AI for eCommerce: All the Tips, Tools, & Strategies You Need

As an eCommerce expert, you’ve likely started to use AI in some form to run and scale your business. Whether that’s through smarter searches, better product recommendations, or automated chat, there are many AI tools available that improve the overall eCommerce experience for your customers. 

In this article, we’re going to discuss the:

• Rise of AI in eCommerce
• Benefits AI brings to eCommerce businesses
• Future of AI in eCommerce (and how automation will come into play)

‍The rise of AI in eCommerce 

AI, or artificial intelligence, has been influencing the way companies have evolved their products and experiences for years now. 

This is especially relevant to companies in the eCommerce space. Unsurprisingly, eCommerce is one of the top sectors that has embraced the movement.

Many major companies have been using AI in eCommerce for years already. 

Amazon, for example, has a history of embracing AI and related technologies. The company uses machine learning to improve product selection and user experience, optimize logistics, and more.

However, now we’re seeing smaller eCommerce brands adopt AI strategies as well via chatbots, generative AI, product recommendations, and inventory management.

What are the benefits of using AI in eCommerce?

In eCommerce, AI can be used to:

• Improve customer experience by removing friction from their journey
• Reduce costs by creating more efficient systems and processes
• Increase sales by optimizing marketing campaigns, improving conversions, and personalizing content

It’s also extremely beneficial in automating many mundane processes for your team and saving them time and energy in the process. 

What is the future of AI for eCommerce? 

From changes in voice search and voice-enabled shopping to enhancements in the visual online browsing experience, and even improvements in upselling processes, there's a lot to look forward to.

Another thing we can expect is that eCommerce vendors will now rely on AI for so many of their operational and day-to-day needs. With the help of AI, vendors can start to optimize their sales, marketing, and customer success operations.

As a result, business owners and operators can expect:

• The ability to automate mundane and repetitive tasks they experience in their day-to-day
• More free time to focus on the areas of their job that they actually enjoy
• Improved efficiencies across teams, like faster resolution times for customers

The future of AI in eCommerce is that everyone in the workforce should expect some level of AI to be embedded into their job.

‍How do I easily get started with AI in eCommerce?

AI has often intimated many individuals. Most people think of robots and self-driving cars when they hear the term, and they often think it’s not a fit for them and their business because of that. However, there are many AI tools available today that are both affordable and approachable for businesses of all sizes. 

A great way to start experimenting is trying out a generative AI automation tool.

Generative AI is an easy way to start because many of these products offer free trials or fairly priced, monthly plans. They're also straightforward to comprehend and use.

All you need to do with generative AI is write prompts to get a desired result. These can include factors like tone, audience, and product.

From there, you'll have text generated completely by AI in seconds.

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We've recently released AI Workflow Automation that can generate your product descriptions at scale. With Copy.ai’s workflow automation, you’ll be able to sync all of your store’s products via API to have descriptions generated in seconds. This can save your brand hundreds of hours as you write, test, and optimize your descriptions for higher conversions.

What are some easy use cases of AI in eCommerce that I can start today?

Automated sales emails

Email is a massive channel for eCommerce marketers. And there are plenty of opportunities within the customer journey where email makes so much sense:

• Abandon cart emails
• New product releases
• Seasonal deals
• Back-in-stock updates
• Product recommendations based on purchase history

With AI, you can craft and automate these emails.

Automated social media ads

According to Statista, 35% of millennials (and an extensive amount of older shoppers) make purchases with the help of social media. In many cases, a product will go viral on a platform like TikTok and days (or even hours) later, they'll be sold out. This has happened to companies like The Ordinary, The Pink Stuff, and even feta cheese.

Social media is an incredibly powerful channel for eCommerce businesses. And if you're lucky enough for your products to have a major spike in demand, staying top of mind post hype is crucial. That's where ads coms in!

With the help of generative AI, you can create custom and unique social copy instantly based on your preferences, the platforms you're promoting on, and their respective best practices. This includes Instagram captions, Instagram product showcases, YouTube description intros, YouTube titles, TikTok brainstorm ideas, hook generators, calls to action, and more!

And with Chat by Copy.ai, you can easily refine your social posts to be more specific to eCommerce trends and tactics like customer highlights, product feature posts, giveaways, partner announcements, and more.

‍Automated product descriptions 

According to a recent Google survey, 85% of online shoppers find product descriptions and pictures extremely important when identifying where to purchase from. But, if you have a large inventory of products on your site, these descriptions can take up a significant amount of time. 

Since product descriptions are so crucial to the consumer's experience, they can’t be forgotten. But they can be automated with the help of AI!

Product descriptions are one of the top ways that eCommerce marketers are finding the most value from generative AI.

With the help of the tool, marketers can now pump out SEO-friendly descriptions at scale and provide the creator with multiple options to tweak and choose from. 

Want to see it in action for yourself?

‍Try Copy.ai for free (no credit card required) to generate SEO-friendly descriptions for all your store's products today!

Automated product release blogs

If you work for a company with a smaller inventory of higher-priced products, your team is likely expected to create product release blogs whenever there is a new product available.

This is one of the most time-consuming aspects of eCommerce copywriting as the average blog takes around four hours and ten minutes to complete.

With the help of generative AI, your team can now use the tool to write extensive product release blogs from scratch.

The AI tool will ask for specific directions and prompts. The more detailed your team can be on the product, its benefits, and the tone, the better. But once those inputs are added, voila! You’ll have a perfectly crafted blog post to help announce your latest work. 

‍What is the best eCommerce automation software?

Copy.ai is the best eCommerce automation software because of its breadth of capabilities, ease of use, exceptionally quick setup time, and its ability to help multiple departments and team members inside of your organization.

It also stands out from other eCommerce automation tools because it goes beyond supporting your team’s copywriting writing needs. At Copy.ai, we'verecently introduced Workflows, a new product that combines generative AI with automated workflows.

Some of the things you can do with workflows, include:

• Generating an entire long-form blog post AND evaluate data from the SERPs to ensure it’s SEO optimized for you 
• Scaling and creating product descriptions for every new item you add to your storefront
• Setting your sales team up for success by writing and sending outbound emails and follow-up emails on their behalf. This is great when you're working to bring on more resellers or larger corporate deals.

These are just a handful of examples where its copywriting and workflow features can be used together at scale to help your eCommerce team.

Copy.ai for all your AI in eCommerce needs

All of the use cases we’ve explained in this article can be easily tackled with the assistance of Copy.ai’s Chat and Workflow tools. 

When getting started with Copy.ai, we highly suggest signing up for a live bi-weekly demo so you can learn how to get the most value from the product. Please visit our training page to check out our upcoming schedule.