Episode 1 - Role of AI & Data Analytics in eCommerce Growth

[00:00:00] Host – Ladies and gentlemen, digital and eCommerce enthusiasts and eCommerce
curious minds alike. Welcome to the first episode of Commerce Connect -a video podcast series by Krish. Today, we begin with a widely discussed subject, role of AI and data analytics in eCommerce growth that will unfold across three episodes. We will discuss the pivotal role these technological marvels play in propelling the unprecedented growth of the global ecommerce business. In a sense, the synergy between AI and data analytics in eCommerce is a game changer. Every click, every purchase, every interaction is a data point. AI and analytics transform this wealth of information into actionable insights, not just about selling products anymore. It’s about understanding anything and exceeding customer expectations, thus staying not just competitive but ahead of the curve.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I introduce our esteemed guest for today’s episode Sadeq Abdulrasool, a true luminary in the field of digital commerce. Sadeq is a renowned digital expert and a leader in the industry. Sadeq is a Chief Digital Officer of homies.me, and MD of Xernel Digital Solutions. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in various aspects of digital technology, and his insights have been instrumental in shaping the landscape of eCommerce.
Today, we have the privilege of tapping into his expertise, welcome Sadeq, to Commerce Connect by Krish. We are excited to embark on this enlightening conversation with you.”

Guest Speaker – Thank you very much Zenul. It’s my pleasure to be a part of this very first unique podcast and I wish to bring some value to the table. Thank you.

Host – Thank you so much, Sadeq.
Sadeq, we hear a lot of myths surrounding AI. eCommerce has surely evolved with the integration of AI and data analytics. The impact is not just limited to marketing, though, there are several. It has impacted several eCommerce operations like customer support, logistics, software engineering, and more. AI and data analytics have transformed online shopping, turning it into a high-tech playground
while algorithms not only understand the preferences but also predict what you will love and buy as a product, a futuristic shift that defines AI applications in today’s ecommerce operations. So Sadeq, how has AI and data analytics evolved the entire eCommerce landscape? What are some fundamental ways is applied in eCommerce operations today?

Guest Speaker – Well, I guess we have agreed on having simple questions, you are giving me right now a great big chunk of questions. So, if we are talking nowadays about artificial intelligence, it is one of the most hot subjects of the industry nowadays, and every single industry is getting expanded
and disrupted by artificial intelligence. So when it comes for even understanding how likely this AI can play a crucial role, again, in eCommerce, for example, we can see that every single function that you might think of, there can be a possibility of an AI to play that role. So if we’re trying to get thinking about even on the personalization on the steroids, you will find out that even to the minimum level of understanding, analyzing the personas, and capturing some information, starting from your purchase history, from capturing good cookies, understanding the patterns of the
consumer themselves, to the level of understanding their social activity through social media,
or even through their personal life. We have heard a lot, especially in the MarComm, about the Omnichannel. So even here, when it comes for the personalization, we will find out that there is a possibility, there’s a huge chance that by understanding the actual, the real needs, the motivators, the drivers, the challenges of my consumers, I’ll be able to serve them better through having sort of a better AI. That’s on one hand. On the other hand, we have seen the simplest implementation nowadays, at least for that area, which is the smart chatbots – many websites, many applications,
they have started developing sort of natural language processing bots that act as not only your online agent that helps you but also it’s I will cause your online assistance in finding out the right products. I remember previously I was shopping on one of the American websites looking for HDMI for my PlayStation and I have found out that pop-up it’s like keeps blinking for me. And once I have clicked it was like a telecast thing. Are you looking for HDMI cable? We can help you by asking a few questions. What is the purpose of this HDMI cable? so I chose it was for gaming purposes. So it was like quite advising by telling me If you are a heavy gamer, consider buying a 60 hertz cable. If you want to know more why you just like some sort of thing. So just imagine this very short journey of a one minute conversation with just because this chatbot it gives me the feeling of even the chat bots nowadays by embarking some AI will then it will be quite advising and helpful for the users. Think about every single area such as analyzing the traffic, understanding the transactions, the traction, analyzing the campaigns, onboarding sellers, vendors, every single area, there can be a possibility of having an AI within their streamlined operations.

Host – Absolutely. So the examples that you have shared, for sure, are quite enlightning because they give us some real-life examples onto how AI is helping seeding the consumer journey into sales. So Sadeq, this AI and data analytics leads to a heap of insights. And the real magic actually happens when businesses turn these actions into actions for growth. So, as you mentioned, a lot of data is being captured in terms of the web behavior and a lot of actions again, being captured by AI, then, you know, these insights, if they are turned into actions, they will be actually leading for growth. So, for instance, at Krish, we have helped companies implement AI and advanced data analytics that enable them to streamline this complex customer segmentation based on their behaviors and journeys. And then delivering intelligent and personalized campaigns based on those helped them grow their orders by around 35 to 40% in the recent BFCM campaign and holidays. Can you share with us some more examples where this implementation of AI and data analytics has led to significant growth specifically for the eCommerce business?

Guest Speaker – Okay, awesome. Well, I will try to find out an example which is not close to that region. So at least it doesn’t sound like a marketing promotion. Okay, I don’t recall a company. It’s called Sneakers & Co; I guess it’s either an Australian or European company. They have shared one case study that they have done over two years. Most of their marketing campaigns it wasn’t clicking, and it wasn’t bringing any promising or it wasn’t achieving or performing the targets. And they have found out that it’s sort of inconsistent. Over the time, even their customers aren’t happy, they are feeling is there’s a complex in the journeys. So what they have done is they have partnered up with one of the companies and they have implemented a whole AI suite within the system, which, from entering the websites, until before you sleep at the night, there is a process surrounding you by pushing you to find out your best sneakers and shoes. And that was basically by revising all the traffic for the past six months, by understanding where the customers exits from the website, which product they tend to stay longer, which colors even see it’s quite sound simple but even which colors shall I promote or present or display my products and they have found out, it was for me, didn’t click much but they tend to say the brown sneakers tend to make people feel this more luxurious because the black is like quite neutral. So most of the products was showcased in brown color. They have changed even one of the suggestion from this AI suite is to change call to actions to call to benefits. Can you imagine that even add to cart has been replaced by something, it’s just I’m trying to recall it, it’s like get a better shoes instead of add to cart. So overall, the time span of three months, they have found out that their conversion rate has increased over 20 percent, the retention,
the lifetime value, even the average order value of everything, everything at least has a surge of more than 10 to 15%. So, now, we are trying to take out, what is the benefits that the AI added here? I wouldn’t say it helps in having a better performance, but at least I would say it retains your customers because the time that you are spending in bringing your customer, that’s an actual cost and money.
Host – Absolutely. That’s that’s a very notable example. Yes. And, you know, a true value being driven on how the insights from the AI helped, you know, make some changes into the site that could have a remarkable overall impact into the business. There is another aspect towards AI driven personalization wherein the product recommendations are very personalized, as per their consumer behaviors, preferences and their purchase journey. This system, the overall AI system then accurately predicts individual preferences based on the products and the other pages that have been visited on an eCommerce site. And then based on those, the results are shown to the user that makes a very personalized experience altogether on the eCommerce site. So, these also, overall, we have seen that it increases overall customer experience and it fosters a sense of loyalty that the consumer brand or the eCommerce brand is more caring for the consumer and showing us not something which is something that they have to offer, but what’s something that I am wanting to look out for in the eCommerce site. So, having said that, Sadeq now talking about AI’s contribution of enhancing the overall customer experience from personalized recommendations to customer service. Any specific AI applications that have proven to increase the overall customer loyalty as we know that customer acquisition has a higher cost, then, you know, retaining them and having repeat purchases is the way that the eCommerce businesses would like to go forward.

Guest Speaker – Well, see if we are going to demonstrate on the huge and bigger landscape, everybody is trying to claim that they are customer-centric. And in fact, at least from my point of view, what makes the difference nowadays is not being customer-centric, but being value-centric because there shall be some sort of balance between what you are providing to your customers against what you are gaining as a business and although this deal I have been against it for quite a long time and I had a lot of debates with many of the industry experts and definitely you as Krish as you’re ecommerce leaders also into implementation and execution probably you are also having your own philosophy, but when it comes for an AI I have found out that implementing AI it should be revolved around the value that you are presenting for both the business and the customers. It doesn’t make any sense that you’re going to your customers at your thing then hey guys, instead of chatting with Jack or David or with Maria over the chatbot, over the chat window, now we are having a box. For me as a customer I don’t care I’m chatting with whom. is it bots? is its actual person? I’m caring about getting served and answers by the time that I want that I want and getting the answers that I want with the availability that because eCommerce it means you’re available 24×7, you don’t have time and many of the businesses nowadays you will find even the customer service are having a limited availability perhaps even they are having as specific working hours How about if I have for example, I’m looking for a product or I want to check my orders at midnight? Where’s your customer service? So here for me personally and again for me personally as a customer, it doesn’t matters for me what technology you are bringing on the table. is it actual people? is it? see nowadays many of the companies, they have even used the AI bots to be act as an actual human, they have even given them a name, okay? So you are chatting about chatbots. But again, this is the black mystery of AI, it should act as a human. So, by saying so, you will find out many companies, I will call it they have what I call the “Understanding Fatigue,” which means between understanding the decision that they should take against the values that they should, there must be some sort of balance. And this is where many of the areas of many of these functionalities. It’s not about the technology, because technology is just a tool, but it’s all about the value that you will bring for the end users and into the team.

Host – Absolutely very, truly said, it’s not about all the benefits that the tools and the technology is bringing in. But also it might bring in a complexity and it’s all up to the ecommerce owners and the brands on to how to be utilizing this technology in the very right manner to ultimately deliver the value to the customers.

Guest Speaker – Absolutely.

Host – Thank you. Thank you, Sadeq for sharing your valuable insights. They are truly astonishing. In the rapidly evolving integration of AI and data analytics eCommerce landscape it has truly transformed it has opened doors to hyper-personalized recommendations that we call now streamlining operations, predicting demands and optimizing decision making. The integration of AI and data analytics not only shapes the present but also propels the eCommerce into a future defined by innovation and customer-centric strategies. A heartfelt thank you to our distinguished speaker Sadeq for sharing your valuable insights truly grateful for your engaging perspectives, inspiring our audience and fostering a deeper understanding of the subject.

Guest Speaker – Thank you very much. It was my pleasure. Thank you.

Host – Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time. In the next episode, let us take a deeper dive with Sadeq. On the other side of this revolutionary technology, we’ll discuss limitations, challenges,
and its innovative solutions coupled with data security, privacy, and ethics in AI. See you in a while. Till then stay safe, stay healthy, stay blessed.