The beloved Christmas and New Year holidays are just around the corner, and already the online stores do not stop offering us various promotions and interesting products, which of course we cannot pass by indifferently. But how do we know what we need and which is the perfect choice for us? What to order from the online store whose ad we came across on Facebook? Yes, every one of us has thought this… Clothes, makeup, home products, appliances… A bit of everything. But the truth is that during this time of the year, driven by the holiday euphoria in our home, there is always at least one or a few extra purchases we have made. And in order not to “throw our money to the wind”, but to shop rationally and according to our needs and abilities, it is good to have a helper at our side. Be it mom, friend, sister or… Chatbot.

Do Internet users trust artificial intelligence when placing orders online?
According to research by Storyblok, a specialist in content management systems (CMS), there is a serious disconnect between what brands think consumers want and what they really need when shopping online.

Despite the euphoria around ChatGPT, a global survey of 1,000 consumers reveals that 85% of them are not interested in using artificial intelligence to help them make purchasing decisions. Furthermore, if offered an AI recommendation, 60% said it would not make them buy something and 17% said it would actually make them less likely to make a purchase.

In contrast, another global survey of 500 senior marketers reveals that 64% of them report regularly turning to AI to help create digital content, while only 11% say they have never used it.

When asked which is a brand’s most important marketing channel, the majority of consumers (43%) said a brand’s website is more valuable than its mobile app (34%) or social media accounts (16%). 70% of consumers also say they primarily use a smartphone for online shopping, highlighting the need for brands to offer mobile-optimized web experiences.

“It’s easy for brands to fall into the trap of chasing the latest trends instead of giving people what they actually want. As these survey results show, consumers have authentic content and useful websites on their wish list this holiday season”, said Dominik Angerer, CEO and co-founder of Storyblok.

Interestingly, previous Storyblok research has shown that businesses continue to underestimate the importance of their website, with only 28% citing improving website design as a priority and only 36% saying they would add more features. This is despite the fact that 60% of consumers regularly abandon purchases due to poor website user experience, and businesses estimate that this costs an average of US$72,000 in lost sales per year. Significantly, 48% of businesses also admit to being ashamed of their website.

The current survey also reveals that influencers are not as influential as they used to be. 57% of consumers say that the endorsement of a celebrity or influencer would not make them purchase a product, and 24% say it would make them less likely to purchase it.

At the same time, it turns out that creating trending content is one of the most effective ways to build trust. 90% of consumers say content created by brands is important in shaping their perception of brands and their products. Only 5% say they are more likely to buy new brands instead of brands they trust.

Creating a More Efficient Sales Process

Most consumers have moved on from old sales techniques such as picking up the Yellow Pages and calling cold to old sales tactics such as A wide range of media, including TV ads and social media, strongly influence the lives of customers nowadays. In the past year, Snapchat has increasingly become a viable sales and marketing tool. The best way to tailor your solution to a consumer’s needs and create a message that reaches them is to integrate AI into your CRM. There are a number of AI systems available that enable natural language learning and voice input, such as Siri, Alexa, etc. An effective CRM system can handle customer queries and provide solutions to their problems. It may even identify further opportunities for sales teams. In some AI-powered CRM systems, you can also multitask these functions on top of others.

Personalization of Online Purchases

The use of artificial intelligence in eCommerce allows shoppers to make more informed buying decisions. By integrating AI into their systems, companies can run real-time analyses on customers and develop specialized shopping experiences that are reliable and impressive. The clients who need specific products, such as clothing, furniture, appliances, and musical instruments, even items that are difficult to find. An AI could suggest products that are suitable for a user based on their preferences. By analyzing clicks, shopping carts, purchase histories, and search queries, AI can play a huge part in predicting customer behaviour in an online environment. eCommerce brands can use all of these to provide suitable suggestions for additional purchases that are in line with the user’s own preferences.

Fighting Fake Reviews

Reviewers played an important role in helping people make purchases in the past, and still play an important role in today’s world. 90% of people regularly read online reviews, and 87% believe that they are just as trustworthy as other forms of communication. However, there is a growing sceptical element in the population. In the wake of last year’s controversies over fake content, customers have changed the way they look at the information they find online, even if it looks like it’s. It is inconceivable that the media have ever been as aggressive in their pursuit of truth as they are. A large volume of user-generated content can now be analyzed by artificial intelligence. An analytical algorithm was used to analyze 25,000 reviews of hotels that were found across the web and analyzed with machine learning. Since more real reviews than fake ones dominate, customers can see the truth because there is always more truth than fiction. The online shops can utilize this engine so that they can draw on the public opinion already expressed on the web, rather than inviting fake reviews.

Chatbots

You may need to wait a long time to get answers to your queries as a customer. Artificial intelligence can assist with this task by using algorithms to train machines to act as chatbots that provide assistance to customers. It is possible to use a machine to answer FAQs, take orders, and track them. Natural language processing (NLP) is used to teach chatbots to imitate the conversational styles of customer service representatives. With advanced chatbots, you no longer need to provide specific formatted inputs. It is possible for them to answer complex questions that require Artificial intelligence will give the appearance of a customer representative when, in fact, they are simply another form. In the event that you give a bad rating for the response, the bot will identify the mistake it made and correct it the next time

Visual Search

Clients are able to find products faster with AI technology, which is one of the biggest openings for eCommerce. A chatbot can be developed to assist, or there is the possibility of building a more semantic text search, but the most promising application of visual search is It is beneficial to all parties. A business can drastically shorten the customer journey culminating in the checkout process by allowing customers to immediately find what they want.

Inventory Management and Sales Forecasting

A store’s inventory management can lead to many headaches and even to the downfall of the company. US companies admit they don’t track their inventory in 46% of cases, but they are tied up with more than $1 trillion of capital in other types of A surplus of stock is a loss for your company. A low stock level means that you might lose the kind of seesaw that everyone who operates an eCommerce business has grappled with has had to contend Stock management can snatch the rug from under your feet, regardless of whether you have overstock or an understock. Using manual methods will make it hard or impossible to predict sales accurately. In the end, we have difficulty funding our operations. By incorporating AI into your forecasting process, you become more precise in anticipating future demands. Having this information allows you to manage your supply chain more effectively and learn more about your customers. The result is that shrinkage is reduced, and you receive time and money savings.

In the last year, Google eliminated fees for merchants and allowed sellers to list their wares in its search results for free. It is also trying to make it easier for small, independent shops to upload their inventory of products to appear in search results and buy ads on Google by teaming up with Shopify.

Google has nothing as alluring as the $295 billion that passed through Amazon’s third-party marketplace in 2020. The amount of goods people buy on Google is “very small” said Juozas Kaziukenas, the founder of Marketplace Pulse, a research company.

Amazon is a fixture in the lives of many Americans. It has become equally essential for marketers and private shoppers. Amazon’s global advertising business grew 30% to $17.6 billion in 2020, trailing only Google and Facebook in the United States. However, as the pandemic has forced many stores to go online, it has created a new opening for Google.

Sellers also complain about Amazon’s fees, which can account for a quarter of every sale, not including the cost of advertising, and the pressure to spend more to succeed. Merchants on Amazon do not have a direct relationship with their customers, limiting their ability to generate future business.

Since 2002, when it started a price comparison site called Froogle, Google has struggled to chart a cohesive vision for its shopping experience. It tried to challenge Amazon directly by piloting its own same-day delivery service, but it shuttered the project as costs ballooned. It tried to forge partnerships with traditional retail giants, only to see the alliances wilt from a lack of sales. It built its own marketplace to make it easier for shoppers to buy the things they find on Google but was not able to break consumers from their Amazon habit.

Last year, Google brought in Bill Ready, a former chief operating officer at PayPal, to fill a new senior position and spearhead an overhaul of its shopping strategy. When the pandemic spurred huge demand for online shopping, Google eliminated fees, allowing retailers to list products for free and walking back a 2012 decision to allow only advertisers to display goods on its shopping site.

Three months after hiring Mr Ready, Google said the free listings would show up on its main search results. Google said customers could buy products directly from merchants on Google with no commissions. It also said Google would open its platform to third parties like Shopify and PayPal so that sellers could continue to use their existing tools to manage inventory and orders and to process payments.

Bill Ready, Photo Credits: New York Times

The partnership with Shopify was very meaningful because hundreds of thousands of small businesses have flocked to the software platform during the pandemic.

Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s president, said Google and Shopify were developing new ways for merchants to sell through Google services, such as experiments to allow customers to buy items directly on YouTube and to display what products stores are carrying in Google Maps.

Mr Ready walked a fine line when it came to Amazon, which is a big buyer of ads on Google, but he made it clear he believed Amazon’s dominance in e-commerce posed a threat to other merchants.

Google said it had increased the number of sellers appearing in its results by 80% in 2020. What remains unclear is whether increasing the number of merchants and listings on Google will ultimately change online shopping habits.