From mobile-first design, to streamlined checkouts, to personalization, and beyond, technology trends continue to make an impact on the ecommerce and retail industries. As we approach the biggest retail sales of the year, AI is playing a bigger role than we could have imagined in years past.
Generative AI is gaining popularity as a powerful tool in the shopping experience and, for many, it may even replace a trip to the mall, browsing sites like Amazon, or coming across gift guides on search engines. Google is not the only or primary search engine of choice. More and more shoppers are turning to generative AI platforms, like ChatGPT and Claude, to find what they’re looking for. Consider generative AI the new personal shopper. By prompting AI with a description of the person they’re shopping for, a few keywords for the types of items they’re searching for, and even their preferred budget, AI can provide shoppers with specific product recommendations. Shoppers who leverage this tool are finding personalized results quicker and more efficiently than traditional channels.
Adobe’s recent survey uncovered that 38% of respondents have used generative AI for online shopping in the past, while 52% plan to leverage this tool for online shopping this year. With a surge in generative AI traffic last November and December, this traffic is expected to only increase this holiday shopping season.
With shoppers volunteering so much insight into what they’re searching for, ecommerce businesses are able to tap into and harness a whole new data source. From offering targeted personalized recommendations to predicting shopping trends in the season ahead, this generative AI use case provides endless opportunities for converting more transactions. With this new found potential for data and in-bound traffic, ecommerce businesses are scrambling to match the surge in generative AI adoption by optimizing their sites and product descriptions. Ecommerce businesses are learning how to increase their chances of appearing in AI search results with tactics and strategies that go beyond typical SEO optimization like writing copy with natural language and conversational inquiries in mind and providing AI crawlers with top notch structured data.
As AI technologies and trends rapidly evolve, companies in all industries must meet the moment to compete. To learn more about how your ecommerce business can leverage this increase in generative AI adoption, contact us today.
