We have explored the potential of AI in ecommerce previously, but what about machine learning? It is now truly being harnessed by ecommerce businesses and organisations to enhance processes and decision-making.
If we think of AI as a broad topic of providing systems that can perform tasks that require human level intelligence, then we can consider machine learning to be a subset of that.
Most tools we work with are machine learning where an algorithm learns from a targeted data set and specialises in providing answers within a specific area of expertise. These tools use datasets to learn how to make predictions, identify patterns, and make recommendations. Many of the systems we use in our day-to-day in ecommerce are machine learning based, such as predictive and semantic product search tools that understand what is meant when a user types ‘men’s grey cashmere sweater under £200’, or recommendation engines that can decide based on your previous viewing history that a user would like the pink t-shirt.
Naturally, these data analysis and decision-making capabilities hold huge potential in the ecommerce space and can particularly help small business teams deliver their work more efficiently. As a team we want to help the clients we work with get the most from their ecommerce solutions and that is why we have made machine learning central to our own processes. Our team holds regular internal workshops to discuss machine learning and AI trends, as well as explore use cases, share knowledge and identify where this technology can benefit ourselves and our customers.
Some applications of machine learning in ecommerce
There are various ways in which technologies driven by machine learning can be used to deliver value.
Coding
GitHub’s Copilot programmer tool helps write code in less time and with greater efficiency. Benefits of this tool include code completion suggestions while working in editor, the ability to iterate large changes across multiple files, and get answers quickly to coding-related questions. This can help deliver solutions to customer problems more efficiently and acts as a second pair of eyes on the work being developed.
Alt text
With websites potentially having thousands of images across their pages, particularly when you have multiple images in a product gallery, adding alt text to these can be a time-consuming process. Machine learning tools such as Alttext.ai can be used to generate alt text for images, helping to enhance accessibility and improve SEO for websites whilst also saving some business time for other tasks.
Meta data
In the same way as alt text there are machine learning tools that can help create meta data for pages and help improve their SEO value. When done manually this can be a laborious process; machine learning helps achieve the desired result with efficiency and faster. However, it’s still important for this to be reviewed by an SEO expert and ensure that it makes sense, reads well and is in keeping with a website’s tone of voice and brand identity.
Product search and recommendations
We work closely with Klevu, a company who create tools that harness machine learning to support product search, merchanding, and recommendations. We utilised Klevu for British fashion brand, John Smedley, implementing the product recommendations engine, smart search, and category merchandising as part of an ecommerce site enhancement project.
Product descriptions
Product descriptions can also be an area where businesses struggle to find the right words as there are only so many ways you can describe a T-shirt, for example. We’re seeing a rise in tools to support product description generation that consider existing product data attributes, keywords and tone-of-voice to generate initial descriptions. An obvious one that means this will be commonly used in ecommerce is that if you have Shopify then you will natively have access to Shopify Magic to do this straight in the platform.
Product information management
The same type of tools we’ve spoken about in ecommerce for generating alt text, meta content, and descriptions can also be used by most PIMs helping advance product information management substantially. These tools can go further and source similar product data externally from manufacturers to help fill in the blanks in attribute data. This supports the effective management of data and assets to enhance product marketing and sales for ecommerce businesses.
Day-to-day tasks
Tools such as ChatGPT can be used to help complete day-to-day tasks in a more efficient way. The information ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools can help simplify processes and improve efficiency but should always be checked for validity.
Protecting sensitive data
Whilst most, if not all ecommerce organisations stand to benefit from machine learning in one way or another, it’s important to ensure that you never share or input sensitive data.
Though there are many public machine learning and AI solutions on the market, these can pose a risk to confidential data.
Therefore, you should always take a responsible approach when it comes to selecting the machine learning and AI solutions you utilise to ensure your data is always protected.
Accelerate online growth with machine learning
We firmly believe using machine learning in a clever and responsible way can help deliver better value for ecommerce organisations.
If you need some help or you’re not sure how to get started, talk to us to start a journey towards ecommerce excellence. Together we can help you make the most of everything machine learning can bring to the table.
