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What: Mixing virtual and in-person programming, the destination event for marketers features high-profile keynote speakers, networking and more. Choose from eight programming tracks across marketing and digital advertising, ecommerce, content and B2B.
When: Sept. 27-29
Where: San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, and virtual
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03 April 2023
AI trends propelling small business success
From content to personalization, AI is becoming embedded in ecommerce, writes Wix VP of Online Stores Oren Inditzky.
Photo by Emiliano Vittoriosi on Unsplash
Artificial Intelligence technologies (AI) are shaping the future of ecommerce. With machine capabilities imitating intelligent human behavior and responding to an environment with little or no human input, these computer programs can automate human tasks. Small businesses are implementing these technologies to help propel their businesses forward. 51% of ecommerce businesses have already implemented automation technologies across sales, marketing, and customer service to ensure a seamless user experience for customers. And it’s working, with 79% of respondents stating that integrating AI into their marketing and sales channels has increased business revenue.
This is just the beginning of AI integration into ecommerce. 80% of retail executives expect their companies to adopt AI-powered intelligent automation by 2027. Additionally, by 2030, AI-powered ecommerce solutions will be a $16.8 billion market. This shows that as more companies continue to shift their focus from offline shopping to digital, they’re going to rely more on AI-powered technologies to help them boost marketing and convert sales to increase their gross payment volume (GPV). This is why the trend for AI to be embedded into ecommerce is only growing, and AI technologies and tools are available for small businesses to implement to drive their businesses forward.
The below ecommerce trends powered by AI are driving the retail industry forward into new unforeseen spaces and will continue to do so over the coming years.
Have engaging content
One of the main challenges with creating an online presence is creating and writing the content and text to put on the website. This includes content for product descriptions, customer FAQs, “About Us” sections and more. Owners don’t know what to write; they question if their language is accurate and compelling enough. Now, there are AI tools to help businesses generate high-quality and uniquely-tailored content, such as Wix’s AI Text Editor. By entering several inputs about the desired text, within seconds, these features create selections of tailored titles, taglines, and paragraphs to choose from, combating the time-consuming efforts needed to complete a professional-looking website and essential marketing materials including the following:
Social media posts: AI tools can create social media posts that promote products, announce sales, and engage with followers. These models can generate eye-catching and compelling content that will drive engagement and, ultimately, sales.
Email marketing campaigns: AI tools can assist in creating email campaigns that target specific segments of the customer base. The model can generate subject lines, body text, and call-to-action language that will drive conversions and boost sales.
Landing pages: AI tools can be used to create compelling landing pages that convert website visitors into customers. The model can generate persuasive copy and images that will capture the attention of potential customers and persuade them to purchase.
Improve customer retention
Customer retention strategies are more important than ever. It costs 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one, and existing customers are 50% more likely to buy from a seller again. This cost gap between acquiring new customers and retaining existing buyers will continue to grow as competition continues to rise. AI can help with improving customer retention. In 2020, chatbots responded to 85% of customer service interactions, and 80% of retail and ecommerce businesses use AI chatbots or plan to use them in the near future. No matter the inquiry, AI assistants can connect with customers 24/7 and solve or streamline the process for the customer support agents in the case of more complicated tickets.
Deliver hyper-personalization to customers
Online merchants are increasingly using AI to adapt their online storefronts in real time to generate personalized shopping experiences, catalogs, and promotions. AI tools give merchants the ability to offer and present the right products in the right order for the right user to reduce friction and increase conversion. This is very important nowadays with almost three-quarters (74%) of consumers getting frustrated with product information that’s not personalized. Additionally, product recommendation tools can learn from shoppers' interactions and by applying different recommendation algorithms can increase average order value. And buyers expect nothing less with 40% of consumers expecting to receive discounts and special shopping offers from AI chatbots.
These AI ecommerce trends will continue to drive more change within the retail industry. Small business owners should not only be aware of these trends with AI tools but lean into them and embrace them as the future of retail to advance their content, retention rates, and personalization. It’s safe to say that AI in ecommerce has become, and will continue to be, a disruptive force in the retail industry as more and more businesses are integrating AI into their marketing and sales efforts, and it’s working to increase their GPV.
Oren Inditzky is VP of Online Stores at Wix.
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