How AI is transforming the ecommerce experience

There is no doubt that the advent and expansion of AI has become a part of most of our lives as we now regularly interact with AI across our smart-speakers, phones, cars and computers.

For companies that sell products online, AI has become the next paradigm shift, in fact, one of the largest step-change advances since the birth of the internet itself.

AI is changing fast. We all probably remember hearing about ChatGPT through our friends or the media at the time, and being in some wonderment at how it could write pretty impressive letters or help us compose an email reply and other relatively simple tasks.

Since then, AI has become more sophisticated and simply better at what it does; now AI can readily synthesise and mimic human voices with great accuracy, images and videos can be created with stunning realism, and every day it seems the technology is advancing and becoming more powerful.

AI in ecommerce

In the world of ecommerce, AI has created both opportunities and challenges, and even existential threats for some operators. OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Perplexity have developed many AI-powered elements that are forcing online retailers to re-evaluate how they sell online and attract customers to their stores.

These platforms have all developed technologies that allow customers to search products using conversational AI and AI agents that are able to complete orders autonomously on their behalf.

Many users of Google will have experienced AI now summarising what it sees as the topic of the search, known as an ‘AI Overview’, and delivering an AI-generated narrative that answers the question, with embedded links leading to certain resources, some of which are ecommerce, some of more informational content.

According to a recent article in Financial Times, James Cadwaller, the co-founder of Profound, stated that consumer behavior is reaching an ‘inflection point’ where people may no longer visit ecommerce sites. He further states, ‘Eventually, the consumer will only interact with the ‘answer engine’, and AI agents will become the primary visitors for websites and the internet’.

For many ecommerce operators, the developments in AI have been greeted with some enthusiasm, as many now rely on AI for previously resource hungry customer-service and support..

The rapidly changing nature of AI has also sparked a new landrush to understand and rethink their strategies to keep pace. Indeed, in the same article, Semrush stated that almost 60 per cent of European Google searches no longer result in a click, as users are now relying on the AI ‘Overview’ to satisfy their queries.

How can ecommerce companies win with AI?

Even in these early days of AI, it is becoming obvious that new strategies have to be adopted for ecommerce operators to have their products featured when users are searching via AI Agents, like ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or in Google AI mode.

Promoting products for AI discovery will involve a blending of traditional SEO practices, but also separate tactics to ensure that products are not excluded from exciting new AI features that are just around the corner.

AI inclusion will require a greater focus around visual assets, so that the AI Agents can show potential buyers a greater range of options and personalisation.

The future is very much around the user being able to see and almost experience items such as clothing and accessories on their own likeness, body shape etc through virtual try on technology.

Features like Google’s Search Live are promoting real-time visual product discovery using smartphone cameras. Furthermore, Google is expanding its own virtual try-on capabilities, particularly in clothing and fashion, allowing users to upload photos to see how items might look.

Given these trends, high-quality product imagery is now non-negotiable for ecommerce Small and Medium Enterprises. To compete, SMEs will need to commit to significant investment in diverse, high-quality photography and data feeds that include the right amount of relevant and original content.

Technical aspects of the vendor’s website will also need to be performing at optimal levels, as AI will lean towards websites with the fastest load speeds to enhance the user experience, so cumbersome scripts and heavy-bandwidth content will be under much greater scrutiny.

Preparing ecommerce content for the age of AI will require that optimisation moves away from targeting single, isolated keywords and instead focus on developing comprehensive topic clusters to successfully address the complex, conversational queries modern shoppers use.

For this advanced approach to succeed in achieving AI discoverability and inclusion, a well-maintained ecommerce data feed is crucial. This structured digital file, also known as a product feed, serves as the core foundation, containing detailed product information, such as names, descriptions, prices, images, and availability that feeds directly into the larger content strategy.

This transition will necessitate a significant evolution from past ‘SEO writing’ practices, which were often characterised by creating thin content solely for ranking purposes. Instead, modern ecommerce AI visibility relies on establishing an authentic practice of knowledge creation supported by a sophisticated information architecture.

Another important aspect is managing the customer experience that is delivered via AI. A recent report by Verizon Business states that ‘while a staggering 88 per cent of consumers are satisfied with interactions handled mostly or fully by human agents, only 60 per cent feel the same about their interactions with AI agents’.

E-commerce operators therefore need to align their strategies with the best aspects of AI capabilities, but not alienate customers through poor execution.

Summary

The rise of AI and its impact on the way we all search, compare and purchase products and services has been both rapid and revolutionary.

E-commerce brands are at the very forefront of this emerging technology, with many operators already engaging many AI functions across their business, in terms of both their operations and marketing.

There is no doubt that AI offers some incredible opportunities for online sellers. The winners will inevitably be the businesses that do their homework on what AI features offer the most competitive advantages, whilst minimising any potential risks.

At seoBusiness, we are at the forefront of AI SEO, helping our clients navigate and succeed in the constantly changing world of AI via our own unique GrowthNavigator™ system, ensuring they are fully optimised for AI search results, across all the available AI chat and search touchpoints.

If you would like to discuss the content of this article, or find out more about our AI SEO services for your own ecommerce business, please feel free to get in touch.