Let's explore how brands leverage AI to get personal with online consumers and how you can too.
Brands get personal with their customers thanks to data-driven insights.
They're able to generate personalised ecommerce strategies that improve the customer-centricity of their respective websites.
More and more brands are leveraging data to elevate their personalisation efforts, but their secret weapon is the power and abundant potential of AI.
Make the most of AI-driven data analytics to benefit from deeper insights
The flexibility of AI is that it's not just about analysing previous or historical shopping trends. It's also about using those insights to create future predictions.
Those predictions could help you react to changing customer behaviours, help with your stock inventory, or help you minimise your peaks and troughs to stabilise your profit margins.
But AI is only as good as the data it works from.
That's why we collaborate with retailers to make sure that you have the right plugins in place so you're collecting the right data.
From there, we use our insights and expertise to interpret the available data so you know how to respond to individual customers. You can explore what they will respond to, whether through changing imagery, product recommendations or even digital marketing engagement.
The key to it all is the informed decision-making criteria.
Your retail business needs to maximise profits and reduce your losses.
Using AI to personalise shopping experiences will naturally increase your conversions and sales. But more importantly, you'll be transitioning the initial transactional relationship into brand advocacy.
Using AI to personalise your email marketing
We all know the power of voucher codes, discount offers, anniversary or birthday promotions. Consumers love to feel that they are getting a bargain.
With AI, you can streamline your email marketing, ensuring that you're sending out relevant, tailored communications that entice customers to open, reducing the number of unsubscriptions.
It is about using that data to amplify the customer-centricity of your email messaging.
Personalised email marketing isn't about simply adding a customer's name or account number to the email (although we highly recommend it to confirm your authenticity and prevent phishing scams). Instead, it's about sending emails relating to each customer's personal preferences. You can use past purchasing data to automate the messages.
For example, a customer may have bought a specific product online or in-store. Through personalisation, you could use AI to send emails with that particular product's instruction manual or usage suggestions. Perhaps even recommend supplementary products or product care information.
Using AI, you can generate personalised emails that resonate with recipients, leading to higher open and conversion rates.
Creating personalised storefronts
One of the secrets to Amazon's success is how its homepage automatically changes depending on what items you've been browsing or your purchase history.
It's a simple step, but it's effective.
Amazon has managed to win customers through their personalised shopfronts. From the moment you land on the homepage, you immediately feel recognised and catered to (even if you don't consciously realise it).
The subliminal messaging is clear. You've shopped here before, you'll shop here again, and we'll do whatever we can to help you find what you need when you need it.
To replicate this, AI can delve into your customer data. It can react to individual customers by understanding their preferences and needs and even predict their wants.
Let's imagine that you've allowed customers to amplify their personal profiles – perhaps including key anniversary dates or birthdays of loved ones. At the click of a button, when they land on your storefront, they are greeted with suggestions of items that might be perfect for an anniversary gift or that hard-to-find birthday present. Or maybe it's suggesting relevant items that match a previous purchase.
By using customer data to suit their needs first and foremost, you're creating a tailored experience that will increase engagement and boost your conversion rates.
Make the most of AI to differentiate between visitors
A core part of any AI integration is to be able to identify the intent behind your traffic. Is a visitor logging onto your website for inspiration and guidance, or are they there specifically to complete a transaction?
The capabilities of AI are now helping retailers understand the intent behind each visitor. Using vast amounts of data, you can personalise the experience so that customers can find exactly what they are looking for without needing to search.
Using AI in this way will help you to convert your customers in the right way.
If an individual is only there to browse or search for inspiration, upselling messages will fail to convert. But if your system's AI understands what motivation they are looking for, they can receive a personalised experience that focuses on your content marketing rather than your product messaging. The personalised experience not only keeps that potential visitor on your site for much longer, but it could also turn them into your brand advocate, boosting your sales later down the line.
In contrast, if you can see a shopper is there to hunt for a specific product, your responsive AI will allow a personalised experience that swiftly guides the customer along your sales funnel with minimal distractions.
By understanding how your customers use your site, you can pinpoint the individuals more likely to convert. This enables businesses to allocate resources more effectively and target the right audience with personalised marketing campaigns.
It's time to embrace the potential of personalised AI
We believe that integrating AI into your eCommerce strategies isn't about automating manual tasks.
It's not even about improving productivity and efficiencies (although that's an added bonus).
Using AI gives you many more opportunities to really hone in on what matters to every single customer. It's about getting to the heart of their wants and needs and putting them first.
With your personalised AI, you can maximise each micro-interaction with everyone who logs onto your site. You can use your historical data to explore trends and learn how to convert that history into future predictions.
You can even benchmark your progress to see how AI is aiding conversions and sales, but more importantly, whether your personalisation strategies benefit your reputation and brand advocacy and entice former customers to return.
The possibilities are endless.