In the digital age, visual expression and touch points matter the most to shoppers. In fact, from small to large retailers, AI-based solutions have become the answer to create a high response rate and garner more attraction towards their online products.
According to the Global eCommerce Report of 2020, the online shopping market came close to $4 trillion. Not to mention the U.S. is set to surpass 300 million online shoppers by 2023. Since almost 70 percent of Americans shop online, it makes perfect sense to adapt and embrace new technologies that can transform the customer experience.
It is no wonder indie eCommerce players expect to get 30 percent higher conversion rates than larger retailers on mobile. We know that an AI-based chatbot is the ideal mode of communication for up to 60 percent of millennials to get an instant answer. Millennials also prefer to use chatbots as the main support channel.
Research shows that millennials and Gen Z shoppers prefer to use AI-powered technology to interact with brands and get information about new products. According to Gartner, over 85 percent of interactions with consumers are managed through AI.
The conversation around “how” customers can, or even if they should, use AI on eCommerce sites continues. Even though the suggestion of “AI” seems non-personal, the fact is it does allow brands to get even more personal than before with more people visiting their sites. The emotional touch for customers leads to a consumer-friendly environment. AI emotion responses boost personalization and propel customers to be more communicative. Of course, finding what you want quickly doesn’t hurt either! Using AI emotion technology translates into more emotional engagement with customers so it’s likely here to stay.
Swap.com and FIND.Fashion partnership serves as a perfect example of how visual searching through AI and emotional intelligence can work for user experience without being creepy or cold. Swap is the largest online reseller of clothing and shoes for the entire family – including men which is a space underserved by secondhand clothing sites. Swap is frequently visited by its loyal users to find all kinds of clothes for their entire family.
You may not realize it, but AI-based visual emotional recognition renders a powerful shopping experience by allowing buyers to find more quickly what they want within a sea of products. Swap has over 2 million items to search through and adds more every day. This search tool is a key part of a positive user experience at Swap and users that utilize it are more likely to find more of what they want on the site.
Studies show this new form of technology is what any online retailer needs to gain the trust of customers and create unique shopping experiences for shoppers. With AI-powered technology and emotion recognition data, shoppers can search and browse through a multitude of items in an instant. Today, it is no wonder that most eCommerce experts profess that AI-powered tech solution represents the dawn of a new era and will set the bar higher for online shopping experiences.
Like Swap and FIND.Fashion, the trick for retailers in achieving higher revenue generation with AI will depend on “how” they use AI-based solutions.
There’s a secret sauce when it comes to using technology while making it seem very seamless. FIND.Fashion achieves this on Swap with a customer-driven journey. When shopping on Swap via your smartphone, you can select “See More Like This” and the AI takes over showing you several similar products on the site. It adjusts based on your movements and selections at the moment. Unlike historical data or saved searches, it works with you in that search to find what you’re really interested in at that moment. Visual emotion recognition is powerful for customers to make the “right” purchases and save valuable time at the same time.
The truth is that millennials and Gen Z prefers to make visual search rather than use old-school text search to buy preferred products on a site. As an internet retailer, Swap wants to reshape and simplify its buying and selling process through AI-powered solutions. FIND.Fashion is a perfect fit to transform its product search capabilities through visual search rather than text search. It pairs up emotion recognition with artificial intelligence to make the search more intuitive and accurate for shoppers. Shoppers can find hidden products 4x times more efficiently on the site.
It is a brave new world and online retail experts are more interested in emotion AI than ever. It’s a win-win integration solution for eCommerce and consumers. On the surface, the idea of inquiring about a product through a robot may seem like a cliché. But AI-powered solution makes dedicated inquiries simpler and more personalized.
