AI-recommended promotions: A booster for customer retention and increased revenues

With over 26 million e-commerce websites across the globe, and more being created daily, online retail is fast becoming the most lucrative option for every seller. However, the successful future of any online business website lies in AI recommended promotions and tools which help remove interruptions in the consumer’s journey..

To discuss this in detail, Namogoo and YourStory hosted the webinar 'Increase revenue with AI-recommended promotions personalised to your customers’, featuring Ohad Greenshpan, Co-founder and CTO, Namogoo; Saurabh Bhandari, VP - D2C, New Initiatives, Growth, boAt Lifestyle; and Saket Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Onnivation.

Using AI to boost revenue and customer conversion

The post pandemic world has seen a new wave of companies trying to sell directly from their own websites instead of online marketplaces, in order to gain control of their consumer experience; and AI plays a major role in this.

Namogoo came into existence eight years ago, and since then has been working with some of the largest global brands, essentially helping in removing interruptions from a customer's journey, and giving them what they need to push their journeys forward. AI assistance not only helps in predicting the intent of a consumer, but also building personalised online promotions aligned with the intent of customers. “The idea is to predict the intent of the user in real time and then decide which promotion to show when. It is done in real time to leverage the customer journey,” explained Ohad.

Consumer electronics brand boAt Lifestyle has seen a massive increase in revenue since the pandemic due to more people shopping online and working from home. The brand moved into the wearables and personal care appliances space recently and saw great response as more and more people are focusing on health and fitness. For a D2C brand, it is as essential to retain old customers as it is to acquire new ones. “Not every customer is looking for just a discount. Customers are looking to make a quick purchase so we need to tailor our offers to suit their needs,” said Saurabh stressing on the importance of using the real life intuitive understanding of customers along with backend data science, and then offering people intent-based discounts.

Consumer experience is key

Deploying the right AI technology not only helps in driving revenues and personalising customer experience, it also enables a scalable growth for businesses. With consumer experience being the key to a successful online business, marketeers are now aware that AI is an exceptionally powerful technology that empowers them to engage with their audience through personalised, targeted messages and promotions.

As so many brands compete in the online arena, consumers are becoming more and more price sensitive. Competing promotions act as an easy distraction for consumers and results in lower consumer loyalty. Saurabh listed out some points to focus on to fight such consumer battles. Firstly, the product selection should be wide enough to cater to all consumer needs under the category. Secondly, from a UI standpoint, the whole experience from product selection to checkout should be seamless for a consumer. Lastly, a wholesome post purchase experience that provides quicker deliveries, returns, replacements and warranty are the key points to ensure consumer satisfaction. “Solving consumer problems is at the heart of what we do. Our focus has been to build distinctive products tailored to our audience in India. Solving consumer problems helps you scale most effectively,” he added.

Adding value with Namogoo

Pioneering the Digital Journey Continuity platform, Namogoo provides online businesses with the ability to autonomously adapt each customer visit in real time and optimise their online journeys, thereby significantly enhancing business results.

“We provide the marketeer with the right tools to build the perfect promotion that aligns with their market strategy,” said Ohad. It is important to keep the website clean, maintain brand perception and provide offers to the customers who really need it and at the right time in their journeys, with the help of an AI solution to strike this balance.

The way forward

With brands in the US being a few years ahead of us in terms of the technology advancements, Indian D2Cs are now learning from their western counterparts about the finer points of this digital race. Partners such as Namogoo can help Indian brands realise their dreams with the use of the right AI solutions. Another major aspect in scaling would be segmentation of products and brands to cater to every customer's need, and using the available data to analyse customer dropoff points in order to solve that problem. At the same time, building a ‘culture of experimentation’ and empowering employees to test new promotions and new strategies, is the need of the hour. Lastly, a trend of consolidation, where all vendors are working to achieve the same goal, and solve problems effectively is the way forward in the digital world. “Partnership is the way to go,” said Saket to sum up the conversation.