How to use AI to Create Efficiencies in your Amazon Business

You’ve heard the AI buzz. You might even use it to find answers to questions, draft your emails, and navigate while driving through your city.

Now, you’re wondering if you should use AI to make your Amazon ecommerce business more efficient. It’s tempting, but the stakes seem so high.

And yet, even with the risks, Veeqo's recent ecommerce trends report found that 64% of ecommerce business owners are considering using AI in 2024. Even more interestingly, 39% of business owners focusing on AI in 2024 originally worked in the technology industry!

With AI, Amazon business owners are already finding new ways to help their operations run like well-oiled machines, improve customer satisfaction, and boost sustainability.

Let’s dig into six groundbreaking ways you can use AI to optimize your Amazon operations. 

What is AI?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is like your digital sidekick. In seconds, it can automate tasks, analyze heaps of data, and make your decision-making process savvier.

In pre-AI days, it would have taken hours (or even days) to process things AI can do in minutes. Now, AI helps businesses run smoother, faster, and with a better understanding of the customer.

AI has the potential to improve customer experiences, streamline operations, and give businesses a leg-up through innovative and sustainable practices.

As ecommerce evolves, AI’s role will only get bigger and better. Curious about how you can use AI to make your Amazon business more efficient? Read on for six ways innovative ecommerce companies are using AI:

1. Automate product listings with generative AI

Generative AI can generate a wide range of content, from text to images, audio, and even synthetic data. It's like having a content creation intern on your team ready for you to give it something to do.

Many ecommerce companies use it to generate product descriptions and customer service responses, and you can, too.

Amazon sellers can use AI to create and manage their product listings. With generative AI, sellers can create detailed and compelling product descriptions in a snap. So, launching new products, improving existing listings, and helping customers make better purchase decisions is easier and quicker.

How can AI speed up the listing process? When you plug in a basic product description, AI jazzes it up so that your description pops off the page and goes straight to shoppers' eyes.

While it makes your job easier, your customers get more comprehensive product information. It’s a win-win.

2. Personalize to create a delightful customer experience 

Amazon Personalize makes it simple to add hyper-personalized recommendations to your platforms, such as websites and marketing emails.

It uses machine learning (ML) to tailor content to individual tastes. The content, in turn, boosts sales and customer loyalty. The best part? You don't need to be a machine learning whiz.

You can set up your custom recommendation engine in just a few days. Then, it adjusts recommendations on the fly for the most relevant user experiences—even for new users or products.

Plus, you can spotlight certain products to meet your business goals while keeping the recommendations highly relevant.

Here’s how your Amazon ecommerce business can elevate your customers’ experiences with Amazon Personalize:

Personalize size recommendations

Who hasn’t ordered pants in their regular size only to find that they are too big, small, long, or short? It’s one of the more irritating parts of being a person. 

AI and ML can help your customers find the perfect fit. By analyzing customer preferences, past purchases, and browsing history, AI can offer precise size recommendations.

When a customer eyes a pair of pants, AI can suggest the best size based on the customer's previous purchases and returns. It also considers data from other customers with similar profiles. You can use this feedback to give future customers a real feel for how a garment fits, feels, and holds up over time.

These details help shoppers make smarter buying decisions. By getting the right fit from the get-go, customers are less likely to return items due to poor fit. And let's face it, fewer returns mean happier customers and a happier you.

Learn from the Fit Insights Tool for brands and selling partners

Amazon’s new Fit Insights Tool sifts through and bundles customer feedback about fit, style, and fabric. It gives context to return rates and size chart evaluations by cross-referencing them with customer reviews, employing machine learning to spot any inconsistencies in size charts. 

These insights give brands a clearer picture of their customers’ sizing headaches, allowing them to improve their sizing communication and even funnel this feedback into new designs and production processes.

The result? Brands can reduce returns due to fit problems and present their products more accurately to shoppers.

3. Use less packaging and work toward sustainability

AI has time to do the things you know you need to do but don’t have time to do. It can streamline operations by tackling everything from optimizing packaging to reducing waste through damage detection.

Here are a few ways AI and ML have made shipping operations more sustainable:

• The Packaging Decision Engine determines the most efficient packaging options for the millions of items available to Amazon customers by analyzing items’ shapes, durability, and customer feedback on the performance of different packaging options.

• Machine learning helps Amazon identify products that can survive shipping in lighter, smaller, and curbside recyclable packaging. 

• Amazon uses machine learning to find products that can ship securely without Amazon packaging, and it partners with sellers to revamp its packaging for safe delivery without added layers.

By thoughtfully using AI and ML, your Amazon business is helping the environment while Amazon is working toward making shipping easier for everyone.

4. Transform procurement and supplier management

Packaging is just one area where AI can make a difference. AI can also streamline back-office tasks related to the procurement lifecycle.

Large orders, invoices, and purchases often call for lengthy processes and supplier support engagement. But, your procurement and supplier management processes can be painless and efficient when you use AI. Here's how it can help you:

• Discover new products with AI-powered insights: Amazon Business's AI sifts through your data to help you find new products and streamline supplier management.

• Make procurement efficient with AI chatbots: Chatbots can enhance your procurement processes and improve the buying experience for your business.

• Transform data into insights: Amazon Business Analytics AI turns your procurement data into actionable insights that you can use to help your customers find you. 

• Maximize savings with AI recommendations: Amazon Business’s AI always searches for lower-priced or discounted items, so you don't have to analyze all the data manually.

• Ensure policy compliance with AI supplier classification: The AI categorizes suppliers so you can shop local, support small sellers, or buy sustainable materials.

• Streamline your online store with AI integrations: Amazon Business works with over 200 other systems, including Punchout, to make buying and managing expenses more manageable. 

By embracing AI in your procurement and supplier management processes, you'll simplify your operations and set your Amazon business up for success. 

5. Provide better customer service with the help of AI 

AI is like having extra customer service support on autopilot. Your Amazon business can still offer a delightful customer experience while freeing your customer service team to focus on more complex issues. Check out a few of the possibilities:

• Extend the reach of your video-on-demand content: Use AI to create multi-language subtitles so your customers don’t experience a language barrier. Plus, assigning it to AI frees up valuable hours spent on transcribing, subtitling, translating, and reviewing.

• Provide real-time customer service: Set up a chatbot to handle customer inquiries across various platforms like chat, voice, SMS, and Amazon Alexa.

• Make on-the-go buying easy: Amazon Business's AI can suggest similar or identical products you've bought before but at lower costs or with available discounts through options like Subscribe and Save or discounts on bulk orders. The suggestions save buyers the time and effort of researching and comparing.

When you weave AI into your customer service strategy, you can offer better and more efficient service.

6. Keep up with AI trends and innovations

AI and ML are advancing at a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pace, and staying in step is vital. By getting involved in beta testing programs and connecting with AI experts, you can learn about trends and how they benefit your Amazon business. Taking this initiative can help you stay competitive in e-commerce.

For example, a recent development in sustainability is Amazon's Flamingo AI algorithm. It uses natural language processing to estimate the carbon footprint of millions of products.

This automated data improves accuracy, scalability, and transparency. It also helps Amazon—and your ecommerce business—make strides in reducing environmental impact.

Embrace AI to make your Amazon business more efficient

Using AI for your Amazon business can bring about powerful efficiencies, amplify customer experiences, and sharpen your competitive edge.

Whether automating product listings, enhancing customer service with AI-driven tools, or even estimating carbon footprints, AI’s potential makes a powerful impact.

When you’re open to using technology like AI and ML in your Amazon business, you might be impressed with how it streamlines operations, delights customers, and keeps pace with competitors. Creating a “smart” Amazon business is a smart move.

Along with AI, software like Veeqo can automate your inventory, warehouse, and shipping management workflows so they feel effortless.

As an Amazon company, Veeqo operates seamlessly with your Amazon business. Better yet, Veeqo is free.

Sign up for a Veeqo account today to experience firsthand its inventory, warehouse, and shipping management automation.

FAQ

What is AI (artificial intelligence)?

You know how when you start typing a word on your mobile phone, your phone tries to guess what word you’re trying to type? And the more you use it, the better it gets at predicting your words or even whole sentences. That's a simple form of AI. 

AI is basically a computer system that can learn from experience, adjust to new inputs, and perform tasks that typically demand human intelligence. These are tasks like understanding natural language, recognizing patterns, or making decisions.

What is machine learning?

Machine learning is like training a puppy. When you teach a puppy to sit, you show it what to do and reward it when it gets it right. Over time, the puppy learns that 'sit' means it should place its bum on the ground. 

Machine learning works in a similar way. You feed a computer loads of data and tell it what outcome you're looking for. It starts to recognize patterns and learns from them, so the next time it sees similar data, it knows what to do.

What is natural language processing?

Imagine you're having a conversation with your friend. You can understand what they're saying, respond appropriately, and pick up on sarcasm or humor. That's because you understand the language. 

Natural language processing is like teaching a computer to do the same thing. It's a way for computers to understand, analyze, and even generate human language.

Just like how you can understand your friend's jokes, natural language processing helps a computer understand things like slang, abbreviations, or misspelled words when people type them into a search bar, a chatbot, or a smart speaker.