Expert Voices: Artificial Intelligence in E-Commerce
We interviewed ten Spryker partners about AI and e-commerce, highlighting three major use cases in the industryAt Spryker, we have an extensive network of knowledgeable partners, all experts in the world of tech and e-commerce. Artificial intelligence has been a prevalent topic in the industry for years. However, with generative AI tools like ChatGPT coming onto the mass market, artificial intelligence has become the water cooler topic of the year.
“I am convinced that AI will completely be interwoven with our lives in a couple of years – it will feel unnatural not to use AI, like communicating with handwritten letters today. And e-commerce, I think, is an area with huge potential,” comments Uwe Tueben, Managing Director and Partner at Valantic.
In this collection of Expert Voices, we'll highlight three major AI use cases in e-commerce, as told to us by ten of our partners.
What benefits does AI have for e-commerce? What do our partners offer in terms of AI, and how are their customers using artificial intelligence right now?
Read on to find out more.
AI & Personalization
In the realm of e-commerce and AI: “one of the megatrends is hyper-personalization.” comments Sven Robl, Vice President of DACH at Born. It’s key for differentiating in a competitive market when customers, even B2B ones, expect a sleek, individualized experience.
There are countless ways that AI can impact personalization in e-commerce, as it can leverage all the data from customers and their buying behavior to put the right products and deals in front of the right customers, offering tailored suggestions and an individualized shopping experience.
“AI can help e-commerce companies to get more info for the customers from their customers. You can use AI for everything from predictive selling to fraud protection,” comments Torben Hauffle, Sales & Marketing Director at SQLI DE
Michal Wojcik, Manager CE at Deloitte, agrees: “When I think about AI and e-commerce, I think about personalization. What kind of people, the basket, what they're choosing, what filters they’re choosing, and what kind of product they’re buying.”
“Tracking the presence of customers on their websites and seeing what is being done, when customers pause or which device they’re using. When do they exit the basket and decide not to shop anymore? Customers can use that data to really help them grow.” adds Michal’s colleague Dominika Czekaj, Studio Lead at Deloitte.
AI algorithms can collect and analyze vast amounts of customer data, including browsing history, purchase behavior, and demographic information. By leveraging this data, e-commerce platforms can deliver personalized product lists, relevant search results, and customized marketing campaigns. This level of personalization not only enhances the customer experience but also increases customer engagement, conversion rates, and, ultimately, sales.
This measurable impact of AI personalization on revenue is explained by Chris Zepernick, Senior Solutions Architect eCommerce at Towa: “AI can help to generate the right product lists with the right recommendations. Our customers saw a 25 – 40% increase in revenue just by incorporating AI into their services.”
Personalization is vital for B2B e-commerce as it enables companies to deliver tailored experiences and build stronger relationships with their business customers. By understanding individual buyers’ unique needs, preferences, and behaviors, it’s possible to enhance the overall customer experience, increase engagement, and foster loyalty. Moreover, it allows companies to better anticipate customer needs and demands and proactively address pain points, ultimately establishing themselves as trusted partners in their customers' journey.
AI & Automation
“AI helps in a lot of use cases in e-commerce – you can automate processes,” explains Sven Robl, Vice President of DACH at Born. From customer service AI chatbots to automatic inventory management, AI-powered automation is a vast growth area for e-commerce.
“One aspect of AI that I believe will accelerate future e-commerce endeavors is in software development, where AI can support our developers so they can focus more on domain knowledge and less on technical tasks,” explains Sven Bange, Managing Director and Partner at Vanilla Reply.
Chris Zepernick, Senior Solutions Architect eCommerce at Towa, agrees: “It helps us professionals a lot – getting stuff done faster in the coding department, generating stuff that is cumbersome to do, like writing unit tests or even doing the basic setup of software integration.” AI’s power to automate manual and time-consuming technical tasks means that developers can focus on innovation, which will be transformative for e-commerce. “Behind the scenes, technical integrations and intelligent orchestration automate business processes and free human resources from mundane and repetitive tasks, which leads to streamlined, error-resistant workflows and maximized efficiency,” Mike Pierce, President of Echidna asserts.
AI isn’t only automating code but content, too – from automated product descriptions to translations. Caspar Hardholt, CEO at Alumio, adds: “If you’re a B2B customer that sells products to different countries, you can very easily utilize AI to translate that content so it’s localized for the specific country where you’re selling.”
Regarding marketing, AI algorithms have the power to automate A/B testing and customer behavior to determine the best product positioning for maximum revenue. Uwe Tueben, Managing Director and Partner at Valantic offers this example: “We’re running an experiment where we compare photographs of physical models with digital AI-generated ones to find out which performs better. Potentially you could have an uplift in sales with the digitally-generated models, and you would also reduce product costs greatly.”
Alex Ball, VP of Revenue, North America at Infobip, offers an example of how AI automation has helped one of their customers: “We’ve integrated a really cool example with a consumer electronics brand. They wanted to put together a direct-to-consumer sales model. They are traditionally B2B sales, which has a lower margin for them, so they wanted to open up a B2C channel, but they didn’t have the infrastructure to be able to do that. So, they’re using AI with Infobip to pull together different products and services to package it up to consumers.”
By automating processes, AI helps B2B e-commerce businesses to streamline operations and ultimately drive overall productivity and profitability. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, B2B companies can significantly reduce manual errors, increase efficiency, and save valuable resources. Crucially, it allows B2B companies to scale their operations effectively, handle higher transaction volumes, and adapt to changing market demands swiftly. With automation, B2B companies can focus on strategic initiatives, innovation, and building stronger customer relationships, ultimately driving growth and maintaining a competitive advantage in the market.
AI & Efficiency
Closely related to automation, efficiency was revealed as a significant use case for AI in e-commerce from talking to our partners. “AI's capacity to enhance automation, transform the customer experience, and deliver insights will boost ecommerce efficiency,” says Chris Zangrilli, Vice President Technology Strategy at VERTEX.
Caspar Hardholt, CEO at Alumio, explains, “AI in e-commerce will definitely lower operational costs. It will help merchants to become more profitable, efficient, and productive with tools that help to automate manual processes.”
One prominent application is intelligent search and recommendation systems that leverage machine learning algorithms to analyze vast amounts of data, understand user preferences, and provide tailored product suggestions.
“AI tools can help people to make decisions and find the right product for their needs…for example, in the tourism industry, if someone wants to climb some mountains and also have the seaside, then AI can help guide them to the right product or service to buy,” comments Jöerg Nöelke, Principal Consultant at Unic.
Supply chain optimization has been a hot topic for almost every industry in the past couple of years. AI-powered predictive technology is helping B2B companies more efficiently manage inventories and forecast demands, ensuring that the right products are available at the right time. “AI is a prediction engine powering e-commerce, and the benefits go very deep – that includes optimizing supply chains,” adds Peter Odintsov, Head Of Business Development at AXON21 OU.
Efficiency is critical for B2B companies as it directly impacts profitability, reduces costs, and optimizes resource allocation. Streamlining processes and automating tasks not only saves time and labor but also enhances customer satisfaction and strengthens relationships. Efficient operations enable quick adaptation to market changes, fostering agility and seizing new opportunities. By freeing up resources, B2B companies can focus on core competencies and strategic initiatives, promoting growth and maintaining a competitive edge in the market.
A final word on AI in e-commerce
The impact of AI on e-commerce is substantial and transformative. Peter Odintsov, Head Of Business Development at AXON21 OU explains how: “AI is the future middleware of business. It will become the solving engine, which will replace the logic of software applications. E-commerce will be the front-end of business, in general.”
The use cases highlighted by our expert partners demonstrate the potential of AI to revolutionize various aspects of the e-commerce landscape. From AI-generated product content to automation, decision support, and enhanced personalization, businesses can leverage AI to optimize their operations, improve customer experiences, and drive sales.
“By analyzing historical sales data, market trends, and other external factors, generative AI models can be used to better forecast future demand. Taking into account seasonal patterns, unforeseen trends or anomalies in data help to provide better insight,” says Joel Farquhar, VP Architecture at Pivotree.
“I'm also seeing significant benefits in product information management and it's more than just writing descriptions. We are seeing significant efficiency in activities like data normalization, transformation, and classification. Using generative AI for product taxonomy creation and optimization and even sku definition and building,” he adds.
As AI advances, e-commerce companies must embrace AI technology to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving digital marketplace. However, some businesses are resistant, usually due to the fear of change or being stuck in an old way of thinking.
“I think AI is really a transition of how people think about their day-to-day job,” explains Caspar Hardholt, CEO at Alumio. “It's really a people thing. It's a mindset, and there's a lot of struggle in there where people are hesitant and reluctant. I think it's really helpful for companies to become more productive as a business, but also as an individual.”
By harnessing the power of AI, B2B businesses can unlock new opportunities, increase efficiency, and deliver personalized experiences that resonate with customers.
Jöerg Nöelke, Principal Consultant at Unic gives us a final word about AI in e-commerce: “AI is just a natural next step. I think it's a useful way to help make decisions, but we don't have to fear too much about it.”
Please note: written quotes from our partners have been edited for clarity.
About Spryker
Spryker is the leading composable commerce platform for enterprises with sophisticated business models to enable growth, innovation, and differentiation. Designed specifically for sophisticated transactional business, Spryker’s easy-to-use, headless, API-first model offers a best-of-breed approach that provides businesses the flexibility to adapt, scale, and quickly go to market while facilitating faster time-to-value throughout their digital transformation journey. As a global platform leader for B2B and B2C Enterprise Marketplaces, Thing Commerce, and Unified Commerce, Spryker has empowered 150+ global enterprise customers worldwide and is trusted by brands such as ALDI, Siemens, Hilti, and Ricoh. Spryker was recognized by Gartner® as a Visionary in the 2023 Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce and was also ranked as a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave™: B2B Commerce Solutions, Q2 2022. Spryker is a privately held technology company headquartered in Berlin and New York. Find out more at spryker.com