E-commerce entrepreneurs are hopping aboard the AI train. Sellers using e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Shopify are experimenting with AI to help them write product descriptions, optimize for SEO, and collate reviews so they can better understand how customers feel about their products.
Some say they've already seen how the technology is saving them time and money.
Matt Rollens owns a drinking-glass brand called Dragon Glassware and sells his wares on Amazon, Shopify, Etsy, and Walmart. He's on track to sell $5 million in glassware this year.
He told Insider he uses Perci, which uses AI to generate optimized product listings for Amazon sellers. It costs much less than he would typically spend to outsource this work to a copywriter as he had in the past, Rollens said.
"It gets you past that biggest hurdle of writer's block," he said.
AI has also helped him remember things he forgot to mention in a listing, and it suggests keywords he can target for SEO purposes. He refreshes his product listings every six months or so to keep things fresh for search, and having an AI tool to assist him helps save time and money.
"It's one of those things where it's easy to go in and have a whole new listing generated pretty quickly and not have to get someone else to do it and go through the whole process again," he said. "You can change things quickly on the fly if you need to."
'Whenever you deal with algorithmic decisions, there's always a risk of things going wrong'
Rollens emphasized that he always double-checks the AI-generated content before posting it on his Amazon page. His concerns around accuracy and brand voice were echoed by other sellers who spoke with Insider — and reflect a potential downside for anyone considering using AI to make running their business easier.
"I'm still a little bit old school and we're trying to write it ourselves," said Mikey Kim, the founder of natural candle brand Hemlock Park. "I want the information to be accurate and to have our brand voice in it and not be too inauthentic, but it's something I'd consider for the future."
"Whenever you deal with algorithmic decisions, there's always a risk of things going wrong," said Olivier Toubia, the Glaubinger professor of business at Columbia Business School. For example, AI can perpetuate bias and spread misinformation if not properly checked.
But, Toubia added, many companies are "seeing a very significant improvement" in their return on investment thanks to AI. As one example, he mentioned that brands could use AI to write marketing messages that are tailored to individual customers rather than have an employee write each one.
"You can do it much cheaper because you can scale up in a way that you wouldn't be able to do with humans," Toubia said.
'The possibilities are endless'
Robert Gomez sells coffee grinders and other accessories on Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and QVC, through his brand Kaffe. Gomez said he hasn't found much use for generative AI in his business yet, but he is using an AI tool called Voc.ai to analyze customer reviews of his brand's products. He said it has helped Kaffe to better understand its customers and market to them more effectively.
"The software makes it easy to quickly analyze customer usage scenarios, sentiment, motivation, and expectations," he said. "You can then also easily see how you stack up against competitors in the same categories."
Amazon, Shopify, and eBay have all launched their own AI tools and integrated them directly into the platform. Sellers speaking with Insider said they're just starting to consider testing these tools as they have only begun to roll out recently.
Miqdad Jaffer, a director of product at Shopify, recently told Insider that when it comes to bringing AI to e-commerce, "the possibilities are endless." Jaffer's team has brought AI across the Shopify platform, including a suite of tools called Shopify Magic that can generate text suggestions in product descriptions and other parts of an online store.
"Combining different types of media — text and image, and even video — will give merchants some of the biggest advantages that aren't available today," he said. "It will take something from idea to reality much faster than was possible before."