How AI/ML is practically being used now in marketing and eCommerce

Chatbots are computer simulations of human conversation and can be interacted with by text or voice. They are often one of the very first steps for a business to get started with AI. They can be integrated into websites, apps and social media messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger to answer questions and capture data.

In this article, we will share some practical use cases of AI chatbot in the marketing and ecommerce space.

Bots are good at capturing leads information and ensuring that the potential customers do not slip away even after office hours. They can help by qualifying the leads and smartly routing them to the respective departments for follow-ups. Importantly, bots can follow rules and automate messages to users at different stages of their customer journey. For instance, if the user adds an item into the cart and forgets to check out, the bot can automatically trigger a notification to remind the user about the abandoned cart and offer a discount coupon to encourage them to check out.

Marina Bay Sands Chatbot – Leads Capturing

The FMCG/CPG sector has always struggled to form direct relationships with its consumers with retailers getting much more visibility about preferences and buying behaviours, but some AI applications are proving valuable to directly serve consumers and generate valuable first party data.

Pernod Ricard Singapore has recently ran a chatbot marketing campaign to engage their consumers and drive awareness for one of their whiskeys (The Glenlivet Founder Reserves) launch. The Glenlivet team has partnered up with the bars around Clarke Quay, a popular night spot area in Singapore, to allow consumers to easily chat up with the bot (voiced by The Glenlivet founder’s George Smith) to get suggestions for the nearest bars to redeem the 1-for-1 promotion. The campaign was a success with a high conversion rate of 55.3% (percentage of users who have chatted with the bot and became a paying customer), average engagement rate of 5:20 minutes and user retention rate of 17.3%. After the campaign, the brand further leverages on the users that they have acquired through the bot and re-market targeted content to the specific segment groups to drive traffic to their online store.

Pernod Ricard (The Glenlivet) – Promo Redemption Chatbot

The Omron Healthcare has also adopted chatbots to help customers with their purchase decision. By answering a few questions prompted by the bot, it is able to recommend the most suitable healthcare products and suggest the nearest retail stores to make the purchase.

Omron Healthcare Chatbot – Product Recommendation

Omron chatbot also assists users with tracking their health progress, setting personal goals and maintaining a healthy blood pressure level to drive engagement. In the long run, the bot remembers and learns from users’ past interactions, the most popular questions being asked and product that has received the most views. Bot can then profile the users into different segment groups and subsequently cross-sell or upsell to them the relevant products.

Omron Healthcare Chatbot – Health Tracker