Sales-Boosting e-Commerce Trends Now

The e-commerce world isn’t just all about Black Friday or huge Christmas season deals.  E-commerce sites should perform well year round, more often through best practices and tried-and-tested techniques in making online sales.  Here are some current trends that can boost sales in this platform.

Faster shipping, easier returns

Good shipping times and delivery logistics remain one of the most powerful differentiators in e-commerce.  Delivery should be fast and efficient, and returns and exchanges should be convenient.  Emerging technologies like driverless freight are taking centerstage in facilitating transactions for both companies and their customers.

Image source: Pixabay.com

Virtual assistance and better customer experience

A virtual assistant who guides site visitors, answers frequently asked questions, and makes product suggestion is fast blurring the lines between purchasing from a physical store and an online one, making the transaction more personalized, realistic, and paving the way for better purchase decisions.

Increased AI integration

E-commerce continues to be disrupted by the seamless integration of artificial intelligence as well as things like machine learning and robotics, anywhere from product recommendations to enhanced search functionality.

Image source: Pixabay.com

Augmented reality and virtual reality

From Sephora offering different makeup looks to curious customers to the app IKEA Place allowing users to try out furniture and accessories before buying, both AR and VR are increasingly looking promising in terms of significance and progress.

Voice search

It’s predicted that 50 percent of search will be in voice form by year 2020, dramatically reducing or altogether eliminating the need for clicks when buying online.

Abhishek Gattani is the head of search at Walmart Labs and the founder and CEO of Cuberon. He spearheaded the launch of Walmart’s “Polaris” search engine, which currently powers many of the company’s e-commerce products globally. Learn more on this page.

Effective Ways To Use Artificial Intelligence In e-Commerce

Artificial intelligence is not a new concept, but more and more brands have started implementing several AI systems to help in their business. Today, artificial intelligence can be used in a variety of ways. Here are some effective ways to use AI in e-commerce. 

Image source: semrush.com

AI can help brands target the right audience. By filtering elements like location, age, gender, and other preferences, AI can bring your ads to your target market. AI can even go through purchasing patterns of customers and help suggest other items they might want to purchase that can complement that they already bought or are planning to buy. 

And not only can AI find out what consumers want, but they also adjust to every change in their profile. For example, a person moving into a brand’s area of influence will automatically see ads, or if they add a certain sport to their profile, AI can adjust to these changes. 

AI can also learn language and speech patterns. That’s why a lot of brands are investing in AI chatbots. This program lets them communicate with their consumers 24/7 and supply them with relevant answers to any queries. It can run all day and all night, which saves a company money compared to having actual people handling chat support.

Image source: cloudways.com

Abhishek Gattani is a senior director at Walmart Labs and, as head of the search, spearheaded the launch of the company ’s search engine and e-commerce platform, Polaris. Registering a 15 percent increase in sales, the platform now powers Walmart’s e-commerce products, including Walmart.com, store search, mobile web, and mobile apps. For more insightful reads on e-commerce, visit this blog. 

Measuring the effectiveness of site searches

Effective search engines are vital to the success of an e-commerce website. People, in general, are more accustomed to using search functions over sifting categories. Those who use search engines are often sure with the purchase they intend to buy and thus represent a potentially lucrative site demographic. Ensuring that the search engine function works for them requires understanding their needs and the problems they frequently encounter. 

Image source: searchengineland.com

An effective search engine narrows down what the customer’s search terms to items from the store’s inventory that they may be interested in. A search engine must be capable of identifying specific items from the often heavily generalized words used in some search engines. 

One of the main troublesome aspects of using search engines in e-commerce sites is that, far too often, the links that turn up are usually not very relevant to what the customer is looking for. In many cases, the search results lead to either poorly matched selections or redundant entries. Because of this (and the fact that customers balk at having to sift through too many pages), it is vital for search engine algorithms to properly identify the target search term 

Although many searches utilize vague terms, others are oddly specific. Website search engines should accommodate not only occasional typographical errors as many are prone but also the jargon and numbers used to identify them. 

Search engine algorithms should be refined to produce accurate results closer to the terms mentioned in the search. E-commerce developers such as Walmart Labs look at the many intricate ways they’ve optimized site results. One protocol allowed company partners’ selling similar entries to simplify their search results by providing identical products from different sellers into a single entry. 

IImage source: powerleveling-services.com

Abhishek Gattani is the head of search at Walmart Labs. Learn more about him and his career from this page.

What Lies Ahead For e-Commerce?

E-commerce is big on execution. If all things are aligned, success should follow, provided that there’s enough traffic and time for a website to be established. There are still many things that remain uncertain for e-commerce, yet some things are for sure.

Personalization and customer experience will be better in the near future as it will be crucial for winning and keeping the customer in the seasons to come. In this time and age, consumers have little time to spare for irrelevant information. Thus, businesses that deal with customer experience transformation can hold the hearts and minds of customers. Products and information will assist SMEs in standing out from the crowd online and keep customers wanting for more as they provide personalized services.

Image source: pexels.com

Delivery drones are making their way into reality, thanks to continuous testing and improvement. This is perhaps the most exciting development in e-commerce; drones will be sent out from distribution centers and fly directly to the provided delivery address, with a promise of significantly lower cost and logistical inconvenience than the industry’s current status.

Pop-up shops bridge the gap between online and offline retailing. This kind of shopping experience can provide customers with the chance to connect with a company’s brand in a physical manner while helping the business have an impact on corners of the market that might otherwise have been impossible through online channels. E-commerce is improving by the minute, with businesses and customers on the lookout for the latest development with regard to their shopping experience.

Image source: pexels.com

Abhishek Gattani is a senior director at Walmart Labs and, as head or search, spearheaded the launch of the company’s search engine and e-commerce platform, Polaris. For similar reads, visit this blog.

Chatbots Are Changing Ecommerce

What once was the stuff of sci-fi is now being deployed everywhere, epitomized by technological innovations in the realm of artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and machine learning. The best example of how these advancements are affecting ecommerce is the rise of chatbots.

Chatbots mimic how humans think and make decisions. They are automated programs fueled by machine-learning technology that work by answering questions, handling particular requests, and generally simulating people’s conversations. The key thing to remember here is that a chatbot is not a static thing: it learns, adapting to how people behave, trends in their preferences, and what and when they buy.

Image source: nyintl.net

Voice recognition technology is crucial to the future of chatbots. Companies pushing the possibilities of the fusion of artificial intelligence with machine learning include NeuraFlash, and even FedEx. The former’s AI chatbot uses natural language processing (NLP) for comprehending text patterns, while FedEx’s Alexa app allows customers to track their package deliveries without even typing anything. Other notable and specialized Ai bots include Mitsuku and RightClick.

That they offer more personalized one-on-one service makes chatbots more important in ecommerce sectors, especially as people continue to switch to online shopping. Companies need to match the increased volume and traffic to new customers, and chatbots may be the only way to do so very soon.

Image source: woobox.com

Currently a senior director at Walmart Labs, Abhishek Gattani is a graduate of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the founder of companies Cuberon, Big Refunds, and Fireball Solutions. For more on Mr. Gattani’s work, visit this webpage.

Powerful benefits of harnessing machine learning in e-commerce

Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence (AI), is a method of data analysis that’s based on the idea that systems can learn from data, identify patterns, and make decisions without much human intervention. This is not another buzzword: machine learning is about making sense of digital data at a much faster rate than humans are capable of. But how do they benefit e-commerce? 

Image source: CBROnline.com

For starters, machine learning allows for segmentation, personalization, and targeting. E-commerce websites typically suffer a great distance from their customers, compared to face to face interaction. Things like machine learning can tweak the customer experience online to drive sales and increase revenue. 

It can, for instance, be instrumental in providing product recommendations. It can tap into the customer’s specific buying habits, preferred colors or looks, and the type of budget they are playing with. In addition, these high-tech solutions can also prioritize product recommendations that are likely to have bigger sales returns. 

As search is critical to the success of e-commerce businesses, machine learning can vastly improve product search and appear in front of potential customers. Search results became more meaningful and geared toward who really need them. 

It also assists in price optimization and fraud protection. In the former, the technology can change prices to account for factors such as competitors’ offer, demand, time of day, and kind of customer. In the latter, it can process huge volumes of data at rapid speed to prevent fraudulent transactions before happening. 

The robots have arrived, and they’re no longer the stuff of science fiction. It’s important to analyze whether machine learning could become your company’s “now” and serve as a huge asset to e-commerce campaigns and initiatives, rather than pursuing costly and resource-intensive manual processes. 

Image source: AsianEntrepereneur.org  

Abhishek Gattani is the head of search at Walmart Labs, where he spearheaded the launch of Walmart’s 'Polaris' search engine and e-commerce platform. For similar reads, visit this page.

Machine Matters: The Impact Of Ai On e-Commerce

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not sci-fi; it is a reality shaping many businesses and industries today. It powers the most impressive innovations in recent decades, and it is ruling information technology. E-commerce and retail are not exempt from its benefits. In fact, marketing, digital or traditional, has become so dependent on it to the extent that competition among brands has just turned up the pressure. 

Image source: robohub.org

Still not convinced of the ubiquity of AI? You can turn to your home gadgets. Smart TVs, refrigerators, watches, and other devices compile the data they collect so that the internet can interpret the behaviors and habits of potential consumers. Much of AI relies on the Internet of Things, and marketers use data from such to optimize the performance of their platforms. Online retailers, then, can count on AI to point them to the direction of a potential online client at the speed of a click.    

The speed with which AI compiles and interprets data also defines market offerings. Its very large database will be the basis for improvements in and developments of products and services. Brands purveying the same goods can leverage analytics to differentiate themselves. Of course, all these will occur on platforms such as visited websites and social media. In many cases, AI can even penetrate chat apps through chatbots and gather data on market preferences and behaviors from there. 

Online retailers then should be aware of the wave of AI integration occurring in retail at the moment. Speed has become the name of the game, and it needs to be integrated into websites and other platforms where purchases and product selections occur. It is telling that today’s e-commerce websites cannot be powered by basic Web Dev, but an AI website builder. 

Moreover, the biggest tech companies such as Facebook and IBM are pouring money into AI and counting their dollars by its smarts. 

Image source: PsychologyToday.com

Abhishek Gattani is the head of search at Walmart Labs and the founder and CEO of Cuberon. He spearheaded the launch of Walmart’s “Polaris” search engine, which currently powers many of the company’s e-commerce products globally.  For more updates on the world of e-commerce, visit this page.