Worldwide eCommerce companies are migrating into a new era of customer experience, using the latest marketing technology – artificial intelligence (AI). They are shifting from reactive to strategic, improving sales, and estimating profits. In order to help you gain insight into the future and focus on the right path, we have compiled a list of the 4 most powerful applications of AI in eCommerce including Voice Assistant, Visual Search, Chatbot and Location-based Service.

Voice Assistant

Tech-giants have already paved the way for the voice assistants industry. Google's (GOOG, GOOGL) Google Assistant, Apple's (AAPL) Siri, Microsoft's (MSFT) Cortana and Amazon's (AMZN) Alexa/Echo have all become household names. 97% of mobile users are already using AI-powered voice assistants according to Creative Strategies. In fact, Statista.com also forecast that by 2023, the world would hit 8 billion personal voice assistants - a greater number than the global population.

AI in eCommerce has not been comprehensively reached yet, but voice search is soaring in popularity. Gartner estimates that 30% of Internet commercial searches will be conducted without a screen by 2020. Quoracreative reveals that 2020 will witness 50% of all Internet searches to be voice-articulated. Before we know it, the voice-first movement could dominate eCommerce.

In the Google Assistant age, you are just one voice command away from your favorite items. The program can recognize and analyze human oral language in every subfield of linguistics like lexicology, syntax, semantics, phonetics, and phonology. You only have to say – "OK Google, buy me this." And Google will provide you with the best choices in terms of price, location and other personal factors that have been collected from you. How amazing is that? 

Over recent years, North Face (VFC), an outdoor clothing store, has been developing an app that employs a voice assistant to assist the customer through the whole shopping process with natural language. Through the ability to encourage customers to speak aloud about their wants and needs and then bring them directly to the shop, voice assistance has become an entirely new dimension for retail brands. 

Let AI in eCommerce help your online business to approach customers on a personal level, provide them read-out-loud product details, shipping and paying options.

Visual Search

AI in eCommerce also powers the second changing-the-game type of search - visual search. A perfect example is Pinterest Lens, a 2017 invention. Since its launch, Pinterest (PINS) has performed a total of 600 million visual searches a month.

The first way brands are taking advantage of this new tool is by investing in their social media sponsor strategy. Recently, Snapchat (SNAP) claimed that it’s working on AI in eCommerce with the world's biggest multi-vendor marketplace Amazon. Snapchat cameras will soon allow users to scan any physical products or barcode for an instant tab showing on their screen with similar items from Amazon. 

The second marketing opportunity is to equip a visual-based product recommendation tool for eCommerce sites. Online shopper often appreciate being recommended similar product This helps save time and also allows customers to make quick comparisons in price, design, brand, and customer reviews. 

AI in eCommerce takes effect by explicating and optimizing the search engines, using NLP or natural language technique. Not only that, but AI adopts visual search features to actually match the items. The result is customers get suggested with the items they want and love. The module offers fantastic online experience to the buyers, as well as an excellent boost in sales and profits for vendors through motivating the buyers to pick up these related items.

Chatbot

Baidu (BIDU) Chatbot

A chatbot is a software program that imitates a chat with real humans for some particular services. AI in eCommerce has enabled chatbots to run using artificial intelligence along with machine learning to manage a much wider range of conversations and user queries. AI chatbots can read the user's complicated language to communicate and satisfy his or her needs. Rather than responding to basic commands like simple chatbots.

Furthermore, chatbots are a far more cost effective method for the eCommerce industry to provide assistance 24/7. For example, retail companies like Domino's Pizza (DPZ) are leveraging chatbots for repeating processes such as ordering. Such bots generally give customers answers for most issues they have to deal with. 

Chatbots don't just sound cool. Research shows that customers are more willing and eager to buy online with chatbots than ever. On average, people are estimated to pay over $55 per purchase on chatbot shopping. Grand View Research's figures reveal that the worldwide chatbots market is expected to hit $1.23B by the year 2025, with a yearly economic expansion rate of 24.3%.

Another example of how AI chatbots can help brands communicate with customers is Sephora. The chatbot from Sephora (LVMUY) provides customers with advice for makeup and offers product recommendations based on their responses to a personal quiz on their use of cosmetics. It also guides users to complete orders on the Sephora app or on the web. But the makeup business refused to stop there. Sephora already launched a program named Sephora Virtual Artist. It allows users to see what Sephora's products will look like on their faces by placing the cosmetics on the selfie the customers provide.

Of course, some merchants still prefer traditional human-to-human chats that allow reaching customers at a much more personal level.

Location-based Services

As marketers explore the potential of location-based augmented reality - think Nintendo's (NTDOY) PokemonGo - new ways to reach customers are being sought. It is not only important for them to locate the customer’s whereabouts, but also to know their interests. AI in eCommerce has made both of that possible.

Location-based services focus on the situation that we always have a mobile phone with us wherever we go these days. And most of us share our location data with the different applications we are using. A research report by Microsoft entitled "The Consumer Data Value Exchange'' found that the customers are happy to share information in exchange for loyalty points, money rewards, coupons, and other benefits. Some shocking figures from this research are that 99.6% share location for cash rewards; 89.3% share location for coupons; 65.2% share location for loyalty points.

The most popular location-based service among online shoppers is store locating. With this advanced service, they can easily search for the nearest store, warehouse, or office using Google Maps & AMP. That’s how location data benefits shoppers. But what about on the vendor's side? Location data is given in real-time giving vendors the chance to pursue people at the precise moments for marketing. For instance, Starbucks (SBUX) sends customers messages when they walk by their stores. At the end of 2014, Starbucks started to invest in location-based services. It collects the ID and locations of the customers and then sends them targeted ads. Some people will undoubtedly find that creepy. But as a business, it means that you can always offer people the deals which are completely relevant to them at that particular moment.

It makes no sense to offer customers a product or service, regardless of their circumstances, in the hope that they might want it. Vendors now have the ability to display something totally relevant to users by using location-based services powered by AI in eCommerce. It's a more proactive way to figure out what potential buyers are keen on and then personalize the message.

AI in eCommerce allows forward-thinking companies to unlock new aspects of their strategy, maximize resources, predict the impact of customer behavior and make decisions in advance. It's not about if AI can improve sales and customer service, but about how and to what degree. Now is the moment for retail businesses to begin piloting, deploying and incorporating AI in eCommerce as we are entering the dawn of a new decade.