With increasing competition, today’s eCommerce brands cannot stay competitive without AI.
AI tools can significantly improve the performance, growth, and scalability of Shopify stores.
AI tools are particularly helpful with product discovery, recommendations, and content creation for eCommerce stores.
However, there are various AI tools available in the market. In this blog, we discuss which tools you need, why, how they can help, and how to choose the best AI tools for your Shopify and Shopify Plus store.
Let’s get started!
Why do Shopify stores need AI for product discovery, recommendation, and content?
There’s an overload of everything—content, products, online stores—making purchase decisions harder for consumers. And that’s where AI comes in to make it easier. 51% of eCommerce brands are already using AI to offer smoother and personalized experiences to customers. Here’s why Shopify stores definitely need AI.
1. Overload of product choices for customers
Customers have thousands of options for any product they want to buy online. And hence, it is necessary for brands to ensure they understand individual customers’ preferences and make sure they (brand) does something and makes customers find relevant products on their site. Without AI’s intelligence, customers won’t be able to find relevant products.
2. Generic recommendations do not bring results
Every customer’s preference and needs are different. Hence, displaying the same product recommendation to everyone doesn’t work. Rather, when recommendations are based on customers’ data insights, such as past purchases, browsing behavior, shopping patterns, etc., they’re more likely to click on the recommendations and make purchases.
3. Content creation is time consuming
Ecommerce stores require a lot of content. Think product descriptions, social media content, emails, etc. All this requires a lot of time when done manually. With AI, brands can reduce content creation time significantly. Moreover, brands can maintain a consistent tone.
What are the best AI tools for product discovery on Shopify?
Product discovery is the first step to customer engagement and generating revenue via sales. Research shows that AI tools can improve customer satisfaction with the use of visual search by 85%, and reduce task completion time by 38%. Here are some of the most effective AI tools for product discovery on Shopify.
Smart search with natural language processing
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Search tools, such as Klevu and Algolia are designed to understand natural language queries. The tools handle typos and learn from customer behavior.
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For example, when a customer searches for ‘red dress’, the tool also shares related colors, such as crimson, scarlet, etc.
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Klevu has self-learning search capabilities that keep increasing based on click-through rates.
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Algolia offers advanced filters and navigation capability.
Visual search and AI tagging
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Shopify AI tools such as Syte and ViSenze have visual search capabilities. Customers can upload images to find products.
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For example, visual search tools are specifically helpful for fashion, footwear, accessories, home decor, etc. industries.
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The tools also have automated product tagging capabilities. The tools analyze product images and generate tags for patterns, colors, etc.
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These AI tools enhance search accuracy and reduce manual cataloging work.
Predictive search personalization
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AI-based search tools enable personalization, providing search results based on individual customer profiles.
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Tools such as Searchsping and Searchanise offer personalized results based on browning history, past purchases, and customer behavior.
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AI tools enable seamless shopping, and faster path to checkout
What are the best AI tools for product recommendations on Shopify?
Product recommendations can significantly increase average order value (AOV). AI tools for Shopify can intelligently create product recommendations based on customers’ preference.
AI product recommendations on Shopify help increase AOV through upsells and cross-sells, enhanced personalization, better customer loyalty, improved retention, and higher email and SMS engagement.
Here are some tools for product recommendations:
AI recommendation engines
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LimeSpot has capabilities to provide personalized recommendations across various pages, such as the homepage, product pages, cross-sells, upsells, and emails. It has a visual editor that helps customize recommendation layouts without coding.
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Nosto enables creating rules-based recommendations. These are based on AI-powered personalization. The tool offers cross-channel capabilities, combining online and offline personalization.
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Rebuy offers deep integration capabilities for Shopify Plus. Its features include smart cart functionality, post-purchase upsells, and reorder campaigns powered by AI.
Personalized bundles and dynamic upsells
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AI tools for Shopify designed for recommendations have the capability to track what products are frequently purchased together, and create relevant recommendations based on that. Additionally, they can also adjust bundle composition and pricing dynamically to maximise conversions.
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AI tools such as Wiser and Crossing Minds specialize in advanced bundling logic that is based on inventory levels, margin optimization, and seasonal trends.
Shopify AI tools for dynamic pricing and cross-selling
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AI tools also have the ability to analyze competitive pricing, demand signals, and individual customer price sensitivity. This helps maximize conversions as well as margins. AI tools incorporate pricing intelligence to recommend products at optimal prices.
Best Shopify AI tools for content creation
Shopify stores require a lot of content - product descriptions, ads, images, and videos, among others, for various platforms. Creating content can take up a significant amount of time. AI tools for Shopify can create all types of content. AI tools make content-creation faster, ensures consistent branding, localized content at scale, and enables testing more variations for optimized performance. Here are some tools:
AI copywriting tools
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Copy.ai is a tool that has the ability to create multiple versions of content, which makes it easy for A/B testing and for running campaigns on different channels. It can generate content for product descriptions, SEO meta descriptions, and promotional emails.
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Another AI content tool is Jasper, offering advanced features, such as brand voice customization, long-form content generation, etc. It helps brands maintain a consistent tone across multiple channels.
Automated product descriptions
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Hypotenuse AI can create bulk product descriptions, making it easy for large-scale eCommerce stores to have content in a consistent tone. The tool is simple to use. All you need to do is upload a CSV with product attributes and the tool shares SEO-optimized descriptions.
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Other tools for product descriptions include Copysmith and Describly.
AI image generation and enhancement
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DALL-E is an image AI tool that enables Shopify stores to generate images without photoshoots. By simply uploading a product photo with a white background, you can get AI to generate professional lifestyle images with different backgrounds, settings, and contexts.
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Other image-generation tools are Claid.ai and Remove.bg. The tools improve images by removing backgrounds, adjusting lighting, and standardizing image quality across catalogs.
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Pixelcut and PhotoRoom are useful for mobile-first image editing powered by AI, making it easy to create professional product photos from smartphone images.
Video creation and personalization
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Synthesia is an AI tool that helps create videos with digital avatars, useful for product explainers and tutorial content.
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Videomagic and Clipchamp help with video editing and automatically creating social media videos from product images and descriptions.
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Tools such as Tolstoy and Videowise help create shoppable videos where AI matches products to video content. The tool also personalizes video recommendations.
How to choose the right AI tools for your Shopify store?
There are various AI tools available for Shopify requirements. And selecting the best one can be a challenge. Here are some tips to help you choose the right AI Shopify tools for your store:
1. Integration capabilities
When selecting AI tools for Shopify, look for tools that have native Shopify integration features that do not require custom development. It is important to check if the tools are compatible with your existing tech infrastructure, such as email platforms, analytics tools, marketing automation workflows, etc.
2. Scalability
For ambitious Shopify stores that have high traffic volumes, it is essential to choose AI tools that can handle scale. Therefore, when choosing AI tools for Shopify, ask vendors about the API rate limits, capabilities during peak traffic, pricing structures when there’s more traffic, and if the tool has integration capabilities for future needs. Also check if the tool can manage data volumes.
3. Customization
Your requirements are going to be highly dependent on your industry or product niche. And not all tools are designed for niche product categories. For instance, the needs of a fashion brand are different from that of a health and supplements brand. Hence, assess whether the tools support customized requirements in your specific industry - algorithms, manual merchandising overrides, personalization, etc.
4. Pricing transparency
The pricing structure of Shopify AI tools may vary. While some offer flat monthly fees, others have usage-based pricing, and others have mandatory annual subscription fees. Check the pricing structure, any extra costs, etc., so that you don’t get any surprises later on.
5. ROI tracking
Understand how the tools provide tracking and monitoring reports. It is critical to measure the ROI on your Shopify AI tools. The tools should be able to provide basic metrics reports, such as conversion rate, incremental revenue, etc. Advanced metrics tracking and analytics is a bonus.
What are the common mistakes to avoid when using AI tools for Shopify?
While Shopify AI apps can speed up tasks, improve consistency, and enhance performance, the tools after all can only function for what they’re set up and designed for. AI tools can make mistakes, and here are the mistakes you should avoid when using these tools.
Relying only on AI
AI-generated content and recommendations require human review. That’s because AI can get repetitive and at times, make mistakes. For instance, it is important to review product descriptions to ensure accuracy and branding consistency.
Not training AI with high-quality data
AI tools base their actions and results on your data. And so, if your data is incorrect, AI will work with incorrect data and provide false results. For example, if there is inconsistency in product titles, incomplete information, the results AI provides will not be correct.
Using too many disconnected tools
Integrating too many Shopify AI apps can lead to data silos. Therefore, before adding new tools, it is essential to assess the compatibility of the tools and whether they can function in sync with each other.
Ignoring optimization
For the best results from your AI tools on Shopify, you need to put effort in consistently optimizing the functions. For instance, the algorithms need tuning based on data. Consider seasonal changes, inventory changes, etc.
Summing up
For Shopify and Shopify Plus stores, AI tools are not just add-ons, they can help grow, scale, and improve your brand. From product discovery to personalization and content creation, AI tools can enhance every aspect of eCommerce stores.
Partner with XgenTech to identify, implement, and optimize the best AI tools for Shopify for your business.
