Survival of the Fittest in E-Commerce: Small and Micro Businesses Edition

Thriving as a business in this dog-eat-dog world is a herculean task. And business owners are left using every opportunity to one-up other businesses and try to compete with the big companies. Additionally, Small and micro-sized enterprises have to integrate the latest innovation into their business model, or else risk being left behind in the age of e-commerce.

Target in Sight

It is common knowledge in the industry that personalization is the key to reach not only your target audience but also new markets. Nevertheless, there are still business owners out there that are yet to make the jump. And with Artificial intelligence (AI), this move is now more important than ever before.

AI and machine learning (ML) advancements have made deep personalization approaches possible. You may pinpoint what your customers actually want and convey the most effective message by analyzing large data from purchase histories and other customer interactions.

Human Intervention Who?

As a small or micro business owner you cannot afford to hire employees. So, AI automation makes the most logical sense. Automation aims to complete a task with the least amount of human involvement. That could entail anything from using a CRM or marketing tool to schedule emails or using cutting-edge technology to assist in hiring.

AI can significantly contribute to your efforts to automate the repetitive tasks necessary to run your online store. Automating processes like product recommendations, loyalty discounts, basic customer support, and more is possible with AI. It meets your business needs to free you up for more on-hand tasks.

Sounds Too Good to Be True

I agree, it does sound too good to be true, and had I not encounter its use cases, I too would be skeptical.

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When you shop online, the system takes into consideration what you click on and actually peruse. In other terms, it collects and process your customer data through their online shopping experience. Personalized product recommendations are made using artificial intelligence and are based on past customer behavior and lookalike customers.

Have you ever wondered why once you purchase an item of off the web, you start getting ads for that item or others that are adjacent to it from multiple different brands and supplier? That’s because the AI has clocked you as part of the target audience of these businesses. You can take advantage of this feature and advertise to those that are more likely to click and engage with your content.

How May I Help You?

With the help of chatbots and virtual assistants, you can give the impression of providing higher touch customer support. Although these bots aren’t entirely self-sufficient, they can help with straightforward transactions so that live support agents can concentrate on more complicated problems. The 24/7 accessibility of virtual agents allows for quick resolution of basic queries and issues at any time of day without keeping your customers waiting.

The AI chatbot does not need to be the fanciest out there, but it does give charm and “sophistication” to a one-person operation. And the extra help in handling outrageous customer query comes in handy every now and then.

Final Thoughts

Small and micro businesses are awesome. They are almost always very niche and specific. Unfortunately, in the grand machine of capitalism, they do not get enough recognition as they cannot produce products as fast as big companies relying on mass production. But integrating AI could help their services reach a broader audience and their business gain a competitive edge.

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