce personalization strategy with your customers' evolving tastes.
Content Recommendation Systems Tools & Tech
- Outbrain is a web recommendation platform that uses AI predictive tech to recommend content on publisher websites. The solution uses data and AI to help online retail companies target the most engaged audiences.
- Taboola is a web advertising and digital marketing company that provides content recommendations for websites, devices, and mobile apps. Taboola helps promote content, products, and services to audiences at the most opportune and receptive times.
- RevContent is an online ad company that connects advertisers with publishers' most engaged audiences to grow revenue. It offers RevGPT, an AI engine that generates personalized and engaging headlines.
How It Works
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Data Collection: These tools collect user browsing history, click patterns, purchase history, and interaction times. They also gather product data, including attributes, descriptions, images, and reviews.
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Data Processing: In pre-processing, data is cleaned and organized for analysis. Then, model training will use content-based filtering, collaborative filtering, and hybrid models to improve recommendation accuracy.
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Recommendation Generation: Through real-time processing, these tools will generate up-to-date recommendations and tailor suggestions to individual user profiles through personalization algorithms.
2. Chatbots Work Wonders—With the Right Integration
An effective chatbot can improve customer service overnight. How well you connect a Chatbots to your backend systems and customer data determines if they're a helpful 24/7 tool or just a pesky popup. Natural language processing (NLP) or AI-powered customer service platforms process user queries to generate a conversational flow with customers. Information is intelligently collected and provided to your site visitor or customer. It brings a voice, so to speak, and comprehensive support to your chat experience through backend systems.
AI's Strategic Impact on Chatbots
User Impact: Chatbots can significantly enhance customer service and add value to the UX. With 24/7 availability, users receive assistance anytime, reducing their waiting time. It also has the power to offer tailored support based on user data.
Business Impact: From a business perspective, automating routine queries with chatbots boosts operational efficiency by reducing the need for large customer service teams, enhances customer satisfaction through quick resolutions and 24/7 availability, and gathers valuable data on customer behavior to inform strategic decisions.
Tools and Technology for Intelligent Chatbots
NLP Engines
- Google Dialogflow enables conversational agents to use Google AI for chatbots and voice apps.
- IBM Watson Assistant is a tool for AI-powered virtual assistants for customer service, human resources, and marketing.
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Microsoft Bot Framework is an open-source software development kit (SDK) for chatbots that can speak, listen, understand, and learn from your users.
AI-Powered Customer Service Platforms
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Gorgias centralizes customer service and uses AI for automated responses. It solves problems for your team by offering to do the repetitive tickets that take time. It can easily connect to BigCommerce and other platforms to take action and resolve issues.
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Zendesk Answer Bot provides instant answers using machine learning. The company launched this to appeal to customer convenience, as people seek answers on their own and want them quickly.
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Intercom combines chatbots and live chat for support so customers can get it instantly, and support leaders can get instant insights through AI.
How It Works
- User Interaction: Customers interact via websites, mobile apps, social media, or messaging apps.
- Query Processing: Chatbots use NLP to understand context and intent, generating suitable responses.
- Backend Integration: Connects to knowledge bases, CRM systems, and order management for comprehensive support.
3. Generative AI: It's Not Just a Buzzword
When used correctly, generative AI (GenAI) can be a game-changer for content creation and customer experience. Beyond the hype, it's about deploying it where it makes the most impact, from personalized marketing to real-time insights. The strategic impact can be transformative by using advanced models to analyze data and generate human-like text and images.
GenAI's Strategic Impact
User Impact: Generate content faster to provide tailored experiences at scale, enhancing engagement with dynamic and relevant content. This means marketing, customer support, and website content are delivered more quickly and effectively, resulting in a better overall user experience.
Business Impact: GenAI empowers marketing teams to streamline content production, deliver tailored customer experiences at scale, and provide actionable insights into customer behavior and market trends. Using it to optimize content frees up resources and improves marketing efforts.
Tools and Technology for GenAI
- OpenAI's GPT-4.5 is ideal for chatbots handling complex or nuanced interactions. (For the latest version, check OpenAI's official updates.)
- Jasper AI works best for personalized marketing messages and product descriptions.
- IBM Watson Analytics extracts insights and trends from large datasets.
- Tableau visualizes data for informed decisions.
- Copy.ai generates marketing copy, blog posts, and social media content.
- Writesonic creates ads, blog posts, and product descriptions.
How It Works
- Data Collection and Processing: Gathers data from various sources, cleans, and structures it for analysis.
- Model Training and Deployment: Utilizes models like GPT-4 and BERT, fine-tuned for specific tasks.
- Content Generation and Insights Extraction: Produces text, analyzes sentiment, and identifies trends.
4. AI-Powered Search: Making Navigation & Discovery Effortless
Adding AI to your search bar isn't just about faster results; it's about ensuring those results are relevant and personalized, improving both customer experience and sales. AI enhances search and navigation using NLP and machine learning to provide relevant search results and intuitive navigation paths, improving user experience and operational efficiency.
AI's Strategic Impact on Website Search
User Impact: AI-powered search enhances the user experience by delivering relevant results and intuitive navigation, increases engagement through personalized search, and boosts customer satisfaction with quick and accurate responses.
Business Impact: AI-driven search improves conversion rates by increasing product discovery and sales, enhances operational efficiency through automated search tuning and extensive data handling, and provides better insights into user behavior to refine marketing and product strategies.
Examples of Tools and Technology
Search Technologies
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Elasticsearch is an open-source search and analytics engine with NLP and machine learning capabilities. It allows businesses to process and analyze large volumes of search queries, delivering relevant and actionable insights to users in real time.
- Algolia is a hosted search API that uses AI-driven relevance tuning to deliver highly personalized search results. It optimizes speed and accuracy for users and helps businesses improve conversion rates by fine-tuning the search experience.
- Coveo is a cloud-based AI-powered search platform that provides personalized shopper experiences by leveraging machine learning to continuously refine and improve search results based on user behavior and feedback.
Navigation Technologies
- With AI, Bloomreach enhances site search and merchandising, enabling businesses to create personalized product recommendations and intuitive navigation paths that guide users toward desired outcomes, such as conversions or content engagement. It's particularly effective for improving ecommerce and content discovery.
- Klevu is an AI-powered search and navigation tool designed explicitly for ecommerce platforms. It offers dynamic filtering and contextual suggestions to ensure customers can effortlessly find products, increasing engagement and sales.
- Searchspring offers AI-driven search and personalization solutions ideal for ecommerce businesses looking to boost conversions through personalized search experiences, visual merchandising, and product recommendations. These solutions are powered by machine learning algorithms that continuously optimize based on user behavior.
How It Works
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Data Collection: Tracks user interactions and integrates product data.
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Data Processing and Analysis: NLP is used for context understanding, and ML models are used for relevance.
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Search and Navigation Features: Provides autocomplete, faceted search, and advanced visual and voice search methods.
AI and Data Governance: Ensuring Responsible Use
While AI brings immense value to ecommerce, it must be implemented responsibly. Proper data governance ensures customer information is handled securely and ethically, building trust while maximizing AI's benefits. Adhering to data privacy regulations and maintaining transparency in AI processes is critical. Tools like Talend and Informatica assist with data integration, while Google Cloud AI and AWS Data Pipeline support data augmentation.
Looking to enhance your ecommerce marketing and operations? We help businesses leverage cutting-edge technologies to improve user experiences, drive sales, and gain strategic insights. Get in touch with us to learn more.