The importance of AI Shopping Assistants for Shopify stores
E-commerce represents an excellent sales channel for companies and AI shopping assistants have a positive impact on the customer shopping experience. According to a Nasdaq research on the future of e-commerce, 95% of purchases will be via online shops by 2040.
This forecast highlights the importance for companies to invest in this sales channel, leveraging innovative tools based on artificial intelligence to their advantage. Among these tools we can find AI shopping assistants, which are revolutionizing the conversational commerce sector.
In this guide we will explore what an AI shopping assistant is and the advantages it can offer compared to human shopping assistants. We will also discover the potential uses of this kind of artificial intelligence tool and identify the best shopping assistants currently available.
What are AI shopping assistants?
First of all, we need to understand what AI shopping assistants are. They are virtual assistants for online shopping, developed to enhance the customer experience and help online shoppers find what they need with a real-time conversation.
Thanks to the most innovative artificial intelligence technologies, these shopping assistants can analyze customer preferences, assess their needs and engage with them in a natural manner. The ultimate goal is to assist customers throughout the entire experience, from the initial product search phase to the completion of the journey with the purchase.
Do you remember the last time you talked with a chatbot online and you got upset because instead of giving you answers it was only asking more questions? I bet that you tried to speak with a real person as soon as you could.
Forget about it.
The era of “old-school” chatbots is gone, with generative artificial intelligence AI Shopping Assistants can interact with customers generating each reply based on the question asked. No pre-set answers, no set of qualifying questions, just a real time conversation like the ones you are used to have in physical stores.
In recent years, various shopping assistants have been developed and most of them can be installed on Shopify stores. Some of these applications have predefined paths for customer assistance, while others like TextYess Shopify App leverage the capabilities of artificial intelligence to personalize responses and the proposed shopping paths.
Main functions of an AI shopping assistant for Shopify
Virtual assistants can perform multiple actions and can be equipped with variable features. This makes AI chatbots for Shopify versatile tools, useful in any case to increase the sales volume of online stores.
Product Research
Shopping assistants can be used primarily for product research. Customers can interact with the chatbot to find products that might be most suitable for specific needs, describing features and usage scenarios. Chatbots can also quickly find alternative items to those initially displayed by customers.
Price Evaluation
AI chatbots can also be helpful for price evaluation. These tools can compare similar products to identify the one with the best value for money and can track the price trend of a specific item over time.
Ease of use
Digital virtual assistants facilitate the purchasing process, quickly guiding the customer through the final steps. Instead of navigating for minutes among product detail pages reading descriptions and comparing prices and pictures with multiple tabs open, shoppers can easily ask the AI Shopping Assistant what they need and it will do the work for them in a couple of seconds. Some virtual assistants, including TextYess, allow customers to receive pictures and purchase links directly in the chat.
Speed and preciseness
AI shopping assistants for Shopify stores can be also used to provide customers with real-time assistance, both before and after completing the order, with no need of any human intervention. For example, customers can ask information about the shipping details before purchase and the shipment status of the product after the purchase, all within a few seconds on Whatsapp or other chat apps through artificial intelligence.
The 5 main advantages of AI VS human shopping assistants in eCommerce
Customer support has been introduced from the very beginning in virtual stores, but for a long time it was managed by human shopping assistants. Technological evolution has allowed for the initial optimization of customer service with the introduction of chatbots.
With the advent of artificial intelligence, we are witnessing a true revolution, with benefits for both customers and companies. The advantages of AI shopping assistants over human shopping assistants are significant. These strengths explain the success that AI chatbots are experiencing in the world of e-commerce, also thanks to their easy integration as Shopify apps.
24/7 availability
The first strength of virtual assistants with artificial intelligence is their 24/7 availability. Traditional customer services operate during specific time slots, outside of which customers can still contact them via email, but they will have to wait until the next day to receive a response. AI chatbots can respond within seconds at any time of the day, supporting even those customers who make purchases during hours not covered by traditional assistance.
Data Analysis
Another advantage concerns the ability to analyze a large amount of data in a reduced period of time. Nowadays, data analysis is essential for optimizing online sales activities, studying the paths followed by customers, their purchasing preferences and their needs. This analysis could also be carried out by human shopping assistants, but it would require more time and it would have higher costs.
Personalized assistance
AI shopping assistants provide personalized assistance based on customer preferences and the characteristics of the products sold. During training, the chatbot learns information about the product catalog, which it can then use to fulfill customer requests. The AI-powered chatbot is capable of improving day by day, capitalizing on every new piece of information it handles.
Cost reduction
Another strength for companies is cost reduction. Virtual chatbots have significantly lower management costs compared to human shopping assistants and can remain active 24/7 without additional expenses. This allows e-commerce companies to save money, which can be used, for example, for product sponsorship, logistics and shipping time improvements and offering special deals to customers.
Multilingual capabilities
AI Shopping Assistants speak multiple languages simultaneously, treating all customers with equality and enabling them to receive the desired shopping assistance in their mother tongue or favorite language. Human assistants, altought may be able to speak English and the language of where the company is incorporated, rarely speak multiple languages or are able to quickly switch from one to the other. AI Assistants surpass human assistants also thanks to this capability.
Different use cases for an AI Shopping Assistant
AI shopping assistants for Shopify are finding applications in various sectors. Shopify has been chosen for the creation and management of digital stores by thousands of companies, both small and large. Companies operating in very different areas are leveraging Shopify to increase their revenue and many of these businesses have embraced conversational commerce.
Predictions for purchases via chat are positive. In 2021, the overall volume of transactions via chat amounted to 41 billion dollars and according to the latest forecasts on conversational commerce, this volume is expected to reach 290 billion dollars by 2025. This underlines the importance for companies to assess the capabilities of AI chatbots and invest in these tools to use AI as shopping assistant.
Fashion sector: the example of H&M
In the fashion sector, artificial intelligence has been used for example to optimize product search and integration between online and in-store purchases. This is the case of H&M, which has introduced a virtual assistant to facilitate product catalog searches, assist customers in finding similar products and check the in-store availability of items viewed online.
Beauty sector: the example of Sephora
In the beauty sector, Sephora's choice is emblematic. It has developed a virtual assistant to help customers choose the best makeup products. Through a facial recognition system, customers can virtually try out products before purchasing them.
Home sector: the example of Dalfilo
In the home sector, Dalfilo's has developed a virtual assistant to help customers choose the best products. Through WhatsApp, customers can chat with an AI Shopping Assistant and receive timely support 24/7 in any language to find the best products.
Best AI shopping assistants
Virtual assistants with artificial intelligence can be considered among the best AI marketing tools that e-commerce platforms should use. It is useful therefore to identify the best AI shopping assistants, describing the key features of each one.
Symphony Retail AI
Symphony Retail AI is a virtual assistant developed for retailers. This tool can analyze a large amount of data and identify the key features of customer purchase paths and preferences. The ultimate goal of this analysis is to make predictions about future buying trends, taking into account the type of customer base of the e-commerce platform and the products sold.
These predictions help companies optimize inventory management, reduce expenses and focus the budget on high-profitability products. The forecasts also have a positive impact on the customer experience, as customers can find the products they need and can receive personalized promotional campaigns.
TextYess
TextYess is the artificial intelligence tool to choose if you want to offer a timely personalized shopping assistance and give customers the opportunity to make purchases through chat on WhatsApp. The AI shopping assistant on WhatsApp can be easily integrated into Shopify through the official application on the Shopify Appstore.
With TextYess customers can receive 24/7 assistance directly on WhatsApp, inquire about products and receive purchasing advice. After identifying the desired product, customers can make a purchase with a message on WhatsApp, saving time and simplifying the entire purchasing process.
Companies can customize this AI shopping assistant, granting it full access to the product catalog during training and giving detailed instructions to custom the assistant to the brand's identity and selling strategies. Proper use of these AI chatbot helps increase sales, achieving an average in-chat conversion rate of 20%.
ViSenze
ViSenze is an AI shopping assistant developed to enhance product searches. This smart search assistant records customers' previous searches and viewed products to identify the most suitable products within the catalog to suggest.
Product identification is made faster by the option to search using a photo saved in the gallery or from a screenshot. ViSenze therefore expands the search possibilities beyond just textual search. This smart search shopping assistant can be integrated into Shopify.
AI Shopping Assistants: it’s a wrap
AI shopping assistants redefine the way customers interact with online stores, offering customized purchasing journeys and timely assistance 24/7. These solutions driven by artificial intelligence are elevating online shopping to a uniquely individualized experience ending waiting times and language barriers.
From tailored product recommendations and efficient transaction processes to 24/7 accessibility and proactive customer support, AI chatbots and shopping assistants offer advantages for companies and customers.
Enhanced customer engagement, opportunities for upselling and cross-selling, time and cost efficiencies and elevated satisfaction levels represent just some of the benefits that companies can have using these AI tools.
Now is the time to join the revolution. Start harnessing the benefits of conversational commerce with TextYess, an AI shopping assistant for Shopify that allows your customers to make in-chat purchases on WhatsApp.