There is something interesting I have noticed about online shopping recently, and it became clearer because of how much I have bought online in the past six months. Just from Jumia alone, I have bought two solar power banks, a pair of shoes, two phone holders for content video recording, one studio microphone for voice recording on my phone, handbags for my wife, and even the phone I am using currently was bought online. When I think about all these purchases it makes me realize how much online shopping has changed without me paying attention to it.
But what happened today opened my eyes. I was trying to make an order and I was browsing the catalog as usual, but I noticed a change in the way products are display. That's when I realized that AI has been assisting me at the background without my knowledge about it. This discovery of something I never knew was there all these while feels like I have won something very valuable, hence the idea to write about it.
One thing that I found very valuable is the way AI helps me to avoid errors in my orders.
In some of my past shopping online experience, I have had occasions where I picked wrong sizes, or pick the wrong products entirely, and when the orders arrived and I tried them, it was like the story of what I ordered versus what I received. However, with the help of AI my ordering experience has changed. Any time I am about to make an order a pop up would appear reminding me to double check the order before finishing up with the payment. Sometimes it shows what others have bought suggesting that I take a look at it in comparison to the product I am ordering. This small action have saved me from making wrong choices more than I can count..
I was also very impressed with the way the app appears to know my purchasing habits. It is not that I look for the same things every day, but when I come back to the app, the products that appears first are always related to the things I have bought or the things I am thinking of buying. After I purchased the microphone, it quickly showed me more attractive holders and easy lighting alternatives for recording. It was not forcing anything on me, just making the decision clearer.
Even the search itself has become easier. Basically when I put in one or two words, AI does the rest of the work and shows the results in such a way that I don't have to scroll for a very long time like I used to. All of these makes it look like the app already knew what I wanted.
None of these small things by themselves may seem like much, but if you combine them, they make online shopping so much easier than it used to be. This is not to say that AI is taking your choices away, it's simply acting like a guidance making sure you do not make mistakes in your shopping.
Shopping online used to be like gambling but these days it is like you have a little helper working behind the scenes to make your experience smoother and better. So, from all these experience I would say my online shopping today is far better and less stressful than it used to be.