How AI is driving global commerce this holiday retail season
AI is quickly becoming a lifeline for businesses around the world, helping them streamline their operations and better serve their customers.
Small businesses, many with limited staff, experience and financial resources, are likely to see some of the biggest benefits, and they are already taking steps to seize the opportunities. According to Shopify’s 2024 global Merchant Survey, 49% of UK retailers plan to use AI to help them generate content such as product descriptions or social media. A third (30%) also said they use it to enhance product images on their websites, and the same use it in their marketing efforts.
It’s clear that AI has the power to revolutionize the way companies large and small operate. However, there is still room for improvement, especially to improve the shopping experience for customers. If brands want to thrive as consumer expectations grow, they must implement AI strategies into every aspect of their business.
Head of Partnerships for Northern Europe at Shopify.
Consumer expectation versus AI reality
Our new 2024 Holiday Retail research report shows that consumers see the benefits of AI and want more. It emphasizes how AI can improve the shopping experience, improve the service they receive from brands and especially improve the in-store experience (36%).
While merchants have clearly noticed some ways AI can help them, the customer experience is sadly lacking. Only 20% of retailers plan to use it specifically to improve that part of their business this year. With so much consumer interest in AI, now is the time for brands to differentiate themselves by delivering AI-enhanced customer experiences.
Personalization innovation
AI will be critical in helping sellers find the balance between running their business and building meaningful relationships with their customers. Moving beyond making imagery and marketing campaigns more interesting to consumers, companies must also consider how they can integrate AI to drive greater personalization at scale.
Providing a personalized service to many customers at the same time – each expecting a service that suits their unique preferences – is quickly becoming a differentiator for retailers. Fortunately, AI can step in to ease the burden on these companies. Just as Netflix recommends shows based on past viewing behavior, retailers can use the data they have from customers to increase engagement.
AI can also be a useful tool to help companies expand more quickly into new markets. Using AI capabilities to create product descriptions in local languages and apply sensitivity to different cultures can increase relevance and credibility for brands with local audiences.
However, AI and personalization are not limited to online. With the rise of unified commerce – which connects all points of the sales channels into a single view of the customer – retailers can offer the same experience to shoppers in-store.
Combined, the insights AI solutions create can even help reduce customer acquisition costs by allowing marketing and sales teams to focus on bringing the right product to the right customers.
While retaining the human dimension
While AI has the potential to boost businesses, it cannot replace human interaction and creativity. A theme that keeps coming up when we talk to consumers is that while they want fast, efficient, and personalized experiences from the brands they interact with, they don’t want to feel like they’re just interacting with a robot.
For companies, a balance must be found. Integrate AI into the tasks that teams don’t have the skills or time to work on, so they can focus on delivering the best and most importantly human service to customers.
The AI-driven future of retail
Operations such as product image enhancements and descriptions, marketing campaigns, and more will all benefit from AI-based optimization. Such solutions, in addition to real human interactions, already have a material impact on what the customer experience looks like.
As expectations grow about what the customer experience should look like and a seamless online and shopping experience becomes the must-have, the importance of AI will continue to increase. While retailers can collect and aggregate that data, only with AI and digital tools can they identify the insights it provides and act on it to provide consumers with the unified and personalized service they are looking for.
We’ve highlighted the best e-commerce tool.
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