Optimising Customer Experience in eCommerce: The Power of AI and Real-Time Analytics

When you’re running your own eCommerce business, worrying about satisfying the varying needs of your customers is probably one of the things that keeps you up at night.

How can you improve your offers to encourage repeat business? How can you attract new customers and build brand loyalty? How do you stop people from abandoning their carts before purchasing anything? When you have eCommerce on your mind, not even counting sheep can lull you back to sleep.

You could sit back and hope that good fortune is going to come your way and bring in floods of customers, but you might as well be waiting for a miracle to happen. If you want to optimise your customer experience, you need to add AI and real-time analytics to your marketing strategy. 

Keep on reading to find out more.

Why optimising customer experiences is important in eCommerce

Did you know that 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience? Whether you’re shopping in-person or online, building a connection with a brand and feeling like they value you as a customer is extremely important. 

As a brand, it’s important to do whatever you can to improve the customer experience at every touchpoint to not only encourage more sales but also to nurture loyalty. What you want is a tribe of customers who come to you again and again – and tell their friends about you, too.

When customers have a positive experience on your website or with your brand, they’re more likely to buy from you. It’s the difference between sealing the deal and abandoning their basket, never to be seen again.

So how we do improve the customer experience as eCommerce owners with CX optimisation? Try these tactics:

●     Offer personalised experiences.

●     Meet the expectations of your customers.

●     Provide new or surprising experiences.

●     Reduce confusion and friction at various customer touchpoints.

●     Optimise your website to make it easier to navigate.

●     Reduce the time it takes to checkout.

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All of these are effective ways to make your customers happy but, as many online businesses are finding, AI has become a valuable tool in taking customer experience optimisation one step further.

The role of AI in optimising customer experiences

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an extremely important tool in multiple areas of business. It can automate many of the tasks that used to take marketing teams hours and hours to complete.

Not only does this new technology help to free up the time of scrambling marketing professionals, but it also offers the tools they need to analyse huge amounts of data in a matter of seconds. It can accurately predict trends, and automate some of the repetitive tasks that don’t need to be completed by human hands.

Most of these tools operate using machine learning algorithms that gather insights from previous customer interactions and behaviours. As AI collects information on customer purchase patterns, browsing history, and demographics, it can interpret the data in nanoseconds and then provide recommendations for refinement. 

Brands that don’t make the most of AI now run the risk of being left behind by their competition. 84% of eCommerce businesses are either already utilising AI in their business, or plan to make it a top priority moving forwards.

One common use case for AI that can exponentially improve the customer experience is through chatbots. An AI-powered virtual assistant can provide 24/7 support to your customers and will learn from every interaction to improve accuracy and effectiveness over time.

How to optimise the customer experience with real-time analytics

Another important AI-powered tool that could be a game changer for every eCommerce business is real-time analytics, specifically in the world of personalisation.

With AI tools like the QUIN AI audience engine, businesses can capture data in - you guessed it – real-time. This provides access to an insane amount of information on customer’s behaviour and preferences as they interact with the website, products and content provided. With this information, it’s possible to make data-driven decisions about what information to present, how to communicate with buyers for optimal outcomes, and what products they will be most interested in.

Real-time analytics can also be put to work to identify bottlenecks in the purchasing process, quickly act as customers start to abandon their carts, and deploy personalised offers to prevent someone from leaving your website.

Although your customers may not see all the back-end work that goes into making these personalised touches happen, they will feel more engaged and nurtured throughout the process, which will translate into higher conversion rates.

Just look at companies like Spotify. They constantly collect data on their customer’s listening habits in real-time. If they notice you listening to certain songs, artists, or genres, they will quickly deliver additional similar music to your daily playlist. They can let you know when a particular band releases new music or notify you when they’re playing nearby based on your location information. Their advanced algorithm is what encourages customers to continue paying their monthly subscription fee and listening to even more music on the platform.

The power of AI and real-time analytics in business

Almost every eCommerce business that you interact with today is probably using some sort of AI to power their operations – whether it’s the chatbot you turn to when you have a product query or the product recommendations you see at the bottom of the screen. You may not realise it, but AI is behind a lot of it.

Here are some more examples of brands that have been able to leverage the power of AI and use it to their advantage:

1. Decathlon increased revenue by 15% in 15 days using the QUIN audience engine to address cart abandonment issues.
2. Sephora introduced a virtual AI assistant to allow customers to virtually try on makeup products before making a purchase.
3. Wayfair introduced an app that allowed customers to virtually place pieces of furniture in their homes.
4. Macy’s uses a virtual shopping assistant that guides each customer through the entire shopping process to prevent abandonment.
5. Netflix analyses subscriber behaviour and preferences to present them with relevant shows and movies every time they log in.

Start optimising your customer’s experiences today

Providing top-quality experiences for your customers is one of the smartest strategies you can deploy to ensure the long-term growth and profitability of your business.

Discover how QUIN AI can revolutionise your eCommerce store's customer experience. Request a demo today.