Use AI to Catapult your WooCommerce Store
Artificial intelligence and machine learning are recently developed technologies that are still in their infancy. Artificial intelligence is being used in many devices around us. For example, computers, smart home devices, microwaves, fridges, GPS devices, etc.
Artificial intelligence gives computer software the capability to make choices without human interference.
Machine learning allows computer programs to learn by practicing or experiencing. Data from the machine learning process is used to help software make better choices. Machine learning and artificial intelligence when combined, they can help automate tasks that usually require human input and intelligence.
There is a growing trend in WordPress plugin development. More and more developers are shifting their focus towards building plugins that use AI and machine learning tools. Most of these plugins look and work like normal WooCommerce and WordPress plugins, however, they use artificial intelligence to outperform their counterparts.
In this article, we will look at how you can use AI plugins to supercharge your WooCommerce store.
Address customer problems with chatbots
Don’t you hate it when you call your bank or cable operator and have to yell to a terrible automated system? This will soon be a thing of the past. Newly developed chatbots use AI and machine learning to deliver dynamic, detailed and valuable answers. They learn over time to respond better.
Setting up a dedicated customer service help desk can be an expensive affair. Chatbots can easily be set up using plugins and can help reduce the cost of offering quality customer service. Chatbots have become advanced and often, it is difficult to differentiate of you are talking to a chatbot or a real person.
There are several WordPress plugins available for you to implement AI chatbots. Having options at your disposal is always a good thing. You can test various plugins and choose one that suits your needs. Implementing a chatbot can help reduce the bounce rate and extend the time customers spend on your website.
[hide]TODO: list some WP chatbot plugins (with links)[/hide]
Fight spam with Akismet
Comment and contact form spam can be a nightmare for WordPress website owners. The Akismet plugin comes pre-installed with every WordPress website. It is a great tool for fighting comment spam. Once installed and activated the plugin will use machine learning over time to detect spam comments.
It has a very high spam comment detection rate. The plugin uses AI to detect spam comments. It can easily detect all spam comments submitted by bots as well as humans. It uses machine learning and recognizes patterns across thousands of websites.
Use analytics to know your customer
How often do people tend to use the terms, big data and AI together? They are very different terms though. Big data means the collection of information that is shared by users or customers. Extremely large data sets can easily be analyzed to reveal patterns, trends, and linkages. AI is used to sort the data and make it understandable for its users. It also uses the data to make smarter decisions.
For example, cameras installed on roads can be used to take pictures of vehicles that use that road. Millions of photos will be taken over time and will represent data. These photos can then be sorted and can be used to identify peak hours, the average number of passengers in a car, car types, etc. An AI tool can be created to help identify the time of the photo, the number of passengers and car types. Without AI humans would have to sort these photos. The AI tool can present the data to researchers in a clear and understandable format.
But what do cameras on the road and your WooCommerce store have in common? Simply the more data you have about your customers, the better you can sell to them. You need to harvest data about your customers, identify trends and use this data to look for new customers or sell better to existing ones.
There are several tools that you can use for example the Facebook Pixel. The Facebook pixel is a piece of code that is installed on your website. It tracks all the visitors of your website and their behavior, noting down people who view a page, view content, add to cart, check out, abandon a cart, etc. It collects important information that can help you create better Facebook ads.
Once the Facebook pixel has enough data about your website’s visitors, behavior, demographics, interests and likes it can use this data and AI to help you build a lookalike audience. These are people who are very similar in behavior to people who have already visited your website and taken a certain action, for example, added to cart. This can easily help you expand your customer base. For example, you can create a lookalike audience of people who have added a product to cart. The lookalike audience will be potential customers that are very similar in behavior to the customers who have already added your products to cart. Their likelihood of purchasing your products is higher. You can then run targeted ads to the lookalike audience.
[hide]TODO: maybe link to Pixel info on fb.com[/hide]
Automatically scan for malware
Do you suspect your website could be hacked or has malicious code injected into it? While you can use traditional tools to detect malware, newer tools that use AI to scan for malware are becoming increasingly popular. This is mainly due to their ability to detect malware faster, learn from malware behavior and help remove it. Malware plugins that use AI, learn from false positives and deliver improved scan results. Quttera Web Malware Scanner is an example of a plugin that uses AI to deliver improved scan results.
[hide]TODO: maybe link to Quttera.com[/hide]
Conclusion
We hope you are now able to differentiate between artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data. We have covered a few examples of AI tools that you can use to improve your WooCommerce store. You should now easily be able to search for other WooCommerce plugins and tools that you can use.