Running an eCommerce store is a LOT of work, regardless of the industry you’re in. While there are some responsibilities and tasks that absolutely can not be automated, consider saving time with these 10 that can.

Customer Support Automation

If you’re not already using AI tools to automate your customer support, you’re falling behind. AI chatbots and email assistants handle FAQs, order status, returns, and simple troubleshooting 24/7.

Example Tools: Chatbase, SparrowDesk, or Netomi

Smart Product Recommendations

Increase AOV and cross-selling metrics with AI tools. AI analyzes browsing, purchase history, and behavior to serve personalized product recommendations in real time.

Example Tools: Recombee or Algolia Recommend

Inventory Planning

It’s important to keep an eye on your inventory, including what’s selling and what’s not.

Move from reactive restocking to predictive planning. AI analyzes historical sales, seasonal trends, and even social media “hype” signals to tell you exactly how many units to order for next month.

Example Tools: Zebra Prescriptive Analytics or NetSuite’s AI modules

Fraud Detection

Every merchant is familiar with the pains of fraudulent orders. It’s a seemingly never ending battle to fight against and prevent fraud in your eCommerce store.

Rule-based fraud detection often flags “false positives” that annoy real customers. AI analyzes behavioral biometrics (how a user types or moves their mouse) to identify bots and scammers with much higher accuracy.

Example Tools: Signifyd or Forter

Return Analysis

There’s a lot of reasons that a product might be returned, but when an item is getting returned by multiple customers for the same reason, there’s an issue.

AI can analyze return reasons in bulk to spot patterns. For example, if a specific dress has a 40% return rate because it’s “too small,” the AI can automatically update the product description with a “Size up” warning or alert the manufacturing team.

Example Tools: Loop Returns or SentiSum

Competitor Monitoring

Regardless of industry, it’s important to know what the competitors are doing, and how your business stacks up against them.

Use AI to “scrape” and summarize competitor social media and newsletters. Instead of reading them yourself, get a weekly AI report: “Competitors X and Y are leaning heavily into ‘sustainable’ messaging this week; consider highlighting our recycled packaging in the next campaign.”

Example Tools: Browse.ai or Perplexity Pages

Customer Simulation

When you want to know how customers will react to changes such as a new ad campaign, a homepage redesign, or some old fashioned A/B testing, you don’t have to wait for data from customers.

Use an AI tool to simulate customer personas and human-like insights to get actionable insights into changes before taking them live.

Example tools: Shopify SimGym or Delve AI

Product Image Modifications

While using an AI generated product image is not recommended and can hurt customer trust, using AI to help modify existing product images is a different story.

Avoid expensive studio shoots for every minor product variation. AI tools can take a single “hero” photo and place the product in dozens of different lifestyle settings (e.g., a coffee mug on a kitchen counter, then on an office desk).

Example Tools: Photoroom, Midjourney, or Flair.ai

Generative Search & Discovery

With the rise of AI shopping, the ways your products are found are changing.

Replace traditional keyword search with “conversational search.” Instead of searching for “waterproof boots,” customers can ask: “I need a pair of boots for a rainy hiking trip in Oregon that are under $150.”

Example Tools: Klevu, Algolia, or Shopify Magic

Route & Carrier Optimization

Every eCommerce merchant is looking for ways to save money and trim their budget. Using AI for route and carrier optimization is one way.
If you manage your own delivery or high-volume shipping, AI can analyze real-time carrier performance, weather, and fuel costs to choose the most cost-effective and fastest shipping method for every single package.

Example Tools: ShipStation AI or Route4Me

Optimize Your Shopify Store

Looking for the best AI tools for your Shopify store? Schedule your FREE Fyresite consultation to learn more about your options and find the right fit for your store.