Machine learning can be categorized as an application which provides the system with an ability to automatically learn and progressively enhance its performance from experience without being specifically programmed. This technological advancement has opened the door for automation that is a way more intelligent and also helps to cut the time in half which was used to be taken for manual processes by human beings.
Being an application of AI (Artificial Intelligence), It has reduced the time-consuming work of teams of analysts to a few seconds of the technology itself. The huge growth of this MI is disrupting eCommerce to an extent.
With the competitive drive of the eCommerce industry, It has become essential for any retailer to offer its customers a better and more convenient environment while shopping online. Therefore, a huge number of the retailers have jumped into the train of machine learning in order to conquer the challenge of realizing and meeting the high expectations of the customers.
Below are some areas in which machine learning is proving as a turning point for eCommerce:
1. Data Quality
In the current data-driven world, the quality maintenance of data is becoming essential. This maintenance always remains the top priority for any kind of online business.
For any eCommerce retailer, it is quite difficult to keep an effective tracking of operations and an accurate maintenance of customer’s interaction and purchase histories. The rise of machine learning makes it possible to accurately gather and store the data and further the cost saving of the retailers. In the ML models, whenever a new data is being submitted it automatically start learning, performing and delivering accurate results. It has dramatically impacted the traditional methodologies for data quality.
2. Search Areas (Query Expansions, and related queries etc.)
One of the best ways to make and retain a customer/shopper is to provide what he/she is looking for in few easy steps without any hassle. So many times we see a drop-down list whenever we type a word in the search box, all this is being done with this intelligent technology. It helps us in query understanding and further, expanding the query with the entered word’s synonym, spelling correction and multiple other facets that we can interpret a query by.
A number of eCommerce stores are taking advantages of machine learning to tune in with the relevant information for the delivery of better prediction engines and recommendations that exactly provide the customers with what they are looking for.
Basically, the machine learning has helped the retailers to build a relevant model which is more accurate than the hand-tuning search of any online store.
3. Churn Prediction
One of the major concern of businesses of all sizes including start-ups is losing a customer. Churn prediction basically helps in detecting those customers who are more likely to cancel a service or subscription from the company.
A major role behind churn prediction is played by machine learning, which is a component of Artificial Intelligence and where intelligence is built by referring to a number of examples. It helps in the prediction by maintaining, analyzing and comparing the track record of every existing customer for a specific time period. This process helps in the customer retention and advance prediction of customers who are at a risk of leaving.
4. Product Recommendation
The level of competition in eCommerce has never been as intense as it is now. Thus, offering your potential customers relevant recommendation based on their taste plays a central role in converting a visitor to a buyer and then further to a loyal one.
MI has helped eCommerce in developing unique engine recommendations which can assist customers to get such a shopping experience in which most of the relevant products are displayed real time. Machine learning platform here is being used to do activities such as collection, storage, loading and analyzing the data of every individual which come across the website.
Whenever a new user purchases a product and heads toward the cart, the system automatically shows a list of similar products or the products which other buyers had opted while choosing the same one. And, for the repeating customers, the system already knows the taste and preferences to show in the product recommendations. It helps the visitors to explore more and eventually buy more.
Running a product recommendation on your eCommerce platform provides you with flexibility and scalability in the solutions that you wish to run.
5. Customer Support (advances in speech recognition and natural language processing via deep learning)
For any online retailer, It is quite essential to streamline its customer service efforts. The needs of customer service/support are 24×7 and it is impossible for the human tendency to be available for prompt responses and solutions.
Nowadays, automation does not only mean delivering same recorded messages over and over again. With intelligent automation and chatbots, customer services have been more personalized varying on the customer’s needs and history over some specific tasks. Over the past few years, the customer support has become a proactive part of the business rather than being reactive. For e.g. you receive emails regarding your subscription expiration is a part of proactive machine learning behind the system. Undoubtedly, handing over all the customer support services to the technology sounds really scary. However, there are a number of ways in which the automation is helping the businesses to fulfill the needs to some extent.
Machine learning is gaining huge importance by one of the world’s largest retailers and helping them to achieve high efficiencies and cost savings. It can help you to achieve an unbeatable position in eCommerce market with its intelligence. If you further need any assistance in utilizing machine learning in eCommerce, you can contact our team at The Brihaspati Infotech. We are happy to help you.