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Technology is pushing the boundaries of commerce like never before. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the primary driving technologies at the forefront of the commerce evolution, using advanced algorithms to revolutionize marketing and personalize customer experiences. As of 2024, AI adoption in e-commerce is skyrocketing, with 84% of brands already using it or gearing up to do so.
This article explores the AI revolution coming to commerce, focusing on what makes AI a driving force for e-commerce in particular, and the ways it’s reshaping how businesses engage with consumers.
Understanding the AI revolution in commerce
AI is quickly reshaping commerce as we know it by democratizing access to sophisticated tools once reserved for large corporations, breaking down functional silos within organizations, and integrating data from multiple sources to achieve deeper customer understanding. It’s paving the way for a future where every brand interaction is uniquely crafted for the individual, powered by AI systems that anticipate preferences proactively.
AI is a broad term that encompasses:
- Data mining: The gathering of current and historical data on which to base predictions
- Natural language processing (NLP): The interpretation of human language by computers
- Machine learning: The use of algorithms to learn from past experiences or examples to enhance data understanding
The capabilities of AI have significantly matured into powerful tools that can improve operational efficiency and boost sales, even for smaller businesses. They have also fundamentally changed how businesses interact with customers and handle operations. As AI continues to develop, it has the potential to provide even more seamless, personalized, and ethically informed commerce experiences and establish new benchmarks for engagement and efficiency in the marketplace.
Four benefits of the AI revolution coming to commerce
Major commerce players like Amazon have benefited from AI and related technologies for a while. Through machine learning, they’ve optimized logistics, curated their product selection, and improved the user experience. As this technology quickly expands, businesses have unlimited opportunities to see the same efficiency, growth, and customer satisfaction as Amazon. Here are four primary benefits of AI adoption in commerce.
1. Data-driven decision making
AI gives businesses powerful tools to analyze large amounts of data more quickly and accurately than a person. Through advanced algorithms and machine learning, AI can sift through historical sales data, customer behavior patterns, and market trends to uncover insights and suggest actions that might not be immediately obvious to human analysts. By transforming raw data into actionable insights, AI empowers businesses to make more informed decisions, reduce risks, and capitalize on opportunities.
As a real-world example, Foxconn, the largest electronics contract manufacturer worldwide, worked with Amazon Machine Learning Solutions Lab to implement AI-enhanced business analytics for more accurate forecasting. This move improved forecasting accuracy by 8%, saved $533,000 annually, reduced labor waste, and improved customer satisfaction through data-driven decisions.
2. A better customer experience
AI is set to make customer interactions smoother, faster, and more personalized by recommending products based on preferences and behaviors, making it easier for customers to find what they need.
When consumers visit an online store, AI also provides instantaneous help via a chatbot that knows their order history and preferences. These AI-powered assistants offer real-time help like a knowledgeable store clerk. They give the appearance of higher-touch support and can answer basic questions at any hour, provide personalized product recommendations, and even troubleshoot issues. Chatbots free up human customer service agents for more complicated matters, and these agents can then use AI to obtain relevant information and suggestions for the customer during an interaction.
3. Personalized marketing
Data-driven personalization of the customer journey has been shown to generate up to eight times the ROI, as data shows 71% of consumers now expect personalized brand interactions. Until AI came around, personalization at scale was complex to achieve. Now, gathering and processing data about a customer’s shopping experience is easier than ever based on lookalike customers and past behavior.
Many businesses have adopted AI to glean deeper insights into purchase history, web browsing, and social media interactions to drive better segmentation and targeting. With AI, advertisers can analyze behavioral and demographic data to suggest products someone is likely to love. Consumers can now browse many of their favorite online stores and see product recommendations that perfectly match their tastes and needs.
AI can also offer special discounts based on purchasing habits, and send personalized emails with products and content that interest customers to make their shopping experience more engaging and relevant. This personalization helps businesses forge stronger customer relationships.
Personalization across digital storefronts
Retail media involves placing advertisements within a retailer’s website, app, or other digital platform to help brands target consumers based on their behavior and preferences within that environment. Retail media networks (RMNs) expand this capability across multiple retail platforms to create seamless advertising opportunities throughout the customer journey. Integrating AI into RMNs can improve personalization across digital storefronts with personalized, relevant ads and custom offers in real time that improve the customer experience.
4. Operational efficiency
AI can also be beneficial on the back end, enabling more efficient resource allocation, pricing optimization, efficiency, and productivity.
Customers can be frustrated when they visit a store for a specific product only to find it out of stock or unavailable in a particular size. With AI, these situations can be prevented through algorithms that forecast demand for certain items. Retailers like Amazon and Walmart both use AI to predict demand, with Walmart even tracking inventory in real time so managers can restock items as soon as they run out.
AI can automate and streamline operational tasks to help businesses run smoother, faster, and more cost-effective operations. It can:
- Offload tedious data entry, scheduling, and order processing tasks for greater fulfillment accuracy.
- Analyze historical data and market trends, predicting demand to help businesses optimize inventory, reduce waste, track online and in-store sales, and prevent shortages.
- Forecast demand levels, transit times, and shipment delays to make better predictions about logistics and supply chains.
- Improve data quality using machine learning algorithms that find and correct product information errors, duplicates, and inconsistencies.
- Adjust prices based on competitor pricing, seasonal fluctuations, and market conditions to maximize profits.
- Pinpoint bottlenecks, identify issues before they escalate, and provide improvements for suggestions.
Future trends and predictions
If you want to stay ahead in e-commerce, it’s just as important to know what’s coming as it is to understand where things are today. Here are some of the trends expected to shape the rest of 2024 and beyond.
Conversational commerce
Conversational commerce allows real-time, two-way communication through AI-based text and voice assistants, social messaging apps, and chatbots. Generative AI advancements may soon enable more seamless, personalized interactions between customers and online retailers. This technology can improve customer engagement and satisfaction while providing helpful insights into preferences and behaviors for better personalization and targeting.
Delivery optimization
AI-driven delivery optimization uses AI to predict ideal routes for each individual delivery, boosting efficiency, reducing costs, promoting sustainability, and improving customer satisfaction throughout the delivery process.
Visual search
AI-driven visual search is quickly improving in accuracy, speed, and contextual understanding. Future developments may integrate seamlessly with augmented reality (AR) so shoppers can search for products by pointing their devices at physical objects. Social media and e-commerce platforms may soon incorporate visual search more prominently, allowing users to find products directly from images.
AI content creation
AI is already automating and optimizing aspects of content production:
- Algorithms can generate product descriptions, blog posts, and social media captions personalized to specific customer segments.
- AI tools also enable the creation of high-quality visuals and videos.
- NLP advancements ensure content is compelling and grammatically correct.
- AI-driven content strategies analyze consumer behavior and refine messaging to meet changing preferences and trends.
This automation speeds up content creation while freeing resources for strategic planning and customer interaction.
IoT integration
Integrating AI with Internet of Things (IoT) devices could help make the ecosystem more interconnected in the future. AI algorithms can use data from IoT devices like smart appliances, wearables, and sensors to gather real-time insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and product usage patterns. This data enables personalized marketing strategies, predictive maintenance for products, and optimized inventory management. AI-driven IoT data analytics can also streamline supply chain operations to reduce costs and inefficiencies.
Fraud detection and security
There will likely be an increased focus on the ethical use of AI and data privacy regulations to strengthen consumer trust and transparency. AI-powered systems will get better at detecting and preventing fraud in e-commerce transactions, which will heighten security measures for both businesses and consumers.
Chart the future of commerce with Experian
AI has changed how marketers approach e-commerce in 2024. With AI-driven analytics and predictive capabilities, marketers can extract deeper insights from extensive data sets to gain a clearer understanding of consumer behavior. This enables refined segmentation, precise targeting, and real-time customization of messages and content to fit individual preferences.
Beyond insights, AI automates routine tasks like ad placement, content creation, and customer service responses, freeing marketers to concentrate on strategic planning and creativity. Through machine learning, marketers can predict trends, optimize budgets, and fine-tune strategies faster and more accurately than ever. The time to embrace AI is now.
At Experian, we’re here to help you make more data-driven decisions, deliver more relevant content, and reach the right audience at the right time. Using AI in your commerce marketing strategy with our Consumer View and Consumer Sync solutions can help you stay competitive with effective, engaging campaigns.
Contact us to learn how we can empower your commerce advertising strategy today.
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Gaming companies sit at a unique crossroads: they’re part entertainment powerhouse, part tech platform, part media company. Whether you’re publishing blockbuster titles, running a mobile game network, or building immersive in-game ad experiences, you have access to vast amounts of player data—and massive potential for growth. What's standing in the way of growth and loyalty Video game publishers and platforms are increasingly turning to data to understand, engage, and retain their players. But that’s easier said than done. Here are the top challenges they face: Data lives in silos. Gaming companies often collect data across multiple platforms—console, PC, mobile—but can’t stitch together a full view of the player across devices and titles. Identity is hard to resolve. Players interact across games, apps, websites, and platforms. It’s tough to connect all those signals and create a consistent, personalized experience. Privacy is non-negotiable. Regulations are tightening. Any solution must not only be powerful—it must be privacy-safe. Ad performance is difficult to measure. It’s often unclear which campaigns are driving engagement, conversions, or purchases—especially across fragmented digital touchpoints. How Experian can help you win with data and identity Experian helps gaming companies stop leaving value on the table. We turn scattered player data into a single, unified view—giving you the foundation to better understand and engage your players. Our approach: Organize, enrich, activate 1. We clean and unify your data We help you build a solid identity foundation by resolving messy, duplicate, or outdated records across systems. That means your player data from mobile, console, PC, and web all connects—giving you a clear view of how your users engage across games and platforms. 💡 How it’s working: A global interactive gaming company is partnering with Experian to unify and enrich player profiles across systems—boosting the performance of both player engagement campaigns and in-game monetization strategies. 2. We deliver deep customer insights With Experian, you go beyond surface-level data. We help you understand player behaviors, financial attributes, interests, and lifestyle factors—fueling more personalized experiences, smarter segmentation, and better monetization strategies. 💡 How it’s working: A major game developer used Experian’s data enrichment tools to gain deeper insights into player behavior and financial attributes—enabling more personalized in-game offers, smarter audience segmentation, and stronger player retention. 3. We enrich profiles and help you activate across channels We enhance your player records with hundreds of attributes—so you can create custom segments that work. Then, we help you activate those audiences in real-time across digital, social, and programmatic platforms. 💡 How it’s working: A global gaming publisher used Experian to build custom audiences and activate across programmatic channels, driving higher in-game engagement and ad ROI. Turning audiences into ad revenue In addition to improving their own player marketing, gaming companies are unlocking a second growth engine: ad revenue from non-endemic brands. Much like retail media networks, game publishers and platforms are realizing the value of their audience data. From airlines and automakers to QSR and CPG brands, advertisers are taking notice of the high-value, high-intent audiences inside game environments. But to attract that ad spend, publishers need to offer more than impressions—they need precise audience targeting, cross-device identity, and reliable measurement. How Experian helps drive better ad performance To appear authentically to a gamer, you need to know who they are and what they care about. Experian helps marketers understand a person’s behaviors and preferences to enable relevant, personalized advertising. And since nobody wants to see the same ad ten times during a session, we help manage ad frequency across devices and placements to protect the player experience. Our approach: Extend reach, measure results 1. We expand your digital reach Experian makes it easier to find and connect with your players wherever they are—across devices, platforms, and publishers. 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Why choose Experian Whether you’re trying to build stronger player relationships or turn your audience into a high-performing advertising engine, Experian gives you the data and identity foundation to make it happen. We help you: Organize and clean your player data Resolve identities across digital touchpoints Enrich your data with deep, actionable insights Build and activate target audiences Measure impact across the player journey Let's power up together We’re already supporting leading brands across the gaming ecosystem—from global game publishers and mobile app developers to in-game ad networks and gaming platforms. And we’re ready to help more companies harness the full power of their data. Get in the game with us 🎮 Latest posts

As a programmatic media partner for marketers and agencies, MiQ’s mission is to ensure their clients’ media investments are spent on the right audiences in the right environments. MiQ needed a stronger way to unify audience insights, increase scale, and improve efficiency amidst signal loss. To meet this challenge, MiQ integrated Experian’s Digital Graph into their Identity Spine, creating a more comprehensive view of their clients’ target audiences and ensuring their data-driven solutions remain effective, regardless of the signal source or identifier in use. What is Experian's Digital Graph? Experian’s Digital Graph is like a puzzle, connecting billions of digital identifiers to create a complete view of consumers. As signal loss makes targeting harder, our Digital Graph helps marketers stay connected by linking cookies, mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), hashed emails (HEMs), IP addresses, connected TV (CTV) IDs, and universal IDs, like Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) and ID5. We put the pieces together, matching first-party data to a variety of digital IDs for better targeting, measurement, and cross-device insights—so you don’t have to. Challenge: Strengthen targeting capabilities amidst signal loss MiQ needed to stay agile in its strategy and partnerships to ensure digital connectivity amidst ongoing signal loss. To maintain campaign performance and scale, MiQ sought privacy-first partners they could integrate into their Identity Spine. MiQ’s primary objectives included: Strengthen audience targeting across all digital environments, with or without cookies. Reach target audiences in privacy-compliant ways. Maintain or increase the scale — even as reliance on cookie-based targeting declines. The solution: Integrating Experian's Digital Graph into MiQ's Identity Spine MiQ incorporated Experian’s Digital Graph, licensing HEMs, UID2s, and third-party partner cookies, into their proprietary Identity Spine. MiQ’s Identity Spine seamlessly connects over 60 cookieless data feeds and 25 ID solutions. “Experian’s Graph has bolstered our already comprehensive, multi-ID Identity Spine with incredible data on cross-device ownership and cross-channel behavior.”Georgiana Haig, Strategy and Partnerships Director, MiQ Results: MiQ expanded the reach and scale of their Identity Spine The integration of Experian’s Digital Graph with MIQ’s Identity Spine enabled marketers to find, grow, and measure customers across screens even as signal loss evolves and traditional identifiers fluctuate. The integration allowed MiQ to: Create a unified view: MiQ now has a unified view of its clients’ target audiences, enhancing their audience understanding with the addition of 6.5 devices to each matched IP address, enhancing scale and targeting capabilities. Increase scale: By matching first-party data to multiple universal IDs, MiQ expanded its reach across devices, contributing to a 51% increase in seed audience reach and and a 64% increase in reaching using universal IDs. Improve efficiency: The combination of Experian’s data with MiQ’s Identity Spine improved cross-device ID resolution, leading to more accurate measurement and reporting with a 70% match rate in associating MiQ-provided IP addresses with universal IDs. Stay connected to your audience despite signal loss with Experian MiQ’s Identity Spine stays strong through their partnership with Experian, keeping audience targeting effective even as signal loss changes the landscape. Download the full case study to learn more about how Experian’s Digital Graph enabled MiQ to strengthen audience targeting despite ongoing signal loss. Download the full case study Contact us About MiQ MiQ is a global programmatic media partner for marketers and agencies, with 19 offices across Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region. They specialize in connecting data from multiple sources to solve business problems for their clients. They are award-winning experts in data science, analytics, and programmatic trading, focused on ensuring clients’ media investments are spent on the right audiences in the right environments. To learn more, please visit www.wearemiq.com. Latest posts

Summer may be vacation season for consumers, but it's go time for marketers. Between holiday weekends, travel season, and changing shopping habits, the pressure is on to deliver campaigns that land and convert. If you're feeling behind, you're not alone. Many marketers face the same challenge every year: How do you actually use the customer data you have to fuel high-impact, seasonal marketing? And how do you ensure your brand shows up in front of the right people in the right place before the competition beats you to it? That’s where Experian comes in. With Experian’s advanced Audience solutions, you can get ahead of the trends, connect with vacation-ready shoppers, and optimize performance across digital, TV, and retail media using customer data for seasonal marketing. Capitalize on vacation excitement to drive sales and growth Summer travel often triggers a surge in pre-trip spending. Surveys show that 82% of consumers plan to travel this summer, and according to Fortune, today’s travelers spend thousands of dollars on things like luggage, apparel, and recreation gear before they even leave their homes! But while consumer demand is heating up, so are the challenges. Marketers are navigating a turbulent economic environment shaped by shifting demand curves, tighter budgets, the rising cost of goods, and supply chain disruptions caused by newly imposed tariffs. These pressures are forcing teams to rethink everything from product positioning to pricing strategies. In this climate, it’s more important than ever to maximize performance, reduce waste, and stay laser-focused on reaching high-intent audiences likely to convert. Using customer data for seasonal marketing helps brands predict and capture demand with precise, relevant targeting. Whether your customers are planning a trip to the beach or hiking the Rockies, timely messaging and audience alignment can drive engagement and conversion. Experian Audiences power effective audience strategies But even the most compelling campaigns can fall flat if you're working with incomplete data, outdated segments, or generic targeting. Consumer data providers like Experian can help you fix that. Our Audience solutions help you go beyond assumptions and truly understand who your shoppers are, what they’re planning, and how they behave, so you’re ready to get in front of their summer plans. Six steps to creating a successful seasonal marketing campaign When you’re ready to turn summer intent into strategy, Experian Audience solutions help you translate vacation-driven behaviors into high-performing campaigns. Each product in the Experian Audience suite supports a specific stage in seasonal marketing planning and execution. 1. Define your goals Before diving into channels and creatives, get clear on your customer database marketing goals. Are you trying to increase online purchases? Drive in-store traffic? Expand brand awareness? Use Syndicated Audiences to set fast, focused goals. If you’re short on time, Experian’s 2,400+ Syndicated Audiences give you a head start. These pre-built, behavior-based segments — from luxury travelers to seasonal sports enthusiasts — help you quickly identify who to target, where they spend time, and how to message to them. With segments ready to plug into 30+ activation platforms, you can ensure quick, confident activation. 2. Decide what data you need and which audiences to target Using customer data for seasonal marketing means mapping behavior to intent. This core tactic in customer database marketing can help you drive deeper engagement. Our data solutions simplify the process, whether you’re starting with limited data or already know your best customers. If you’re starting with a list, Enrichment can append lifestyle, income, and travel preference data to help you understand what motivates your existing customers. If you don’t have a list, Marketing Attributes gives you full control when building new audiences or lookalikes based on relevant seasonal traits like beach vacationers or frequent CTV watchers. 3. Identify key holidays and events Summer is full of shopping triggers: Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, and countless local and regional events. However, not every customer behaves the same way. Use Enrichment to understand when your customers are most likely to act. By comparing your first-party data to broader market segments, you can time promotions more strategically. For instance, enrichment might reveal that outdoor gear buyers convert in early June, while luxury travelers plan closer to July. 4. Activate across digital, TV, and retail media Summer shoppers don’t stick to one screen. They’re streaming TV, reading travel blogs, browsing retail apps, and catching up on email — often from a beach chair or airplane seat. That’s why omnichannel delivery is a must, and it’s where consumer data vendors like Experian can help you reach your audience across channels with targeted messaging for key holidays and events: Syndicated Audiences simplifies omnichannel activation with built-in integrations to 30+ leading activation platforms. These pre-mapped segments let you deliver consistent messaging across the places where your audience is most engaged. Looking for privacy-forward reach? Contextually-Indexed Audiences are segments built by linking real-world behavioral data to the types of content those audiences typically consume online, allowing you to activate based on content instead of identity while offering a more contextually relevant experience. Using customer data for seasonal marketing, Experian maps real audience segments across web and app environments — like national park guides and travel blogs — for ID-free precision targeting in a cookieless environment. 5. Track and evaluate performance Don’t wait until the end of the campaign to make changes. Experian’s measurement tools help you track performance in real time, so you can optimize early and often. Measure how well specific audiences — enriched, syndicated, or contextual — are performing across platforms and use those insights to shift spend toward top performers. 6. Optimize and refine your strategy After the season ends, it's time to take what you’ve learned and build smarter for the next push. Use Outcomes to analyze: Who converted Which segments underperformed How your customer base compares to the broader market How your audience evolved Which campaigns drove meaningful adoption These insights can then inform your next round of audience building, so whether it’s back-to-school or a holiday, you’re already ahead. Example 1: The beach vacation shopper To illustrate Experian’s Audience solutions at work, let’s say a high-end swimsuit brand wants to reach women over 30 planning beach vacations to Florida, Hawaii, or Mexico. However, their CRM only includes basic transaction and purchase details and offers little insight into who their customers are. Audience solution: Enrichment Using Experian’s Enrichment solution, the brand could layer on lifestyle, income, and travel preference data to turn shallow profiles into rich audience segments. With a deeper understanding of their shoppers, the brand could develop a targeted messaging strategy by destination, build high-performing lookalike audiences, and confidently activate across channels. Example 2: The European traveler As another example, suppose a footwear brand wants to reach millennial travelers heading to Europe between May and August. They specialize in stylish, comfortable walking shoes that are ideal for travel but lack the technical in-house resources to build custom segments. Audience solution: Syndicated Audiences Using our Syndicated Audiences, the brand could easily tap into pre-built segments tied to leisure travelers, international shoppers, and comfort-focused footwear buyers. With plug-and-play access to over 2,400 verified audience segments, the brand could quickly layer this targeting into their programmatic and paid social campaigns without requiring custom development. And with fast speed-to-market and improved message relevance, the brand could launch cross-channel campaigns just in time for peak summer travel planning. Example 3: The outdoorsman Consider a camping tent company that wants to reach families planning summer trips to national parks, campgrounds, or RV resorts. They don’t have much first-party data to work with, but they know their audience is online, researching their next adventure. Audience solution: Contextually-Indexed Audiences With Experian’s Contextually-Indexed Audiences, the brand could target people actively reading content about outdoor travel (like hiking tips, campground reviews, or road trip itineraries) without relying on cookies or IDs. They’d be able to activate contextually relevant audiences mapped to sites that outdoor enthusiasts frequent and drive site traffic with strong click-through rates. Example 4: Big-box retailer launching summer gear Imagine a national retailer preparing to promote summer essentials like patio furniture, grills, fitness gear, and travel accessories. Their goal is to build predictive models for their summer product demand and reach new customers most likely to buy before they even search. Audience solution: Marketing Attributes With Experian’s Marketing Attributes, the retailer could license over 5,000 lifestyle, demographic, and behavioral variables to enrich internal models and uncover high-indexing consumer groups, such as outdoor entertainers or health-conscious families. This data-powered insight would help them predict demand and identify audience segments worth testing across media channels. The team could find new, qualified segments ideal for email and CTV activation and get a head start on the season, eventually increasing ROI on their summer campaign spend. Talk to Experian about your summer campaigns today Using customer data for marketing doesn't have to be overwhelming, especially when you have access to a trusted consumer data provider and plug-and-play audience tools for every stage of the funnel. Whether you’re working with a robust CRM or starting fresh, consumer data vendors like Experian can help you reach the right audiences with speed, accuracy, and confidence. Our advanced tools are designed for both advanced marketers and teams just beginning to explore consumer database marketing. No matter your goals, Experian is here to help you build an audience strategy that performs. Contact us today Latest posts