eCommerce Market Update

Topic of the week – Generative AI use cases in retail

The AI train continues to push forward, and the last couple of weeks have been busy in the retail sphere. Generative AI has had some mixed opinions from two companies that have trialed the tool on their websites. American consumer electronics e-tailer, Newegg and The Stanley Black & Decker Co. both tried out new generative AI tools but with different uses.

When shopping online, we all like to have a look at reviews from previous buyers. Sometimes it can be the deciding factor when umming and ahing over a new purchase. Newegg have launched a new AI tool on their website that aims to make reading customer reviews easier and more streamlined by having them summarized. 54% of consumers worldwide said that bad product reviews have influenced them not to make a purchase according to Statista. This AI implementation, creates a summary of customer reviews at the top of the review section on the product page. The way this works is by scanning customer reviews and condensing the sentiment of the review into one or two words housed underneath the product image, that Newegg are calling ‘review bytes’. Then at the top of the review section the AI can create a Pros and Cons list with a couple of sentences summarizing the overall feedback across customer reviews. After about 2 months of in house development, Newegg have gone full steam ahead with the launch of their AI tool and it is now open to the public to start submitting reviews. Newegg’s overarching goal is to increase conversion rate and save customers time when reading reviews and ultimately reduce the time of the buying process, “We feel that this would be helpful for many customers that are looking for a quicker analysis,” says Newegg’s director of brand and website experience, Andrew Choi. Whether this new AI tool will be effective or not is yet to be seen, but websites that display reviews and ratings within the consumer electronics sector see a 38% conversion rate, so watch this space.

Now on the other hand, Stanley Black & Decker have been trialing multiple generative AI options to write product descriptions and improve overall efficiency and page optimization, but to no avail. In order to save time on developing product pages and description across multiple languages, the company has spent the last three months using two generative AI tools from different companies to create product descriptions and page content across ten different product categories and in four different languages. It goes without saying that these have to encompass the tone of voice and brand style across the company and its sub-brands. Some content would also have to be country specific in terms of colloquial language and translation. Stanley Black & Decker reported that neither of the generative AI options that they trialed passed every aspect of their testing process and are continuing to look for other options.

Men’s grooming company, Huron, have implemented AI as a means to reduce costs and time spent on accountancy tasks. The company has moved from agencies to a completed automated accounting system powered by AI that has improved accuracy and efficiency while reducing costs says co-founder and CEO Matt Mullenax. “It’s probably saved us five-times the time and double the price savings,” said Matt. Using this AI Huron can monitor the costs of campaigns and the return on investment across multiple selling channels.

Overall, the different uses and possibilities linked to AI continue to amaze as more and more companies look at exciting new ways to enhance the customer experience with artificial intelligence.

In other news

A big step forward for drone deliveries

In the USA, Walmart has partnered with Wing to provide drone deliveries from two Dallas based stores. Wing has now had approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to be able to fly its drones beyond the human operator’s line of sight. This is a huge step as it means that pilots can be located remotely and the delivery radius can be expanded. Walmart is now stating that food and household essentials deliveries can be made up to six miles away from both Dallas stores. While not full country coverage yet, this is still a milestone in drone deliveries.

DELIVER Vegas

After eight years of events for all things eCommerce, DELIVER is now expanding into the USA with its first stateside event being held in Las Vegas across 27th-28th September. The event will host hundreds of retailers across all sectors and carriers, for a networking event like no other. Pro Carrier will be attending so come and say hi at booth D04, see you there!

eCommerce Market Stats

See some statistics relating to this week’s topics in the eCommerce market below.

Customer Review Stats

• Most consumers who read online reviews don’t just stop at one. Online review statistics show that more than half of online shoppers (54.7 percent) read at least four product reviews prior to purchasing a product. Around 44 percent of them read three or fewer reviews
• 49% of consumers trust reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family members
• Product performance and buyer satisfaction ranked as the most helpful information when reading online product reviews
• As of June 2023 43% said customer reviews on the internet are very helpful

AI Stats

Leading reasons for marketing professionals to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve customer experience (CX) worldwide

• Predict customer behaviour and needs – 60%
• Uncover frequent customer journeys – 47%
• Improve omnichannel messaging – 45%

Share of e-commerce companies worldwide planning on implementing AI chatbots

• Yes – 24%
• No – 39%
• Already implemented – 9%

Areas in which AI will help e-commerce businesses according to decision makers in North America and Europe

• Personlisation – 70%
• Site search – 54%
• Forecasting – 52%

That’s all for this week…

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