As the 618 Shopping Festival gets into full swing, Alimama, the big data marketing platform from Alibaba, published a report detailing how, with AI, it is helping Alibaba’s platforms and merchants find the right audience during this year’s sales event. You’d be sorely mistaken to think Alibaba’s e-commerce AI service is still limited to AI listings, AI search and AI chatbot assistants.
This 618, Alimama’s AI launched three features with a focus on “demographic”: AI demographic insights, AI promotion and awareness raising, as well as AI creative “seeding” (种草). Merchants can simply input their demographic requirements, and AI will generate the range for their promotion with an accurate user profile for them to promote to. With the help of AI, click-through rates of these ads grew 20%, conversion rates were up 30% and selection efficiency was up 100%. This is because Alimama’s AI categorises and labels user interests through their search, browse and save history to understand their intent.
Another part of the Alimama report is that its AI models provide customised strategies for different sectors. For the FMCG sector, the AI would balance awareness raising and returning customers through a combination of ads and seeding content. For fashion, Alimama suggests delving into the demographics that are seeking something new and enjoy livestream sales. Its AI would help to locate the current trends for seeding. Sporting and outdoor merchants need to differentiate between varying interests and focus on the high-value-per-order customers who need high-performance gear. For appliances and electronics, the governmental subsidy has caused this sector to boom this year. AI can help merchants find the young and trendy, who are into smart home and consumer electronics.
AI has been integrated into most steps on Alibaba’s platforms, even with the pacing of campaigns from merchants. With the vast data available throughout the 618 Festival, AI models from Alibaba will not only be helping merchants but also train themselves for real-life scenarios.