Three ways marketers can use AI to drive sales this holiday season
U.S. retail sales may have shown encouraging signs recently, but many marketers are still feeling nervous ahead of the end-of-year crunch.
Who can blame them? Inflationary pressure and economic uncertainty from the presidential elections are all impacting consumer confidence – and this year’s shopping season is notably short, with just 27 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. All that to say, it’s easy to see why some marketers are looking beyond their regular playlist of holiday tactics, and ready to try something new.
And according to DeepL’s new white paper, AI might just be the solution they need. Because what our research reveals is that businesses embracing the technology see a 2.3X spike in sales – and almost seven in 10 (69%) retailers directly attribute an increase in annual revenue to AI. In other words, with the holiday season almost here, now is the time for marketers to leverage the technology, and reap the rewards.
With that in mind, let’s explore just some of the ways marketers can deploy AI to reach more holiday shoppers, and get that sales revenue line heading in the right direction.
1. Engage shoppers abroad by localizing website content
Three-quarters of shoppers want to communicate in their native language when buying online. So, if your e-commerce site only shows your product details or checkout instructions in English, you’re probably excluding lots of customers. That’s where language AI technology — including AI-powered translation and writing tools – can make a huge impact, allowing you to localize your website to any language, almost automatically.
In addition, why not go ahead and localize other holiday season assets like social media posts, ads and even your SEO keywords? A great example is the fashion brand, Kazar, who are using the technology to quickly adapt thousands of product SKUs into multiple European languages, and grow order volumes in a bunch of new markets as a result.
2. Drive repeat sales by translating customer service interactions
As a marketer, you know the importance of being there and supporting customers when they need help or advice. In fact, research shows that 78% of shoppers have actually backed out of buying something due to poor customer service. For your brand, that’s a golden opportunity to deploy AI and take your support game to a whole new level.
One way to do that is by using AI to automatically translate all those shopper emails and enquiries that flood in during busy periods. Because the technology interprets everything in a far more accurate and nuanced way than before, your customer support teams can have more meaningful and natural conversations with shoppers – leading to more sales and repeat visits.
3. Create more impactful ads and social posts, in a fraction of the time
Need a clever headline, some snappy social posts, or an image to make your banner ads pop? With the right prompts, generative AI can do all that, and achieve astoundingly good results. So much so, more than half (56%) of marketers who use generative AI for content creation say it performs better than content created without it.
It will save you a ton of time as well. On average, marketers say the technology is saving them three hours per piece of content, and two and a half hours per day.
The holiday season is always a make or break moment for marketers, and this year is no exception. Over and above the usual tactics of discounting, offering bundle deals or ramping up your social media presence, it’s clear that AI also has a vital role to play. That’s especially so for marketers looking to connect with cash-strapped shoppers quickly, effectively, and without breaking the bank.
Steve Rotter is chief marketing officer of DeepL.
