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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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.

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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.

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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.

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? 

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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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

The increasing role of social media in e-commerce

There’s no denying the crucial role social media now plays in any business, especially those venturing into online platforms. Today, the average person spends almost two hours browsing social media sites every day, and the number of customers buying online in the U.S. will reach 217 million by the end of 2017. 

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Advertisements on paper and on the storefront are simply not enough in the digital age. The reputation and success of any business depend largely on their standing in social media. Sites like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are now being used to increase online presence and to offer quality customer services faster and more efficiently. 

Projected successful brands are those that are able to maximize their reach and effectiveness in paid social media advertising. It’s not enough to pay ads on Google shopping and the like; brands driven by e-commerce are investing more in paid social media accounts to better reach their target audience. This is because a social media ad is easier to both set up and track. 

Another important development to note is that customers are starting to prefer private messaging. In a study done by Venturebeat.com, it was found out that 49.4 percent of customers would rather contact a business through a 24/7 messaging service than through the phone. Snapchat, IG, and Facebook Messenger now provide great engagement options for both startups and big businesses.

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Abhishek Gattani is a senior director at Walmart Labs. He was instrumental in the launch of the company’s search engine and e-commerce platform, Polaris. For more reads on e-commerce, visit this blog.

Enhancing e-Commerce With Chatbots

Last 2016, the total global revenue that artificial intelligence (AI) brought in reached $643.7 million. By 2025, that amount is seen to increase to $36.8 billion as developers continue to enhance the capabilities and efficiency of this technology.

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E-commerce businesses can also benefit from AI through chatbots.

A chatbot is an automated program designed to be able to converse with people through a mix of natural language processing, machine learning, and human operators. The technology has actually been present for a number of years now, a notable example of which is Siri.

Because of consumer behaviors, businesses who have embraced the e-commerce platform should consider adopting a chatbot technology. Many customers prefer receiving responses to their inquiries within a short time. And traffic to e-commerce websites is quickly surging by the day. Chatbots can become an indispensable tool due to these.

And the good news is that consumers are becoming more open to transacting with chatbots. According to Ubisend, 20 percent of consumers would consider buying goods and services after talking with a chatbot. Reaching target audiences, giving efficient customer service, endorsing products and services, and driving sales can be that much easier for e-commerce brands through a chatbot.

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Abhishek Gattani, an alumnus of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and founder of companies Cuberon, Big Refunds, and Fireball Solutions, is currently the head of search at Walmart Labs. He was instrumental in the launch of the company’s search engine and e-commerce platform, Polaris. Learn more about him by visiting this LinkedIn page.

E-Commerce Trend Watch: From Mobile To Ai

Massive trends continue to change the e-commerce marketing landscape this year. According to this articles, here are some e-commerce trends that retailers have to take note of.

It’s still mobile, mobile, mobile, where the growth of the platform couldn’t be emphasized enough as it has found its way at every stage of the purchasing process. The most progressive retailers now develop their marketing and content with mobile first instead of simply optimizing websites for mobile. Mobile payments, too, are on a roll, with brands needing to make their checkout process as seamless and frictionless as possible for mobile users.

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Personalization is high up on the list, too, covering everything from informed targeting to breaking away from one-size-fits-all websites. The conversation needs to be revised in a way that the homepage offers something for everyone, not giving the same thing to all visitors. Along with this is dynamic automation, where retailers should avoid mass outreach and instead enhance relevance and touch each customer based on their inclination to buy or interact with you.

Artificial intelligence (AI) remains big, with potential for better direct interaction on social media platforms via chatbots and live support. In addition, there’s the drive toward seamless experiences, where the explosion of mobile usage in-store entails a greater focus on the need for seamless shopping and consistency across all brand channels.

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Finally, there’s the rise of more delivery expectations, where delivery options continue to expand and embrace customers’ diversifying needs. Same-day service and local drop-off are only some features of this trend in the ever-moving world of e-commerce.

Abhishek Gattani is the head of search at Walmart Labs and spearheaded the launch of the company’s 'Polaris' search engine, which currently powers many of its e-commerce products globally. For similar reads, follow this link.

Responsive Design, The Walmart Way

Walmart Labs is charged with developing innovative technology solutions for one of the world’s largest retailers. Its approach to design and development revolves around delivering better service to the company’s consumers.

Responsive design is one of the hallmark achievements of the Walmart Labs team and is the guiding principle to many of its developments. The need for responsiveness is especially apparent when catering to customers across multiple online channels. Not everything that works on one platform would work well on another.

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Responsive technology meets the challenge, allowing the company’s e-commerce systems to adapt to the needs of customers while maintaining the desired level of convenience and familiarity across all platforms.

One of the key accomplishments toward this end is an overhaul of all websites in the Walmart umbrella. The upgrade, which was completed in 2015, allows an individual website to adapt its displays according to the visiting customer’s screen size, allowing for an optimized and easy-to-use website experience regardless of the device the customer uses.

Responsiveness doesn’t just stop at website design. Targeted recommendations and improved mobile e-commerce solutions are also a new development pursued by Walmart Labs. Over the years, it has several companies specializing in the development of sophisticated programs accomplishing a broad assortment of tasks from assessing customer needs and wants through predictive analytics to effective e-receipt delivery.

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Abhishek Gattani serves as the head of search at Walmart Labs, having spearheaded the creation of its search platform Polaris. Visit his company’s website for more on its new e-commerce developments.