Why all eCommerce businesses need machine learning

artificial intelligence

Every eCommerce business owner has to be aware of the advantages technology can provide these days.

More and more people are switching their buying habits to the online world, and just having a website isn’t enough anymore. That’s why companies all over the world are working with IT Staffing Companies who are able to provide customized Machine Learning (ML) solutions.

The Link between Machine Learning and eCommerce

The number of people running their money through internet-based businesses is higher than ever, and this trend will probably keep up throughout the next decade. All this traffic equals a massive amount of data that companies can work on their favor—and the key to do so is machine learning.

Machine Learning is a form of Artificial Intelligence that, as its name implies, works by creating computer algorithms that learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed for it. Of course, it is all based on very complicated mathematical and statistical models that we don’t need to explain right now.

What you basically need to know is that ML fulfills the role of extracting valuable insights from large and complex sets of raw data. As the algorithm gathers more and higher-quality data, it becomes faster, more cost-effective, and it increases its efficiency and success rate at gathering insights and predicting user behavior.

As your eCommerce site traffic grows, ML becomes a great solution to optimize its speed, understand how users interact with its elements, and discover opportunities based on the gathered insights.

Machine Learning Benefits

  1. Learn customer patterns and trends: When users browse through your eCommerce site, they leave a unique trail that tells the story of their behavior. Machine Learning can help you analyze each step they make and, in a way, find out what was going through their heads. This way, you can extract detailed patterns and trends directly from the actions of your user base.

Automation makes ML the most agile, accurate, and cost-effective tool to analyze large amounts of data. And, as the algorithm tracks more information, it will learn to recognize other patterns and trends without the need of you telling it to search for them.

  1. Personalized Website Content: Nothing brings conversion and engagement rates up like personalized content. ML algorithms can pinpoint the best content to show any user, based on previously identified data patterns from either text or images. The algorithms can even take into account factors like style, color, activity history, friend preferences, etc.. This way, all shopping results are served according to the personal preferences of each user.
  2. Access Next-level Searching: Searching has changed a lot in the last few years. The value of every waiting second has skyrocketed and people are more impatient than ever. However, there’s no way around it: eCommerce businesses have to use technology to provide the service their customers expect.

Thankfully, ML can increase your user’s satisfaction when searching by adjusting their results according to the shopper’s information. This brings you a step up from simple database searches and adds some personalization to the matter, which ultimately increases the speed of conversion rates.

  1. Dynamic Pricing: We all know the basic theory of supply and demand, and with ML you can adjust your offer according to how that relationship changes. Dynamic pricing can improve your KPIs by keeping a close eye on new information and detect upcoming demands and trends even before they happen.

    As a result, online retailers can create a dynamic pricing strategy that leaves behind simple markdown prices and allow them to determine the best price for each particular product. This also includes real-time discounts that react to real-world factors, such as the product’s stock. A great way to maximize sales and to optimize inventory, if you ask me.

  2. Image Processing: Sometimes users want to buy something they just can’t describe with words—so they use pictures. Automated image recognition systems can categorize images and influence shoppers’ decisions by showing them more of the stuff they would like to see. This takes into account things like the usually bought products (and their respective color, brand, etc) and data from social media.

Betting on Tech

Technology has always been a driver of change. Thus, it would seem that ML is destined to become an essential part of the eCommerce industry. We can actually see its effect by the number of companies looking at IT outsourcing solutions that help them implement it into their sites.

Machine Learning will not just let you see the bigger picture—it will help you understand it better. Extracting meaningful insights from all of your customers is not a task any human can do. What is up to you is how you use that information to grow and generate more conversions and engagements.

Whether we like it or not, sooner or later Machine Learning will become an industry standard. So, if you want to keep up with the market and get an edge over your competition, go for it. I promise you won’t look back.