Even pre-pandemic, Amazon was an ecommerce giant like no other. You could find practically anything on the platform and have it delivered straight to your door.
Cut to a nearly-post-pandemic reality, and Amazon has become bigger and more competitive than ever. FBA sellers are rapidly multiplying, and as the competition gets fiercer, standing out becomes far more difficult.
In the world of marketing and advertising, artificial intelligence has been thriving as well. Both Google and Amazon algorithms heavily rely on machine learning to understand their customers better and increase sales.
Let’s first look at what AI has done for Amazon itself, and then we’ll explore how you can use it to increase your Amazon sales.
AI and Amazon
Amazon’s own recommendation engine is currently driving 35% of its total sales. The main goal of the brand’s AI solution is to better understand customer behavior and search queries.
It’s not enough to know that someone wants to buy a specific product. By knowing why a customer needs it, the platform is able to provide better recommendations, thereby truly addressing customer needs and improving UX.
The AI engine looks for correlations between the phrases a customer uses and the product they ultimately buy. This allows it to predict the requirements of future shoppers who are searching for the same phrases.
AI can also predict if a spike in sales may result in a product shortage or if shipment delays are likely to impact customer experience. This has enabled Amazon to weave a very fine network that gives them their edge over other ecommerce stores.
Use AI for Customer Service
Even though you can’t control the platform itself, there are ways you can utilize AI to your own benefit on Amazon.
First, you can leverage machine learning to improve your customer service efforts. An AI-powered chatbot can help you manage your social media messages, for starters.
Customers don’t like to wait to get their queries answered, and they like to feel they are shopping from a brand rather than just making an order on Amazon. If you can connect with them on social media, you can make sure they look for your specific store when they are on Amazon.
By adding an AI element to your social media messaging, you can respond to messages faster, even if it’s just to say you can’t get to the query now. This will reassure your buyers and boost their experience with your store.
You can also use machine learning to analyze the reviews your customers leave on your store and discover what you can do to improve it. The AI will analyze the words and tone shoppers have used to determine what their emotions and key issues are, allowing you to address them.
Write Better Copy
In order to increase your Amazon sales, you will also need to improve the copy of your store. If you are not a brilliant copywriter yourself, you can turn to different AI solutions to lend you a hand.
AI can analyze competing product descriptions and FAQ sections and give you an insight into the words and phrases used by competitors. You can also pinpoint the keywords that may be underutilized and gain an edge by implementing them more often.
There are AI-powered copywriting tools that can help you deal with writer’s block and suggest different ways to craft your descriptions. Even if you don’t end up using the exact phrase the machine has suggested, it can certainly give you a nice start.
You will need to analyze your new copy to ensure that what you’ve come up with truly works. See how much traction your new product pages are getting, and make copious notes of all the trends you may be noticing.
Understand Your Shoppers
AI solutions can also be used to improve your market research, helping you better understand your target audience.
Traditionally, conducting extensive market research has been an expensive venture. It also used to take a very long time to compile a vast amount of data and analyze it intelligently. It could literally take months to arrive at any actionable information.
AI has democratized market research, making it much more affordable and accessible. Even smaller brands are now able to use an AI-based tool to understand their niche and what it is their customers are really looking for.
You can now predict trends and address a rise in product demand on time. When you’re able to determine when your customer base will require more of a specific product, you’ll be able to avoid running out of it.
You can also match search intent with customer habits and behaviors and add the most in-demand products to your store.
Make Better Decisions
The key to quality marketing is often understanding your customers and how they behave online. Armed with that kind of knowledge and understanding, you can serve them the right ads at the right time and on the right platform. You can speak to them in the language they themselves use and address their pain points more intelligently, offering real-life solutions.
AI can help you gather all of this data, thus enabling you to make better marketing and sales decisions. You no longer have to work based on your own judgment alone – you can rely on a piece of software to gather data, interpret it, and give you specific insight you can then easily action. For example, it can help you tweak a photo, write a better description, change your delivery options, etc.
Final Thoughts
As AI-based tools for market research, marketing, and sales become more intelligent and grow older, Amazon sellers around the world will be able to capitalize on these developments. In that sense, machines will be the ones waging the battle for a customer’s attention rather than humans.
However, don’t forget that you still need to add that human touch to your store. It’s what will make your customers feel like they are shopping from someone who cares rather than a faceless robot that just wants them to make a purchase.
