AI intelligent technology can help retailers improve customer experience and attract new customers. The following are three main ways:
1. Chatbots and auxiliary self-service
Retailers can use AI technology to reduce call volume and establish direct contact with customers, which is especially suitable for situations where the seller's brand is not dominant.
AI, that is, non-human service, is the future of the customer service industry. Gartner, a U.S. consulting firm, predicts that by 2020, 85% of customer touchpoints will achieve non-human service. What's more, by 2018, cross-channel chatbots will be able to recognize customers' voices and facial images.
WeChat has already adopted such tools to reach customers and the market. WeChat's intelligent voice robot is connected to many other tools, such as chat windows and mobile wallets.
2. Improve customer experience
E-commerce website pages — such as category and product display pages, which integrate data, technology, user experience and high-quality content, and are critical to improving conversion rates — are broad areas for the application of AI intelligence.
For example, outdoor clothing brands will soon launch a mobile app that allows users to converse with IBM's Watson (an artificial intelligence program) to find the products they need as soon as possible. Customers can directly enter information in the app, such as talking about how weather changes will affect their favorite sports, and Watson will give a lot of appropriate suggestions.
It is预计ed that AI assistants will be able to recognize customers' faces and voices within the next 2 years. Retailers can make the voice of AI assistants more human-like. In order to provide a better customer experience, AI assistants need to draw on a large amount of human service experience to avoid asking frequent questions.
3. Price prediction
For consumers, making the online shopping process interactive is a dream come true. They only need to state the items they want, and then AI will provide matching products for them to choose from. In this way, designers, buyers and merchants can work together to predict consumer demand, even if they do not know whether such a product exists.
Travel websites can also adopt AI technology. Google recently added a new function that tells consumers when it is cost-effective to book air tickets. This AI function is based on historical data of flights to a certain destination, and it can also predict prices.
To use AI technology for price prediction, retailers need to base on historical product pricing and competitors' pricing; inventory and profit targets; and customer satisfaction levels. Platform sellers that price based on AI algorithms will enjoy higher exposure, greater sales volume and customer feedback rate.