Technology is becoming more sophisticated than ever these days, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI). The most advanced systems are now able to do things that were once only possible for humans to achieve, and they are helping organisations make better business decisions than ever before.
One type of AI called machine learning, in which computers can improve and adapt their processes without being explicitly programmed by a human, has become particularly helpful for people who do business by selling products or services online.
If you run an eCommerce company, there are a number of ways you can tap into the power of machine learning to provide an enhanced user experience, become more agile and open up revenue streams that may have been previously inaccessible to you.
Identify patterns and trends
Wouldn’t it be great if you were able to really get inside the head of your average customer, to know what makes them tick, what they need and what they think of your products or services.
Machine learning can bring that Holy Grail closer than ever before by identifying trends and discovering patterns from sets of data, and all without being programmed to recognise the pattern or trend. Agile, accurate and automated, it is easy to see why more and more eCommerce companies are switching from manual analysis to machine learning.
Vastly improved product search
Search is critical to the success of any eCommerce business. If your products fail to appear in front of potential customers, how will they ever know you exist? Machine learning algorithms can dramatically enhance eCommerce product search results, helping to boost those click rates, customer ratings and conversions.
Machine learning helps users get so much more out of the search experience and can pinpoint with precision the products or services they are looking for. With machine learning engaged strategically in the search process, search results become more meaningful and geared towards what the shopper actually needs rather than what they just typed into the search bar.
Product recommendations – know what your customers need before they do
When it comes to on-site merchandising, product recommendations are one of the most powerful forms of marketing. Current product recommendation solutions usually analyse the popularity of a product to determine when and how to make a recommendation.
Machine learning, on the other hand, will tap into more precise and individual data such as a shopper’s specific buying habits, the colours or looks they prefer and the type of budget they may have to play with. Going one step further, a machine-learning solution can prioritise the product recommendations that are likely to bring in the most revenue or generate incremental sales.
While many of the larger retail corporations are already using machine learning to determine how to recommend products, there are many third-party tools that can help smaller companies harness the same technology.
Is machine learning right for your business?
The robots are coming, and they’re not just here to steal jobs and take over the world as we know it. Machine learning is destined to become a huge asset to eCommerce companies looking to automate many of their most resource-intensive and costly manual processes in order to gain meaningful insights of their customers and, most importantly, to generate clicks, purchases, repeat visits and positive ratings.
Robin Mellstrand, CEO and founder of Loop54.
Further reading on machine learning
