In a commerce landscape that breeds constant innovation, the connected customer demands more from brands than ever before. New technologies have empowered customers to engage with brands wherever they are, whenever they want, and relevant, engaging commerce experiences are now fully expected.
58% of consumers agree that technology has significantly changed their expectations of how companies should interact with them, and those that fail to cater to customer needs drastically reduce their chances of luring products into shopping carts.
Through the power of Artificial Intelligence, Salesforce Commerce Cloud is putting customer intent at the centre of merchandising strategy. Using the platform, brands can create intelligent, 1:1 shopping experiences and empower their merchandisers with user-friendly, AI-driven commerce features that drive real value for their customers.
Intelligent Personalisation
When a customer visits an AI-powered online retailer, like one of the hundreds using Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s Einstein technology, the content and products on display can be entirely unique to them.
By capturing customers’ dynamic session and profile data, Commerce Cloud generates highly-targeted promotions and purchase journeys from site entry to checkout, driving conversions by showing shoppers what they want, when they want it.
From targeted product imagery on the homepage to product arrangements in search results, Commerce Cloud brings logic to merchandising and relevance to brand commerce experiences.
Actionable Insights
Historically, brands have needed comprehensive data management strategies and expertise in order to derive actionable insights for their brand, often missing out on key opportunities in the unmanageable torrent of raw customer intelligence. With the assistance of AI, brands are now able to immediately make sense of this data.
Commerce Cloud learns with every click to improve customer experiences and identify high-value retail opportunities for brands. From the moment a customer lands on a site, the platform immediately starts gathering behavioral information — products browsed, content read, products in their shopping cart — then automatically uses the data to present far more relevant brand experiences that are aligned with the customer’s immediate interests.
Someone who has browsed a blog on ‘Holiday Essentials’ for example, is statistically more likely to be interested in swimwear, sunglasses and beachwear. The AI would recognise this, and subsequently present these products on the home page, in banners, and other merchandising real estate.
Automate processes
Forward-thinking retailers are employing Artificial Intelligence to streamline processes and drive immediate benefit to their workforce, as well as their customers. Merchandising teams are increasingly using AI to free themselves from manual tasks, giving them time to focus on actioning the valuable insights that the technology provides.
The platform’s Einstein Commerce Insights dashboard provides in-depth cart analysis to empower brands with an understanding of which products are most commonly purchased together. This information is then translated into recommendations, for example which products should be bundled or photographed together, ultimately driving conversion and higher order values.
What’s next?
With the help of AI, today’s brands are presented with an incredible opportunity to provide their customers with 1-to-1 personalised experiences. As uses for AI continue to grow, connected customers will expect increasingly sophisticated levels of personalisation from every brand they interact with.
In the case of Salesforce Commerce Cloud, machine learning is embedded into the very fabric of the platform, giving brands a greater access to the technology than ever before. To find out how Salesforce Commerce Cloud can impact your brand, speak to eWave today.
Nick Hull is an expert in commerce strategy and technology for global brands and retailers. He is the Manager of Strategic Partnerships & Accounts at eWave. See his work here or connect with him on LinkedIn.
