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.