The past decade has witnessed an exponential rise in artificial intelligence (AI) and its applications across industries. Its adoption has grown so rapidly that it’s projected the industry will be valued at $118 billion in the next couple of years.
With companies reporting up to 40% increase in productivity, it’s safe to say we’re witnessing one of the greatest tech revolutions in history.
As an online store owner, you can’t afford to undermine the importance of this technological revolution. Its capabilities should not only be leveraged for growth but also integrated into your online store.
Among the many benefits provided by AI is its ability to automate repetitive tasks, provide accurate customer insights, and improve store performance.
Shopify, one of the most popular e-commerce platforms, has already embraced this technology and is now providing AI-based features to merchants.
So, if you’re a Shopify store owner looking to integrate AI into your existing store, here’s a detailed guide on how to do it.
But first, let’s find out why you should take the plunge in the first place.
Why Should You Incorporate AI In Your Shopify Store?
Let’s take you down memory lane and back to when artificial intelligence was just a sci-fi concept. Who knew this technology would one day become a part of our lives and have the power to transform businesses?
AI is no longer just a concept, it’s here, and it’s here to stay.
The key goal of every e-commerce store is to offer convenience to its customers. You want them to have a seamless shopping experience with you and a lasting impression of your store.
That’s where AI technology comes in handy. You can automate mundane tasks like order tracking, product recommendations, and customer segmentation by leveraging its capabilities.
So, why should you incorporate AI into your Shopify store?
According to many marketing experts, most Shopify store owners have yet to fully understand the efficacy of artificial intelligence in the e-commerce industry, especially for sales and marketing.
Consumers crave convenience, and AI is the perfect way to meet their needs. It allows you to offer personalised shopping experiences, accurate product recommendations, and respond to customer queries in real time, all of which are crucial for success in the e-commerce world.
Not to mention, AI technology can also help you reduce operational costs and human errors while improving customer satisfaction.
With all that said, let’s move on to the main part — incorporating AI in your Shopify store.
How to Use AI to Market and Sell More on Shopify
AI has revolutionised the way businesses market and sell online. It can help you understand customer behaviour, target them more accurately, and improve your overall customer experience.
Here are some ways to use AI in your Shopify store:
#1. Personalisation at Scale
Consumers don’t want personalised experiences; they expect it. But imagine a situation where you’re dealing with thousands of customers. You can’t manually provide a customised experience to every one of them.
Enter personalisation at scale. AI-powered solutions can help you customise your product recommendations, website content, and ad campaigns on the fly.
And the best part is that you can do them at scale. Whether it’s each subscriber a personalised email or personalise your website’s content and product listings in real-time, AI can help you do it quickly and efficiently.
All it takes is to figure out what tool to use and how to use it.
In which case, there’s an AI tool for almost anything you might be thinking of doing, whether it’s to automate product recommendations, provide real-time customer support, or send AI-powered emails.
A quick search on the Shopify App Store will bring up plenty of apps that you can use to incorporate AI into your store.
For example, there’s an app for sending automated product recommendations to your customers via email, another for voice search optimisation, and another for creating AI-powered product listings.
However, you want to note that personalisation isn’t a matter of choosing an AI tool and calling it a day. It also requires strategy, planning, and a certain degree of customisation to pull this off.
Why Does Personalization Strategy Matter?
While personalisation can be done on the fly with AI, it’s important to note that too much of it can harm your business more than do it good.
In the 2018 CX Trends report, 75% of consumers found personalisation somewhat creepy. Of the 75% that found personalisation creepy, 22% were quick to add that they’ll abandon a brand and search for a new one if personalisation went too far.
As you can see, it’s a fine line between serving your customers with personalised experiences and creepily knowing too much about them.
For this reason, it’s important to develop a personalisation strategy that strikes a balance between being helpful and overbearing.
One way to do this is by being transparent about what data you collect and how you use it. You can also offer customers an opt-in or opt-out choice to personalisation, so they have a say in how their data is used.
Also, why not let them play an active role in how their data is collected? For example, you could organise style quizzes that allow them to volunteer information about their preferences and tastes.
An example of a retailer that does this is ThirdLove. Users kick off their bra-shopping experience with a quiz asking them about their bra size and some of the issues they have with their current bras.
By answering this quiz, ThirdLove obtains valuable customer information that it uses to serve them with tailored recommendations.
How to Deliver a Personalised Shopify Experience with AI?
Once you have a personalisation strategy in place, it’s time to start using AI to deliver such experiences.
Here are a few ways you can deliver a personalised experience with AI:
- Implement product recommendations. You can use AI to analyse your customers’ purchase history and behaviours on your site and generate tailored product recommendations.
- Invest in chatbots. Chatbots are a great way to provide customers with real-time answers and automated support.
- Personalised Content. You can use AI to personalise your website content. For instance, you could have the AI recognise and greet returning customers by name or serve relevant content based on their previous reads.
- Personalised Pricing and Discounts. You can use AI to offer personalised discounts and pricing based on their purchase history and other factors.
#2. Chatbots
AI-powered chatbots can be a great way to provide customers with real-time answers and personalised automated assistance. They help reduce the burden on customer service agents by taking on simpler, more repetitive tasks.
For instance, they can offer instant product recommendations and provide customers with information about their order status or shipping.
Chatbots can also be used to collect customer feedback, help customers with their purchases, and even answer basic questions about your products or services.
AI-based chatbots are a great way to engage your customers and ensure they receive the help they need quickly.
#3. Smart Marketing
Consumers aren’t the same old buyers with low-level expectations anymore. They have grown more intelligent and demanding, expecting tailored solutions and offers. AI-driven marketing strategies can help you meet these expectations.
You can use AI to study the effectiveness of your previous campaigns, analyse subject lines, email copies, and social media posts, and predict consumer behaviour trends and preferences.
By leveraging AI, you can better understand your customers and deliver more value-driven campaigns with carefully crafted messages. That can help you retain customers, increase sales, and boost your ROI.
The idea is to give your customers an experience specifically tailored for them instead of bombarding them with generic content and offers.
#4. AI-Powered Product Suggestions
AI can make helpful product recommendations based on the customer’s profile, purchase history, and browsing behaviour.
A well-designed AI system can put together a list of products that the customer is most likely to be interested in and deliver highly relevant product recommendations.
This kind of personalisation is not only convenient for the customer, but it also helps to increase the average order value.
A study conducted by McKinsey showed that 35% of Amazon’s revenue was generated through product recommendations. Not only that, but they also reported a 29% increase in sales when customers interacted with their AI-driven product recommendation system (boosting their sales from $9.9 billion to $12.83 billion that same year.
Their product recommendations alone account for more than a third of their sales.
They have used AI to develop an automated, real-time product recommendation system based on customer behaviour and preferences.
So, to boost your sales and increase customer engagement, you should consider incorporating AI-powered product suggestions in your Shopify store.
That can help you recommend the right products to customers, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction and your bottom line.
Utilising AI-driven product recommendations can be a great way to boost your sales numbers.
So, if you want to take advantage of the power of AI on your Shopify store, give AI-powered product suggestions a go.
#5. Future Proof Virtual Stores
An online business with an obsolete tech infrastructure will soon go extinct. With companies working on implementing beacons, IoT-enabled shopping experiences, voice searches, and other futuristic technologies, it’s never been more important to future-proof your virtual store.
AI can help bridge the gap between traditional shopping methods and the newer, cutting-edge technology that’s fast becoming the norm.
AI can be used in virtual stores to improve the overall shopping experience, identify patterns and trends in customer behaviour, and recommend the right products to the right customers. It will cover you for a decade at least while you look to see what the future brings.
So, don’t let your shop become a relic of the past — incorporate AI to keep up with the times and give your customers the best experience possible.
#6. Automation
Online shopping has a lot of trigger points for consumer interactions. From the time a user signs up to the moment an order is placed and until a customer leaves your store, there will be a ton of messages, emails, and engagement points that need to be taken care of.
And this is just from the customer’s standpoint. Various back-end tasks also need to be handled, such as supply chain management, order fulfilment, and inventory tracking — not to mention your interaction with vendors, affiliates, and other external partners.
Fortunately, AI can help you automate many of these mundane yet critical tasks, freeing time to focus on more important matters, such as product development, customer service, and marketing.
The Top AI Apps for a Shopify Store
- Yotpo for product reviews;
- DataCue for automated emails and recommendations;
- Aurora AI for inventory management;
- ShipBob for order fulfilment and shipping;
- PredicSis for customer segmentation;
- SentiOne for sentiment analysis;
- Segmentify for personalised offers.
YotPo for Product Reviews
YotPo is an AI-driven Shopify app designed to help brands collect product reviews to drive social proof. It has an AI-powered review widget that automatically collects authentic customer reviews and uses natural language processing (NLP) to identify key themes in reviews and surface them on product pages.
Its partner integrations also allow brands to easily display these reviews and star ratings on search engines and social media, helping them increase conversions and boost customer trust.
What’s more? The plugin also enables brands to unlock synergies between loyalty and SMS marketing campaigns, helping them target the right customers at the right time.
Key Features
- Standout in the search engine results with Google Shopping Ads and Seller Ratings
- Connect reviews with SMS, subscriptions, and loyalty product synergies.
- Use the app to customise your review widget.
- Collect and display photo and video reviews to showcase the authenticity of customer experiences.
- Smart filters to quickly display relevant content and inspire buyer confidence
Pricing
- YotPo’s pricing plans start from $0/month (for the Free plan) and go up to $199/month for their Prime Plan.
#2. Datacue for Tailored Recommendations
Each visitor has different tastes and preferences, so why treat all customers the same? Datacue is a Shopify app that uses AI to personalise recommendations for each customer. It has a powerful behavioural engine that surfaces key customer insights and allows you to deliver tailored recommendations in real-time.
Key Features:
- You can adapt your website based on search/ad queries: The most valuable visitors will arrive via search queries and ads. Datacue analyses what each visitor is looking for and instantly adapts the website to match their interests. That helps you capture interest and convert customers faster.
- Dynamic recommendations: Create engaging content tailored to customers’ behaviour and interests.
- Understand Your Customers Through A/B Testing and Analytics: Find out which banner ad and product recommendations work best for each customer.
Get statistics on individual elements of a page, such as home visits, product page visits, and more.
- Tips on How to Make Better Content and Ads: You’ll be updated every week on what content or ad has made the most significant impact on your sales.
Pricing
Datacue’s pricing plans start from $9.99/month for their basic plan to $299.99/month for their premium plan.
#3. Omega ‑ Multi Facebook Pixels for Re‑Engagement
If you’re a Shopify store owner looking to make the most out of your Facebook Ads campaigns, Omega is the right app for you. It’s an AI-powered integration that helps you capture every conversion and fuel Facebook algorithm with rich user data. Omega helps you to create and deploy multiple Facebook pixels with different purposes, allowing you to target specific audiences and drive more sales.
Key Features
- Create and Deploy Multiple Facebook Pixels: This lets you capture conversions from different sources such as search, direct, and referral traffic.
- Dynamic Ad Targeting: Omega allows you to target customers based on their purchase behaviour and interests.
Pricing: Omega’s pricing plans start from $12.99/month, with a 7-day free trial.
#4. Hextom: Free Shipping Bar
This app will display a progress bar in your store, prompting customers to spend more money for free shipping. Hextom’s AI-powered integration intelligently adjusts the bar and the amount of money customers must spend to get free shipping. It also offers various customisation options to create a compelling customer experience.
Key Features:
- Dynamic Progress Bar: The bar adjusts how much customers have to spend to qualify for free shipping.
- Advanced Targeting Geo Location, Device, Customer, Page, and Product Targeting.
- Scheduling: Plan free shipping campaigns ahead of time.
- Customisation: Change the look and feel of the bar to fit your store’s branding.
Pricing: Hextom offers a free and premium plan starting at $9.99/month.
#5. Smart Purchase Orders AI for inventory management
This AI-powered inventory management system will help you streamline your ordering process. Smart Purchase Orders AI automatically sends purchase orders to suppliers, tracks order status, and reconciles inventory. This way, you can save time and money on manual data entry.
Key Features: ·
- Accurate sales/inventory forecasting: This feature helps you manage your inventory by predicting customer demand through data analysis
- Unlock the cash tied up in slow-moving stock: Use AI to identify slow-moving inventory and maximise your resources.
- Identify and capitalise on emerging trends: Get real-time insights into customer demand and adjust your inventory accordingly.
Pricing: Smart Purchase Orders AI has three pricing plans: Starter, Premium, and Elite.
Their starter plan goes $35/month, the Premium plan at $67/month, and Elite at $89/month.
#6. NoFraud Fraud Protection
Increase order accuracy and prevent lost sales. NoFraud is an AI-powered fraud detection system that protects your Shopify store from fraudulent orders. This platform uses advanced machine learning algorithms to detect fraudulent transactions and protect your store from chargebacks.
Key Features:
- Real-time Decisioning: NoFraud uses advanced AI algorithms to make real-time order decisions.
- Chargeback Protection: NoFraud’s chargeback protection guarantees to cover any losses from a fraudulent order. Customised Rules & Settings: Customise your fraud detection rules and settings to fit the needs of your business.
- Flexible Workflow: NoFraud’s flexible workflow allows you to customise the process based on your business needs.
Pricing: NoFraud app is free to install. Use their price calculator to determine the cost of using the tool.
#7. SentiOne for Sentiment Analysis
Analyse customer sentiment and feedback. SentiOne is an AI-powered social listening and conversation monitoring tool that helps you to analyse customer sentiment and feedback.
It uses natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to help you understand customer opinions, feelings and reactions about your product or store.
Key Features:
- Social Media Listening: Monitor customer conversations across social media platforms, forums, blogs and review sites.
- Sentiment Analysis: Analyse customer sentiment in real-time and quickly identify potential issues with your store.
- Conversational AI: Automate customer service interactions using an AI-powered chatbot to increase efficiency.
Pricing: The SentiOne app has two pricing plans: The team plan, which goes for $300/month and an enterprise plan that you’ll have to contact the company for a price quote.
Potential Risk of Using AI
Yes, there are potential risks associated with using AI in your Shopify store.
Here are a few potential risks to consider:
- Data Security: AI-enabled systems typically require large amounts of data to work properly, which can put your customer’s data at risk if not adequately protected.
- Lack of Human Oversight: AI systems can make decisions without any human oversight, and this could lead to wrong choices or unintended consequences.
- Legal Liability: There are potential legal liabilities associated with using AI in your store, so make sure you are aware of any laws or regulations that may apply to you.
- Accuracy: AI is not always accurate and can lead to wrong decisions if not adequately monitored and trained. That could potentially lead to bad decisions, poor customer experience and even a loss of trust from your customers.
- Privacy: AI-enabled systems can collect and store large amounts of customer data, which could put customer information at risk.
- Cost: AI-enabled systems can be expensive to set up and maintain, so make sure you understand the cost of running an AI system before investing in one.
Things to Consider Before Integrating AI into Your Shopify Store
Before integrating AI into your Shopify store, there are a few things you should consider:
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Understand the potential risks associated with using AI
Before using AI in your store, you must ensure you understand the potential risks and take the necessary steps to protect your customers’ data. Remember, AI works with large amounts of data that could put customer information at risk if not handled properly and secured.
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Understand The Current and Future Needs of Your Business
AI can help you automate processes, optimise customer experience and increase efficiency. But first, you need to understand the current needs of your business and where you want it to be in the future. That will help you decide which AI solutions best suit your business needs.
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Ensure there are safeguards to protect customer data
AI can collect and store large amounts of customer data, so it’s important to ensure you have proper safeguards to protect your customers’ data.
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Understand the cost of running an AI system
AI-enabled systems can be expensive to set up and maintain. So, before investing in one, make sure you understand the cost of running an AI system.
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Ensure you understand applicable laws or regulations
Depending on where you operate and the type of data AI is collecting, you may need to adhere to certain laws or regulations. For example, if you’re operating in the EU, you must ensure your AI system complies with GDPR.
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Invest in AI training and monitoring
AI systems must be trained and monitored to function optimally. Invest in professional training and monitoring services to ensure your AI systems are always up-to-date and deliver the best results.
