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How E-Commerce AI is Changing WordPress Shops

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How E-Commerce AI is Changing WordPress Powered Shops

We’re starting to see a growing trend in WordPress plugin development. More companies are creating WordPress-friendly AI and machine learning tools. Many of these apps look like the existing marketing and e-commerce options in the WordPress plugin store, but perform better with the power of artificial intelligence.

If you’re considering investing in AI for your e-commerce business, look no further than your WordPress plugin search page. Check out these ways to utilize e-commerce AI to improve your e-commerce brand.

1. Improve Product Recommendations

Artificial intelligence has given rise to personal assistants like Alexa and Google Home, but it also has created a small army of personal shoppers to guide site visitors through the buying process.

At its most basic level, e-commerce AI tools can provide better product recommendations for customers. You see these on sites like Bed Bath and Beyond, where a recommendation engine shows you five shower curtains because you looked at one.

However, some of these recommendation engines are becoming more advanced.They don’t just show random shower curtains because a customer looked at one product page. These bots show you specific colors you would likely be interested in and other curtains based on certain brands. Some tools take this a step further by showing items customers buy together – meaning shoppers walk away with a curtain, bath mat, and shower caddy while they’re at it.

E-Commerce AI Product Recommendations Example: The North Face

The North Face recently took personalized shopping to the next level with IBM’s Watson. Customers answer a series of questions and the bot presents options based on their answers. Watson checks the weather of your location and then narrows the results based on your planned activities and fashion preferences. Thus reducing the chance that customers get lost using their website and bounce.

Recomendo.ai

Recomendo E-Commerce AI Recommended Content

You don’t need Watson-level technology to add AI recommendations to your WordPress e-commerce site. Recomendo is one tool that uses AI to suggest content and other pages for your site visitors. It can keep people on your pages longer and help them find what you need.

2. Address Customer Problems Through Chatbots

The terrible automated systems that you yell into every time you call your bank or cable company will soon be a thing of the past. Modern chatbots listen, provide dynamic answers, and learn to respond better over time.

By the year 2020, 85% of all customer service interactions will be conducted through chatbots. Furthermore, 27% of people say they don’t know whether their last customer experience was with a human or robot. If you’re looking to improve your customer service experience on your e-commerce page but aren’t sure you can handle the stress of online chat systems, consider investing in an AI plugin instead.

Acobot AI Chatbot

Acobot Web Assistant Free AI Chatbot Plugin

There are multiple WordPress plugins available to you for AI chatbot customer service. Options are never a bad thing. You can test the various chatbots and choose  the one best for your store to help the majority of customers. The Acobot Web Assistant is a fully automated and powerful chatbot option. The plugin works to lower your bounce rate and extend your customers’ time on site.

My Chatbot

My Chatbot Free WordPress Plugin

My Chatbot is also popular because of its branded overlays and customizable options. This quick and easy AI powered chatbot supports quick replies, images and hyperlinks (via HTML). Plus the included shortcode and widget make it easy to add to any specific page or sidebar on your e-commerce site.

3. Learn More About Your Customers

People tend to use terms like big data and AI interchangeably, even though they are two completely different concepts. Big Data refers to the collection of various information points shared by your users or customers. Big Data also uses existing demographic information and statistics to fill holes in information or create a clear picture of what you want to look at.

While artificial intelligence is often used to sort the data, AI’s main benefit is the ability to take information and make decisions based off of it.

For example, there are hundreds of cameras in the Serengeti that are trained to take photos when they sense movement. The goal is to study which animals are photographed to get and idea for population sizes, locations, and conservation needs. These millions of photos represent the data. Instead of researchers looking at each photo and labeling it, they created an AI tool that identifies the animal and labels it for them. The tool can then present the data clearly and in a digestible format for researchers to see.

What do cameras in the Serengeti mean for your e-commerce WordPress site? We live in a world where “data is the new oil,” meaning companies rely on information to make decisions. Your goal as a marketer or e-commerce manager is to harvest data about your target audiences and customers so you can sell to them better.

AFS Analytics

AFS Analytics for WordPress

You likely already do this with some plugins like Google Analytics, but there are other AI options for WordPress that use big data to provide customer insights. AFS Analytics lets you customize your analytics layout so you can see the metrics that are important to you. It also recovers ‘not provided’ keywords from Google. These predictions get better over time because of the machine learning tools. With this information, you can make better marketing decisions and target valuable keywords that drive more traffic and sales.

WooCommerce Darwin Pricing Integration

WooCommerce Darwin Geo-Targeted Pricing Integration

You can also use customer data to create customized offers based on location. An easy way to add this to your e-commerce site with with the Darwin Pricing Integration. This plugin uses data collected by Darwin Pricing so your online store can compete with local retailers. Discounts and promotions are geo-targeted for the best possible results in various locals, with no effort on your part.

4. Catch Spam Comments and Fake Reviews

If you still don’t believe that investments in artificial intelligence are low-risk and low-cost for your e-commerce business, consider the fact that you likely already use AI tools within WordPress.

Akismet Antispam

Akismet WordPress Spam Protection Plugin

Almost every WordPress page uses Akismet (arguably the best spam plugin for WordPress) to catch spam bots from posting on your page. This prevents your team from reviewing and removing hundreds of spam comments each day. However, few realize that this plugin actually uses AI to learn how spammers sound to better flag bad comments or reviews. It even flags human-written content and spammers who aren’t bots because it can recognize content that has a sordid agenda other than just posting on your page.

Akismet also highlights the difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning. AI follows a set of rules and takes action based on the information it has. However, machine learning makes its own rules and expands on what it knows. For example, an AI tool might flag a comment with bad grammar as spam. However, a machine learning tool will learn when bad grammar is from a spammer and when it is from a customer typo.

Wrapping Up E-Commerce AI for WordPress

Now that you know the differences between big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning you can confidently search for e-commerce AI solutions and plugins for your WordPress powered online store.

You’re likely already leveraging AI within your WordPress page (checkout how AI and WordPress are intertwined). It’s up to you whether you want to explore this tool further with additional plugins to see how they improve the customer e-commerce experience, and your bottom line.

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6 Comments

  1. James Thomas

    You explanations of this stuff are the best on the web. Simple, clear, tested by a real person! Thanks so much

  2. Dragos Micu

    I have also written a free plugin for WooCommerce that uses Machine Learning AI called Wootomation to predict and suggest products to the customers when they view the cart page. Please check it out and let me know what you think 🙂

  3. Ateeq Mughal

    Definitely AI is now playing an important role in many WordPress and content creation tools. AI will play an important role in Ecommerce and online field. But I think AI will never replace humans.

  4. Hostenix

    Nice article! A few more WooCommerce plugins could have been mentioned as it is an e-commerce wp article. Thanks to cPanel team for sharing.

  5. mario

    WPGPT Plugin allows you to create your own ChatGPT in WordPress with Elementor, personally I found it AMAZING. Now I monetize my website with ads + my own ChatGPT.

    You should try it! I don’t know why is not here

    • Kyla

      Thanks for sharing! I’ll make a note to consider it when we update our list!

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