What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? I Guess You Had Already Known…
Since the Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become more and more popular in recent years, this might no longer be a strange concept to Magento store owners. There are multiple definitions of artificial intelligence. In simple words, AI is machine’ ability to interpret a large amount of data, learn from it and react like humans to serve different purposes. Although AI can appear under a variety of forms, which still have several things in common:- Interpret the target’s behaviors
- Scrutinize collected data automatically
- Provide proper solutions quickly based on what is learned
How Does Artificial Intelligence Affect Our Lives?
AI has already been existing for quite a long time. Sometimes, we might use AI applications without noticing they are AI-driven tools. For example, most of the people possessing Apple devices are too familiar with the intelligent assistant named Siri. “She” is an amazing application of machine intelligence. With “her” help, you can get many things done faster and more convenient.
Similarly, we have Google Assistant, a smart voice-controlled assistant. By using this powerful AI application, you will be able to easily open apps on your smartphone, find online information, send messages, set appointments, turn on/ off music, and even control smart home.
Besides, the self-driving car is another impressive example of machine-learning technology.
How Is Artificial Intelligence Applied In Magento E-commerce Stores?
In the previous part, we have named some applications of artificial intelligence in our daily lives. Apart from that, there are plenty of incredible AI applications in the e-commerce industry and in Magento development stores in particular. Many experts predict that in the near future AI will make a great contribution to re-shape online shopping habits and thoughts of Magento users. If you don’t believe it, let’s discover some potential AI applications in Magento websites:1. Make product search more powerful than ever without using any Magento search extensions
Undoubtedly, product search is one of the most pivotal functionality in a Magento e-commerce store. From many surveys, more than 30% of store visitors will use the site search bar to navigate their favorite products quickly, especially when there is a large number of products in the store. Traditionally, Magento websites will generate search results based on the keywords that the purchasers enter. If the system cannot find an exact match, no results appear. However, after applying artificial intelligence, we can do much more than that… Replace simple keyword search by context-based search The keyword search has some limitations that can be tackled by the context-based search. The AI-based search will utilize Natural Language Process (NLP) to return appropriate results after analyzing the context of the search terms instead of looking for keywords. Therefore, the system can still produce relevant search results in the case of not finding exact search phrases. Boost searching experience with visual search Using the visual search, an image recognition algorithm powered by AI, is a new emerging trend since it’s immensely convenient for users using mobile devices. Here is how it works:- The buyer will navigate to the search bar
- Instead of entering a keyword, the buyer will click on the camera icon to take a picture of the product that he/ she is looking for
- The buyer also can upload an available picture from his/ her photo library for searching
- The website will analyze the uploaded picture and suggest items that match it most after a few seconds
Assumed that there was an item on the street that suddenly draw the attention of the customer so he/ she took a picture of it. When going home, he/ she wanted to look for the e-commerce store was selling that item. In this case, no technologies can help him/ her better than the visual search.
This is such an incredible feature that all Magento stores should have.
2. Provide an excellent purchase assistant for customers
Shopping/ purchase assistant hasn’t been popular yet but this is highly promising. The purpose of developing purchase assistant is not analyzing customers’ behaviors but analyzing all changes in the product quantity, price or new product releases in the Magento stores so as to place orders automatically on behalf of the buyers.
As a result, shoppers can hunt for the deals that they desire to get without lots of effort or order the favorite product instantly when it is restocked.
3. Protect Magento stores from fraudulent transactions
Although Magento provides us with a secure infrastructure by default, there are still many threats of online fraud. Fortunately, now we can apply AI to minimize fraudulent attacks. More particularly, it can help us to identify suspicious transactions/ activities based on regular payment patterns. As a consequence, Magento stores can prevent not only their financial data but also their customer information from being stolen.4. Answer buyers’ queries related to products and services in a professional way
For Magento e-commerce stores, it’s essential to provide the purchasers their needed information as fast as possible. If they have to wait for so long for your answers, there is a high possibility that their excitement for the item will be decreased over time and even no longer want to buy it. Moreover, many times we hear purchasers’ complaints about the attitude of customer service staffs, which seriously affect the reputation of the store. AI will help us to overcome both of the above issues by giving us a modern technology named “Chatbot”.
The chatbot is a computer program developed with the aim of communicating with customers on a format that is similar to instant messaging. To be more specific, it will be able to answer all queries formulated in a natural language like a real customer service staff, based on the knowledge database.
5. Handle complaints and return requests of the purchasers
The chatbot in the previous AI application not only can help to facilitate the purchase process of the customers but also contribute in the customer support process. By using a set of predefined scripts, the chatbot might understand the issues that the purchasers are claiming or complaining and respond in a fast and professional manner. As a result, your customer support service can be available 24/7 throughout 365 days of the year, decreasing the handling time and increasing customer satisfaction significantly.
6. Analyze and create financial reports
A lot of small and medium Magento stores are operated by the owner only or just a few members. Therefore, analyzing complicated financial indicators might be difficult for them. Now, thanks to the artificial intelligence, all of your invoices, sales, costs can be analyzed automatically, which helps you to make important financial decisions much easier without common human-bias or errors.
7. Analyze customers’ shopping habits and predict upcoming trends
It will definitely take a lot of time and effort to analyze the shopping habits of online customers by human resource. Instead, if we can apply AI into it, you can get useful information which is taken from the data for many years on your site. From that, it would help you to predict which items will be in high demand in a certain period of time, how many products will be consumed and prepare your inventory appropriately.
8. Take care of the buyers with a personal approach
Artificial intelligence empowers Magento e-commerce stores to exploit and develop personal touches and bring shopper experience to the next level. Assumed that you are a customer, immediately when visiting the store you received a message “Hello, “Your Name”! How are you?”, how do you feel?
Not yet, with the continuous development of AI, there are not only greeting messages, but the virtual purchase assistant can also inquire after the recent items that the customers bought (based on the order history or give them a unique discount.
9. Suggest products and services that meet customers’ interests
In many ways that the AI can be applied to recommend proper products and services for the customers. For example, it can get data from the order history, wishlist or abandoned cart to suggest buyers’ potential favorite items.
In other cases, the AI can get new data from the customers, analyze it based on the available knowledge base and suggest suitable products in the store. For instance, Sephora provides its clients an amazing AI-applied tool to “experience” their products (e.g.: lipstick, cushion, eyeshadows, eyeliners, highlighters…) by sending the users’ photo to the bot. Then, the bot will interpret the facial features in the photos, select fitting items and utilize AR technology to “apply” chosen cosmetics products to the photos.
10. Evaluate proposals from the contractors of the store
The last AI application in Magento stores that we want to mention is not related to customer benefit but the store owners’. For large Magento e-commerce stores, we guess that they might receive a lot of proposals from different contractors. And it will consume a significant amount of time to analyze each proposal. With artificial intelligence, this process will be shortened and become more effective. The machine learning will compare all proposals at the same time in terms of pricing, scope, and even historical performance of the contractors, and finally figure out which proposal is the best.Conclusion
All things considered, artificial intelligence is an awesome mean for Magento stores to bring about personalized shopping experience for their purchasers, to improve customer service, to easily analyze financial indicators, contractors’ proposal or buyer shopping habits… and to help the owners to make better decisions. Up to now, there have been a considerable number of e-commerce stores applying artificial intelligence to boost their business growth, and this trend will bloom in the near future. If you are running a Magento development store, you should catch up with the trend and learn how to apply AI into your website. Otherwise, there is a high possibility that you will be left behind by other competitors. [ratings] Read More: Magento 2.2.7 Releases. More Than Expected!A Brief History Of Magento From 2007-2018 [Infographic]
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