What do you want to achieve with AI tools in e-commerce?
You should ask yourself this question at the very beginning and find the answer as soon as possible. Tools based on artificial intelligence algorithms can do a lot for your company, but it is important to clarify your expectations.
- Maybe you want to create graphics for social media posts?
- Need better-looking product photos for your store website?
- Are you interested in the possibility of generating dozens of product descriptions in a short time?
- Do you want to improve customer relations?
Artificial intelligence can help your company in each of these areas. Here are our tool suggestions!
Produce graphics for your online store
Something that was unthinkable just a few years ago has now become the norm. Artificial intelligence can generate graphics just as we imagine. The trick in this case is to create an appropriate prompt, i.e. an instruction sent to the tool. A detailed description will allow machine learning algorithms to create an illustration of what we describe, in the style we indicate, and even in the appropriate colors.
However, it is worth being careful and regularly monitoring what is happening in terms of legal regulations that will affect the use of AI in the future. It is possible that soon it will be necessary to properly mark graphics generated by artificial intelligence – so as not to mislead users.
Midjourney AI
It is one of the most popular tools with huge possibilities, relatively easy to use and fast… but only if we decide to use one of the higher price plans (Pro or Mega). In other cases, we must be prepared for limitations in the number of simultaneously generated graphics and long waiting times. Prices in 2024 are as follows:
- $96 for an annual Basic plan,
- $288 for the Standard annual plan,
- $576 for the annual Pro plan,
- $1,152 for the 1-year Mega plan.
It is also worth mentioning that to use Midjourney, you need an account on the Discord social media platform – this is where, on the Midjourney server, you enter prompts to be able to use ready-made graphics. This aspect may be discouraging at first, but setting up a Discord account should not pose many difficulties. It is also worth remembering that users of paid MIdjourney plans can “converse” with the bot in private messages – the others generate graphics on a public channel where all other users of the platform also do it. This is not a convenient solution, because often before the bot generates the graphics, there will be a dozen or so other queries, and we will have to scroll up to find the ordered graphics.
Bing AI
Fortunately, Midjourney is not the only option available on the market. Also worth noting is Microsoft’s completely free offer. Bing AI allows you to generate graphics equally efficiently, with a much simpler UX – just visit https://bing.com/create and enter the prompt.
Defects? First: limit to 15 queries executed at an accelerated pace. Once this pool is used up, the waiting time for the next set of graphics increases dramatically. Another disadvantage is the lack of iteration. Once the graphic is generated, it is closed – we cannot change the selected element or adjust the result in any way. All that remains is to enter the modified prompt, thus reducing the available pool by another point.
Edit photos and increase sales
You already have a ready photo, but you want to improve it using artificial intelligence? You can choose from AI tools that differ in functionality, but also in prices.
Adobe Photoshop
Everyone is at least familiar with the Adobe suite. It is a set of professional, advanced tools for processing photos, graphics and video. In order to keep up with the changing reality, Adobe has introduced a number of functions powered by artificial intelligence. Thanks to them, with one click you can get rid of the background from a photo, change it to something completely different, expand the image in any direction, and even – by selecting – add elements to the photo. This way, you can quickly transform a boring, standard product photo into an attractive visualization that will increase interest in the product.
The biggest advantage of Photoshop’s AI solution is its simplicity of use. The disadvantage is the high price. Adobe offers monthly packages priced at EUR 77.49 for all Creative Cloud applications. The set includes, among others:
- Adobe Acrobat Pro,
- Adobe Photoshop,
- Adobe Premiere Pro,
- Adobe Illustrator,
- Adobe InDesign,
- Adobe Lightroom,
- Adobe After Effects,
- Adobe XD.
An alternative is to purchase a license for a single application – in this case prices vary, but the most advanced applications, including Adobe Photoshop, cost €33.49 per month.
All prices given are net prices and apply to the possibility of using the package in companies – personal accounts are correspondingly cheaper.
Pixlr
Similarly to the previous chapter, we also propose a cheaper solution. Pixlr is a web application, i.e. available from a web browser, without the need to install software. In the context of AI-assisted photo editing, Pixlr offers similar functionality to Adobe Photoshop, although less advanced. Despite this, we can still easily “extend” the photo, change the background or add the desired element.
The tool’s lower capabilities can be compensated by a much lower price – for the highest Pilxra package we will pay $9.91 per month, and as part of the subscription we will receive 1,000 credits to be used for editing and generating content with the help of artificial intelligence, as well as five profiles that we can assign to our team members.
Use artificial intelligence to create content
Whether it’s product descriptions, content on social media, or even e-mails – all the content that we later use in marketing campaigns or on the store’s website can be written ourselves, generated using artificial intelligence or – and this is still the best option – AI will help you create the content and then bring it to its final state by verifying it and making any necessary changes. Popular text generation tools can easily cope with simple tasks, but also with diversifying already written content or making corrections (for example, stylistic ones).
ChatGPT
The real trend for artificial intelligence began with the work of OpenAI. ChatGPT is a solution that constantly surprises with its scale and new possibilities. Today we can use the third version of the GPT engine for free – very limited and often error-prone, but still potentially helpful. However, if we have a company budget at our disposal, we can subscribe to the latest version – GPT-4 in the Plus, Team or Enterprise plans.
Prices start from $20 per month, but it is extremely important that only the Enterprise plan guarantees that OpenAI will not use the content we enter to train its algorithms. Regardless of the plan you choose, it is worth choosing the content you use as a prompt very carefully and absolutely avoiding sharing information that is important to the company, such as customer personal data, employee logins, sales results or conversion statistics.
Surfer AI
Another option is to generate entire articles using the Surfer AI tool. For the price of $19, you can order an article to be “written” for a given keyword phrase. Surfer will analyze the phrase and generate text that you can then use on your website. However, remember to verify the result of such an order each time. Artificial intelligence tools can provide invaluable assistance, but they cannot replace all the work – at least not yet. Surfer is also a tool that allows you to optimize written content for SEO.
Better customer service thanks to AI
Chatbots are nothing new, but today their functionality is much greater than a few years ago. Livechat implemented on the e-shop website will not only answer questions about product availability or opening hours, but will also suggest a product that the customer may like based on the purchase history, and even enable the purchase from the conversation level.
LiveChat
This solution includes much more than just a chatbot that you can embed on the e-store website. It is an advanced customer service automation tool that can be easily integrated with your e-commerce platform, offering a ticket system, data encryption and tracking user activity in your store.
LiveChat prices start from $20 and end at $59 per month (with an annual subscription). There is also an Enterprise plan, intended for the largest companies – in this case, however, the price is determined individually.
It’s worth mentioning that you can test LiveChat for 14 days free of charge – it’s a good way to make sure the tool lives up to your expectations.
Tawk.to
Chatbot for free without catches? Unlikely, but both the creators of Tawk.to and the users of the tool argue that it is possible. While this is obviously part of marketing, the fact is that the solution is maintained by the ability to purchase add-ons. These include the option of removing branding from the chatbot, AI Assist, or… “hiring” a person to serve customers of an online store for $1 per hour.
If you want to use the considerable potential of Tawk.to, especially in the context of artificial intelligence, it will be necessary to purchase AI Assist, a function thanks to which the chatbot will provide customers with precise answers to their questions, based on the analysis of data found in shared repositories. The AI assistant also allows you to create macros and shortcuts that will make communication with a chatbot even more similar to a conversation with a real consultant and personalize the customer experience.
The strength of Tawk.to is certainly the possibility of free and unlimited use of most of the tool’s functions. It would be a good idea to spend some time testing the application. Who knows? Maybe it will even replace the expensive chatbot you are currently using?
Summary
These are all the suggestions for today. Of course, there is more – there is a large number of applications on the market based on artificial intelligence algorithms. However, many of them are similar to each other – they differ in nuances, recognition and price. One thing remains unchanged: if you have the opportunity and time, check out each of the tools before you decide on a paid, long-term subscription.
