The Power of AI-Infused e-Commerce

For years, many businesses have struggled to grasp the benefits that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can provide. AI seemed too new and unproven to many of them, and at the time appeared more like technology that required a data scientist rather than a typical IT worker.

In the ERP world, large and small businesses have struggled to envision the capabilities that AI could add to existing applications such as analytics, forecasting, e-commerce, and cybersecurity. As a company that provides ERP solutions, for some time now we have been demonstrating to businesses that AI has the potential to be a transformative technology.

Small and midmarket companies don't have endless resources to experiment with AI. For them, the most immediate and extensive opportunities exist at the intersection of e-commerce and AI. That's because e-commerce can touch nearly every aspect of an organization's supply chain—from ordering to marketing to delivery.

AI can help automate tasks and processes like emailing, order fulfillment, customer service, and payment processing, helping to reduce labor costs and improve operational efficiency. An interactive e-commerce portal, like VAI’s e-commerce solution, provides easy access to product information, pricing, and real-time data, allowing users to seamlessly conduct business, research offerings, and complete transactions, from any device.

Utilizing the Strengths of AI

AI in e-commerce is about utilizing technology to streamline and automate processes, increase revenue, and enhance consumer engagement. Businesses can increase productivity, simplify processes, and give customers a more customized and seamless shopping experience by utilizing AI's strengths.

Retail organizations may better understand their customers, make more educated business decisions, provide a better customer experience, and streamline their operations using the analytical insight and data provided by AI solutions. AI therefore aids e-commerce businesses in optimizing their products, raising conversion rates, and increasing sales.    

Retailers also depend on machine learning algorithms to collect, process, and utilize data to provide a customized shopping experience and produce insights about their customers. Machine learning is also used by e-commerce companies to control supply and demand, identify fraud, and run chatbots and dynamic pricing. They can also utilize it to automate tasks and improve workflow.

In a recent article I published in Forbes, I offered a couple of examples from my own experiences working at VAI that show how AI and e-commerce can work together.

Streamlining shipping

We worked with Mariani Packing Company—a well-established, decades-old, dried fruits provider—to help it develop new processes to handle unique customer requirements. These sorts of processes can become cumbersome to manage and more difficult to maintain during upgrades, but they also generate a lot of data and represent patterns that AI can use to recognize these customers' unique requirements—leading to streamlined processes and reduced customized code. Advanced analytics helped the company reduce human touch and eliminate errors in supply processes, achieving an efficiency rate of 99.8%.

Improved site search functionality

Kinnunen Sales & Rental, serving everyone from heavy industrial contractors to DIY homeowners, had over 42,000 SKUs across multiple locations and was growing quickly. We worked with Kinnunen to help the company turn to a single, centralized database that synched its website and app—providing customers with accurate inventory and pricing information in real time. This, coupled with AI enabling predicted purchasing based on data analytics, allows customers to buy and get the tools they need without issue to quickly get back to work.

Nowadays, AI permeates every aspect of an eCommerce company’s operations. Entrepreneurs incorporate it into their marketing, customer service, fulfillment, inventory, and human resources strategies. AI's primary contribution to eCommerce is big data. Its capacity to handle enormous volumes of data helps inform astute business choices that affect every aspect of running an online firm.

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