4 proven ways AI is being used TODAY to lift conversion rates

If you’re tasked with leading conversion rate optimization (CRO) in your company, I feel your pain.

Conversions haven’t been easy to come by for many brands. What’s worked before isn’t necessarily working now. And still, the top most important web metric brands track to assess performance is, you guessed it, conversions – according to Hubspot.

Tough economic headwinds over the past months will likely have left your job of converting customers more important than ever, and the task of making a conversion more difficult than before too.

But it certainly isn’t all doom and gloom.

For a start, we're in the midst of an AI revolution. Marketers, CX experts, CROs and eCommerce experts are finding innovative ways to smash their conversion targets using the explosion of AI technology. 

It feels like a new era of boundless opportunities to explore. So if you’re not content on blaming the economy for faltering conversion rates in your team meetings – if you want to make big, bold changes to your performance instead of tiny incremental ones – here are four of the biggest ways AI is helping brands like yours sell more.

1. Hyper-personalization 

Okay, so you probably already know how important personalization is to the customer journey. A whopping 90% of consumers find personalization appealing, and nearly three-quarters of people say they only engage with personalized experiences.

Clearly, personalization isn't just a 'nice to have' feature anymore. But in a world where every brand is hot on personalization, how do you stay ahead of the curve? That's where hyper-personalization comes in. 

Whereas traditional personalization typically prioritizes historical data, like previous purchases or preferences, hyper-personalization goes a step further. It uses AI and real-time data – such as a customer's location, the time of day, or even the weather – to produce content that’s tailored very specifically to an individual. 

By analyzing a consumer's current context and behavior, hyper-personalization can create an experience that's uniquely customized to what they want (or might want) – in that very moment.

Take Starbuck’s impressive use of data and analytics to suggest its drinks to app users. The recommendations are based on their drink preferences, sure. Hyper-personalization comes in recommending drinks to people depending on what the weather’s like at their location!

Personalization can also seem creepy when it preempts what people are feeling or what they want. So why not ask them?

According to Salesforce, AI-powered experiences generated approximately $194 billion in online retail spending across November and December alone last year. AI-driven product recommendations such as this are already having a big impact on conversions.

2. A/B testing to the nth degree

A/B testing can be a great way to see what works best for your audience in the real world. It allows you to experiment with multiple versions of a variable – whether that's a website, a web page, or an email campaign – against a control group and see which one performs better.

There is a downside though: success rates tend to be quite low. At Google and Bing, for example, only 10% to 20% of experiments generate positive results. That means you could be investing a lot of time, money, and resources into A/B testing that's taking you nowhere.

The good news is that AI can help. It can do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to comparing and analyzing variables quickly and efficiently. 

Italian lingerie company Cosabella took an AI-driven A/B testing approach when redesigning its website. This allowed the brand to experiment with more than 150 design elements simultaneously, which would have typically taken up to a year using traditional methods. 

Instead, AI was able to finish the job in just seven weeks, and Cosabella's conversions jumped 38% as a result of its new and improved A/B testing.

3. Real-time, 24-hour online support 

Gone are the days when 'online support' meant filling in a form or sending an email to an info@ email address and hoping to hear back within a few days. Now, chatbots and virtual assistants are acting as online shop assistants for brands, offering 24-hour, real-time support to customers, wherever they're located. 

These 'real-time' characteristics are important because three in 10 customers would quite literally rather watch paint dry than wait for customer service support. 

And today's consumers won't hesitate to jump ship if they're having a negative experience – 44% of shoppers will abandon a brand simply because they can't find the information they need quickly, according to a Coveo report. For 73% of people, it takes three or fewer negative customer experiences to ghost a company forever. 

Obviously, this doesn't do your conversion rates any favors!

But while chatbots and virtual assistants can offer a fast, convenient service for simple queries, they'll never quite match your in-store staff in terms of warmth, empathy, and level of knowledge. In fairness, nothing will. 

In truth, brands can still do better than chatbots if they want to take their conversions to the next level, which brings us to … 

4. Digital humans driving customer confidence 

Trust breeds confidence, and confident customers convert. The question is: how do you build trust and rapport across online channels? 

Digital humans have been providing the answer for innovative brands. A digital human takes the time to talk to customers about their buying options. They can listen to what a person says (or types), tell them more about products and services, and then guide them through the path to purchase, delivering deep personalization along the way.

It's this feeling of being personally helped by a specialist that lets digital humans excel at conversion. Crucially, this is all done in real-time. 

Unlike most chatbots or virtual assistants, though, digital humans are designed with a distinctive face, voice and personality that best represents your brand. As a digital brand ambassador, they can help your company form lasting connections with customers, giving them confidence that they're making the right purchases.

The results speak for themselves. Our digital humans have improved online conversion rates fivefold for clients like Deutsche Telekom, while boosting upsells and cross-sells. What's more, they've helped brands reduce their average cart abandonment rates by around 9%.

Because it’s not just about selling more; it’s about guiding people to what they actually need – not what they think they want at that moment.

Is it time to embrace the AI era?

It's not easy being in charge of conversion rates when the economic outlook is sending mixed messages. However, now more than ever, AI is helping teams do a lot more with the less they’re often given.

Sure, incremental growth in conversion rate optimization is fine. But big, ambitious growth is also possible thanks to the power of artificial intelligence.

Digital humans are a great example. In fact, it’s our favorite topic. So if you’d like to find out how they could work for your brand, book a demo today.