eCommerce and AI

 Some good examples of typical uses in the space.

How eCommerce leaders use AI to woo their customers with Personalization

Posted by Kateryna Reshetilo   in DSC

Once upon a time, customers simply walked into stores and met a friendly shopkeeper who helped them out. No one hears you walking the halls of those buildings... not anymore. The world shifted to online shopping.    Unprecedented growth occurred in the eCommerce sector amid the COVID-19 crisis. And Amazon has spoiled us to the point that we expect extreme personalization. If we don’t get it, we just go elsewhere.  

If you don't have a personalization strategy, you are losing 75% of shoppers who leave your website because they get frustrated by irrelevant offers. Website personalization helps to make the purchasing process faster, get better deals, and curb information overload. Before we dive in, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page.

What is personalization?

Personalization is the process of creating customized, pleasing experiences for visitors. Every customer sees a slightly different version of your website which is defined by the particular audience segment the shopper falls into. These segments are based on:

        Past purchase history and average order value 

        Demographics (age, ethnicity, location, income level)

        Psychographics (interests, habits, emotions, attitudes)

        Visitor type (new visitors or returning visitors)

        Traffic source (referral sites, social media, direct or from paid link ads)

        Site engagement (browsing time or number of pages viewed)

        Current cart profile  .... 

When a store suggests products that supplement the items in your cart, that’s personalization. It allows you to create unique shopping experiences tailored to each particular user. 

7 brilliant eCommerce personalization examples to boost sales

Ever hopped on a website and thought: “That’s exactly what I was looking for!” There’s a good chance that the retailer knew who you were, why you were visiting, and what you were seeking. Let’s take a look at eCommerce personalization done well. .... '

Google Cloud and Procter&Gamble Analytics

Using the Google Cloud,  aiming at personalized experiences.

Google Cloud Helps Power More Personalized Experience for P&G Consumers in PRNewswire CISION

SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Google Cloud today announced that The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) has selected its data analytics and AI technology to enable more personalized experiences for consumers. Through this new collaboration, P&G will now be able to leverage consumer and media data to innovate product experiences and enrich the shopping journey for existing and new consumers. In its more than 180 years, P&G has been at the forefront of innovation.  ....  '

Linking Gamification and AI

Steve Omohundro talks some favorite topics of mine in a recent presentation, slides at the link.  Integration of gamification a favorite.  We used gamification as a means to find alternative 'expert crowdourcing' to explore alternative solutions to wicked problems.   In the supply chain space.  Makes mention of Bytedance, that I had not heard of, will take a look.

Talk: The AI Platform Business Revolution, Matchmaking Empathetic technology and AI Gamification.

On October 15, Steve Omohundro spoke at FXPAL (FX Palo Alto Laboratory) about “The AI Platform Business Revolution, Matchmaking, Empathetic Technology, and AI Gamification”:

Abstract
Popular media is full of stories about self-driving cars, video deepfakes, and robot citizens. But this kind of popular artificial intelligence is having very little business impact. The actual impact of AI on business is in automating business processes and in creating the “AI Platform Business Revolution”. Platform companies create value by facilitating exchanges between two or more groups. AI is central to these businesses for matchmaking between producers and consumers, organizing massive data flows, eliminating malicious content, providing empathetic personalization, and generating engagement through gamification. The platform structure creates moats which generate outsized sustainable profits. This is why platform businesses are now dominating the world economy. The top five companies by market cap, half of the unicorn startups, and most of the biggest IPOs and acquisitions are platforms. For example, the platform startup Bytedance is now worth $75 billion based on three simple AI technologies.

In this talk we survey the current state of AI and show how it will generate massive business value in coming years. A recent McKinsey study estimates that AI will likely create over 70 trillion dollars of value by 2030. Every business must carefully choose its AI strategy now in order to thrive over coming decades. We discuss the limitations of today’s deep learning based systems and the “Software 2.0” infrastructure which has arisen to support it. We discuss the likely next steps in natural language, machine vision, machine learning, and robotic systems. We argue that the biggest impact will be created by systems which serve to engage, connect, and help individuals. There is an enormous opportunity to use this technology to create both social and business value.  .... '

Technology and the Future of Marketing

An interesting Podcast re the future of marketing and its implications.

Why Omni-channel Personalization Is the Future of Marketing

Podcast: 
Netcore's Rajesh Jain talks about how technology is shaping and transforming the future of marketing.

All customers want a unique, personalized experience, irrespective of how they interact with a brand – be it in-store, on an app, via a website, or wherever. With the prevalence of mobile and connected devices which give marketers access to vast customer data, and technologies such as analytics and machine learning, it is increasingly possible for companies to offer omni-channel personalization. But marketers also need to focus on identifying their “best customers,” instead of spreading their resources thin, says Rajesh Jain, founder and managing director of Netcore, a global marketing technology firm.

 Jain defines “best customers” as those who “spend more, stay longer with you and spread your message more.” These customers, says Jain, have the greatest lifetime value for a company. In a conversation with Knowledge@Wharton, Jain talks about how technology is shaping and transforming the future of marketing.

 Below is an edited version of the interview. .... " 

Personalizing Voice Skills

Now personalization is generally available, a small but useful aspect of voice interaction.

Personalize Your Alexa Experience with Voice Profiles (Generally Available)

By Mohit Mittal

We are excited to announce that the Alexa skill personalization capability is now generally available for the Alexa Skills Kit in all locales. Alexa developers can leverage voice profiles in custom skills, enabling their skill to respond based on the voice interacting with their skill. Customers create voice profiles through the Alexa companion app, and the skill then uses these profiles to reference who is talking. Now, you can create a personalized experience for different customers, so your skill can address preferences, remember settings, and differentiate between household members. Skills already utilizing this feature to deliver delightful, customized experiences to customers include Uber, Vodafone, 7-Minute Workout, and others.

Customize Your Skill Experience Based on Who Is Speaking

Now, your skill can determine who is speaking when customers engage naturally with your skill, no longer needing to switch between Alexa accounts to access individual preferences. Personalizing your skill experience can range from a friendly greeting to responses based on a customer’s likes, dislikes, interests, or account history. Use SSML and the alexa:name tag for Alexa to insert the user's name into a response, and then add a prompt with context, such as “Hi Jeff, welcome back. Would you like to order another ride to the airport?” If the customer changes the name in their profile through the Alexa app, it automatically changes in the greeting as well. ... " 

More on McD's Knows What You Want

More on the McDonald's drive through idea.   Less friction, more sales.  Note plan to roll to all drive-throughs. Looking forward to see it in action.

McDonald’s drive-thru AI knows what you want before you orde by Matthew Stern in Retailwire with further expert comments.

Implementing in-store touch screen ordering kiosks was only the beginning for McDonald’s in efforts to modernize its operations with technology. One of the chain’s recently announced experiments involves using artificial intelligence (AI) to enable the drive-thru to recommend what customers might want before they place an order.

At some locations, McDonald’s has been testing a solution that recognizes the license plate of a customer in the drive-thru and uses that information to provide AI-based recommendations of menu items, as reported by The New York Times. The technology (which requires permission from customers) takes into account the customer’s previous order history when populating suggestions on the drive-thru touchscreen.

The solution adds another element of personalization to the already dynamic new drive-thru touchscreen at some McDonald’s locations, which tailor product recommendations based on big-picture factors like weather, wait time and item popularity. McDonald’s says that recommendation algorithms have already demonstrated an unspecified increase in order size and the chain plans to roll them out to all its drive-thrus in the U.S. by the end of the year.  ....  '

IOT and Personalization

Makes good sense to consider these together, but IOT has other issues, like security.

IoT and Personalization: A Marriage Made in Heaven

By Syed Hassan / 02 Sep 2019 / Customer Service / IOT in ReadWrite

Who doesn’t want insane traffic and qualified leads for their business? If you want a sure-shot tip to engage customers on your website, here it is: Understand the customer’s journey. Everything kicks off in the right direction if you understand the intention of the customer. The customer of today is intelligent regarding what to buy and what to expect from the brand. You have IoT and personalization, which together are a marriage made in heaven.

If a customer purchases your product, the transaction is just one part of the grand equation. To retain the customer and entice them to buy again, you must stimulate the customer on every touchpoint. The small interactions that customer does with your brand can occur on many levels:

Attractive landing pages
Exceptional Customer Service
Inbound marketing and SEO optimized pages
Integrating social media with other marketing channels
There is so much data to consider if you are willing to optimize the journey of your customer.
This is the good, the bad, and the ugly. Good because there is a plethora of data available at your disposal, but just the data can be overwhelming.

Instead of relying on one-off data points on your customer journey, focus on creating a holistic experience for your customers. Advanced IoT technology can help in increasing sales. There are, of course, pros and cons of the IoT world. However, as a real human being, I would highlight some points that can help in improving the lives of customers.

IoT and personalization: made for each other.

IoT and personalization are like two sides of the same coin. One deal with data and second enables the brand to engage customers. When we talk about IoT, we are talking about the incredible opportunities that open up ways to interact with the customer purposefully. A fantastic change which we haven’t realized before. These small and straightforward interactions with machines are changing the perception of customers regarding brands. .... " 

Challenges for Machine Driven Marketing

Considerable challenges involved.  Like the concept of 'guardrails', though the measurements involved need to be well established.   Return, risk, behavior?  Think of guardrails as being a human management domain.   With creativity in their adjustment.

Discussions in digital: Making machine-driven marketing work

To work effectively with machines, marketers need to set up guardrails, then let the machines crunch the data and the humans focus on creativity and personalization.

Sent from McKinsey Insights, available in the App Store and Play Store.  ... " 

EBay Personalizes

We had a corporate short connection and interaction with EBay, been a user since the beginning, so continue to watch their efforts.  Noticed recently a change in their messages and marketing orientation. 

Ebay is pushing ahead on making its marketplace more personalized as customers shop not just by selection, but convenience.   By Hilary Milnes In ModernRetail

On Thursday, the company announced it was releasing 10 new features that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to learn and then adapt to customer preferences in search, product suggestions and ads, as well as on the homepage and through customer service.

Ebay’s simultaneously trying to improve the experience for guests — users that haven’t signed up for Ebay accounts, in an effort to attract more customers — and longtime eBay shoppers through the new tools. To target new users, it’s building personalized recommendations into their searches based on past search history and shopping behavior through Facebook and Google login, and tailoring search results for unaccustomed Ebay shoppers by prioritizing items available to purchase now (rather than bid). For frequent shoppers, the platform has rolled out options to get alerts and updates on an item’s availability they’re likely to want to bid on, as well as a “buy again” option ... " 

Avoiding Hyper Personalization

Mostly we don't notice this until its pointed out to us.

Brands are using AI to drive hyper-personalization, but can it also help them avoid being hyper creepy?   By Vince Jeffs in Customer Think

Apparently, I have 8 seconds to grab your attention, so here goes.  What if I personalized every aspect of this blog for you?  That is, I knew so much about you – your reading behavior, the writing style you prefer, subjects you love – took all of it into account, and assembled these words and pictures just for you?  Would you find that creepy or cool?

At our conference in Las Vegas recently, I was a guest on Sam Charrington’s, podcast series “This Week In Machine Learning and AI.”  In that episode, we discussed a similar hyper-personalization scenario, where an automotive company used intimate knowledge about a consumer and her connected car to custom-tailor each marketing and service treatment[i].  And half-way through (at 23:07), Sam observed that although “consumers appreciate personalized experiences,” it can go too far and “sometimes come across as creepy.”

And suddenly, we both realized something.  Customer experience experts haven’t used AI to govern this.  In other words, CX pros personalize without recognizing if their personalization levels are approaching creepiness.

Which led to this question: can creepiness be quantified?  And if so, with that knowledge, could a company effectively use it?  With the right tooling, could they safely test and simulate how far personalization should go, carefully delivering each customer a tailored experience with the right level of relevance and value, without crossing into their creepy space?  Simply put, hyper-personalizing without being hyper-personal — the personalization paradox.. ... " 

Healthcare Personalization

Makes sense,  have seen it myself, it also suffers from over regulation, which can look like unpersonal as well.  Cleary a potential for disruption.

How Personalization Improves the Healthcare Experience  By John Nash

With the incredible amount of changes in the healthcare system, the search continues for the best ways to improve outcomes while reducing costs. One of the keys is for healthcare payers and providers to rethink how they engage with consumers, in ways that account for the shift to consumer-centric healthcare and the advent of disruptive business models. Retailers, creative partnerships between payers and providers like accountable care organizations (ACOs), and other non-traditional entities have further cut into the traditional market share of healthcare payers and providers, making the consumer experience an increasing differentiator in this competitive market.

It’s crucial that healthcare payers and providers adapt now. Recent research found that there is a more than $500 billion opportunity for a disruptor like Amazon to deliver a superior customer experience and create a new “front door” to healthcare, changing the first point of contact from a doctor’s office to a local drug store or the consumer’s living room. .... "

GDPR and Better Marketing

Intriguing point,  if we fully understood the GDPR fully in its application as yet. 

How GDPR Can Lead to Better Personalized Marketing

By Michelle Chiantera in the Cisco Blog

As marketers, we’ve come a long way in becoming data-driven experts when it comes to creating more engaging personalized marketing experiences. The GDPR is making us think more critically about how we leverage that data to be in compliance, while still being able to effectively market and reach customers in relevant ways.

According to Forbes Insights, when it comes to GDPR compliance, 60% of organizations indicated they are challenged with shifting marketing and sales tactics in accordance with GDPR guidelines.

This shows that the GDPR’s impact has been a wake-up call for companies across the board and how they leverage data, but I feel it’s a refreshing and much needed one. Data has been foundational to everything we do for the past few years, but the GDPR is a good reminder that customers are more than targets and data sets, they are people who value trust and partnership.

So how can GDPR make us better at personalized marketing?  ... " 

CPG Product Personalization

We tried this with coffee, with no success. Some movement in snacks.  Includes expert comment.

Frito-Lay scores by personalizing consumer experiences    Dale Buss in Retailwire.   

Jennifer Saenz, chief marketing officer for Frito-Lay North America, said the “world around us continues to change at an incredible pace” and expectations for interaction with brands are set by the extreme individualization allowed by smartphones and other digital phenomena.

Southeby's Suggesting Taste with AI

Again, the use of detected pattern to customize, personalize.   With a replacement of some kinds of expertise.  Have worked with auction companies and the idea is a useful one.  Could also see this setting the table with monetizing by predicting transactions and linking to key participants based on previous activity.   Many possibilities.

Can AI have good taste? Auction giant Sotheby’s is counting on it in FastCompany

Sotheby’s acquired startup Thread Genius, whose machine learning tech can discern clients’ artistic and style leanings–and suggest customized purchases.  ... " 

Ahold Delhaize Focusing Digital Efforts

Have been impressed wth AHold efforts over the years, now with a lab for Digital:

Ahold Delhaize focuses its digital efforts
By Rachel England, @rachel_england   in Progressive Grocer

Ahold Delhaize is launching a new department in the US called Peapod Digital Labs to drive its e-commerce efforts, ramp up digital sales and hone in on its personalization efforts. The company named JJ Fleeman president and chief e-commerce officer of the new arm.  ... "

AI Based Recommendation Engines

Makes much sense to broaden the approach.  Link to PDF.

Recommendation Engine Based on AI: High Revenue Margin by 2022
 By Akshita Banker in Linkedin

 With the help of Recommendation engine more than 100 business logic and personalization configurations make best offers to their customers. Recommendation engine are common among e-commerce, social media and content-based websites. It Analyses customer behavior, order history, and like-minded shopper intent. This information enables e-retailers to offer the right products to the right customers and at the appropriate time. ... " 

Individualization vs Personalization

Will Gen Zers push personalization toward individualization?     by Tom Ryan in Retailwire

According to a study from the IBM Institute for Business Value, Gen Zers find value provided at an individualized level — such as when it is delivered through promotions and offers that match individual Gen Zers’ specific needs and desires — as more important than personalized experiences shaped by the brand. 

The study, done in collaboration with the National Retail Federation (NRF) and based on survey of 15,600 Gen Zers from 16 countries, said that while individualization and personalization are similar concepts, they are initiated differently: ... " 

Press Release.

Wal-Mart on Personalization of Data

Quite an interesting piece.   I have worked with the earliest Wal-Mart data systems, so this is yet more serious stuff.  Historically no retailer has had more data, or used it better.  Though Amazon is now rapidly catching up, and by its nature creates more data at a personal level.

Walmart Is Investing In Shopper Data: How That Will Change The Grocery Aisle   By Bryan Pearson -  in CustomerThink

It might not be able to put a price on trust, but Walmart is preparing to pay the fare for getting personal, and it could cost the entire food industry billions in shifting sales.

The world’s largest brick-and-mortar merchant has acknowledged it is lagging in the quest to personalize through the use of shopper data. Now, perhaps because of Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, which could yield unprecedented in-store and online data models, Walmart is embarking on a “multiyear journey” to get its data in good enough shape to produce relevant personalized experiences.

“From 1 to 10 in our use of data, I would say we’re probably about a 2,” Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart, recently told attendees at its annual investor conference. “We use data to improve in-stock and replenish. We don’t use data to personalize.”   .... "

Next Gen Personalization

Good piece shows the breadth of tech being used to personalize.

Shop.org Takeaway: Three steps to next-gen personalization
 By Deena M.Amato-McCoy in ChainStoreage.

Consumers are becoming more digitally influenced on a seemingly daily basis — but omnichannel retailers find themselves hard-pressed to keep up the pace. Retailers need to meet their needs across all touchpoints, and create a frictionless shopping experience despite where the shopping journey starts and ends.

To achieve this goal, successful retailers are adopting a new digital tools that allow them to “connect the dots,” and personally engage shoppers before, during and following the shopping experience. Industry observers discussed this new level of personalization during Shop.org, held in Los Angeles, Sept. 25-28.

Among the top solutions are:

Voice: Conversational commerce is shaping up to be one of the year’s hottest disruptors, and momentum continues to grow. As customers grow more comfortable using digital voice assistants found on devices like Amazon Echo and Dot, Google Home, and others, retailers have a new way to personalize the shopping experience, and remove some of the friction that still occurs via online and mobile transactions.

Jet.com Walmart’s e-commerce arm, is so bullish on voice that it is one of the company’s “top priorities this year,” Marc Lore, president and CEO, of Walmart e-commerce U.S., said at shop.org.

“You have to look beyond the technology and toward what it enables,” Lore added. “It’s more than a tool that helps customers order product for delivery. It gives us the chance to connect with shoppers one-on-one. And we can use data to become better merchandisers.”

Artificial intelligence: Retailers that use AI are essentially adopting programs that teach their computers to learn patterns. Then brands can use results to deliver better customer experiences.

AI is playing a critical role across Disney’s retail channels. Committed to delivering “a more immersive, personalized, and robust omnichannel experience than ever before, “Disney is adding AI to our e-commerce site so we can help improve the guest experience online and in-store,” said Mike White, senior VP and chief technology officer for Disney consumer products and interactive media.

AI is helping Disney understand its best-selling category SKUs searched online, and then using this data to evaluate customer affinities. “Then we can expand online and in-store assortments, which add more value to their experiences,” he added.  .... "

A Creative Promotion Machine

Just now examining the creative personalization angle addressed here.  A mix of personalization and creativity.  But how much?

AI-Based Promotions – Welcome to the Creative Machine    By Vince Jeffs 

As a Marketer, when you craft successful promotions, you’re especially proud of their creative aspects And it’s understandable because creativity seems our last bastion against the perceived onslaught of machine domination, so we fiercely defend that turf. The tenuous argument being, “robots are no match for human creativity!” This viewpoint, besides inviting a cage match between humans and machines, also smacks of keeping math and machines out any solution, lest boring and stiff digital influences ruin the warmth of our marketing art and experience show. However, for all the aspiring “Michelangelos” out there, it’s time to rethink this, lest you find yourself selling one-off ad creatives at street-side craft shows.

A promotion is fundamentally your story; your pitch in a nutshell – delivered through a channel to an audience of one – assuming it gets through. And the fact that it oozes creativity and garners the right emotional response can be critically important to a customer’s reaction. But what is its true worth? Compared to what? Is there a chance that for most eyes it will succumb to fading into the backdrop with all the other one-size for all advertising clutter?    .... "