AI is on the rise. But does it have the power to maximise sales for the Christmas period?
With Christmas never far away from the minds of business owners, many eCommerce businesses are already thinking about how they can boost sales, drive traffic and maximise exposure during the most wonderful time of the year. After all, Christmas shopping is big business for UK retailers, with data indicating that around 80 billion is spent in Christmas retail sales each year.
This year, one marketing tactic that is set to take the festive season by storm is AI retail marketing. This is because artificial intelligence product recommendations have been proven to increase revenue and engagement, whilst optimising the overall customer experience.
If you are yet to discover how AI can help boost your sales and marketing efforts, you have certainly landed in the right place. We’ve created a helpful guide outlining how AI can help you.
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First and foremost, How can AI increase sales?
AI is not only utilised to help manage and predict customer behaviour, but it can also help to optimise cross-selling and upselling opportunities, whilst boosting efficiency and reducing costs.
How does AI retail merchandising increase sales?
One of the main benefits of AI in an online retail environment is that it offers a seamless, user generated shopping experience that optimises sales.
For example, when a customer adds an item to their cart, AI then suggests matching items or similar items. AI recommendations have already been proven to increase items per transaction, improve conversion and pave the way for an effortless shopping experience.
Furthermore, AI takes the form of virtual shipping assistant and chatbots and can help assist customers to navigate them in the right direction on your website, help with product suggestions or upselling.
Saving merchants and customers time
Another advantage of artificial intelligence is that it can also help to maximise efficiency in an eCommerce environment by helping to automate tedious work. In turn, this provides more time for merchants to concentrate on running their business. eCommerce retailers can use AI to more accurately predict demand and in doing so, maintain optimal levels of inventory. In turn, this can help improve customer satisfaction by reducing the risk of product unavailability or a delay in product sourcing.
At the same time, shoppers do not like to have to scroll through multiple pages to find the product they are searching for. With AI, you can embrace the benefits of predictive sorting functionality so that merchants can provide tailored product results.
In the period following Christmas, businesses often find an increase in returns and refund requests. While this process can be time consuming, AI can help streamline the handling of returns and refunds and help identify patterns in return data to help retailers make informed decisions about their inventory management and product offering.
AI encourages repeat purchases with personalised recommendations
Personalisation is a great wait to convert, boost customer engagement, and maximise sales, especially during the festive season when everyone is looking for the perfect gift. For example, using personalised messages across various channels such as website, email marketing and push notifications, can instantly re-engage customers.
Drive customer loyalty
AI retail merchandising has also been proven to optimise customer loyalty, as more people than ever before expect high-quality, personalised digital experiences when shopping online.
And as Intelligent product recommendations, predictive sorting, and enhanced searches are designed to ensure your customers’ are understood, they will instantly feel more valued and that you are listening to their needs.
For eCommerce brands, ensuring their customer service is top-notch over the festive season is key, but this can sometimes be easier said than done when enquiries build up and you don’t have the staff to tackle queries in a timely manner. AI-powered customer support systems can provide 24/7 availability, giving shoppers the freedom to find answers to their burning questions whenever they need to.
AI-assisted customer service systems can help answer customer FAQs, provide descriptions of goods and services and help your customers find products or check stock availability.
This instantly increases brand loyalty, especially during the Christmas period.
But what’s next for AI retail merchandising?
The digital world is incredibly competitive. With this in mind, it’s more important than ever before that businesses of all shapes and sizes do everything that they can to stay one step ahead of their competitors.
Artificial intelligence in retail merchandising can help businesses to do this, whilst optimising customer satisfaction, cutting costs, increasing loyalty and driving efficiencies. Going forward, it is expected that AI will become increasingly valued, as customers begin to expect a certain level of service, personalisation and attention to detail when they shop.
And, as technology continues to advance, it’s important that businesses and consumers alike understand that AI is now an integral part of shopping online.
Why choose Unicorn Accounting?
At Unicorn Accounting we are e-commerce accountants who help make your online business a growing success. We offer e-commerce accounting advice, financial management, bookkeeping, cash flow statement, and tax filing services to support and scale your business.
Our team of accountants and Xero-certified advisors have experience working with both small start-ups and family-run online stores to large-scale, international retail and e-commerce brands.
If you’ve got an online store, we have the best solution for you. Providing you with a financial arm to your business through our sector experience, and skills with innovative technologies. To see how we can help you maximise the scalability of your e-commerce brand all year round, get in touch with Unicorn Accounting today. Or click here to get a free quote.
Related articles
https://unicornaccounting.co.uk/blog/7-ways-to-use-ai-in-e-commerce/
https://unicornaccounting.co.uk/blog/ai-powered-tools-for-e-commerce-management/
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