"Artificial intelligence has seemingly raised the barriers to ecommerce success. The industry has long been a David-and-Goliath tale. In theory, anyone with a product and an internet connection could compete with retail giants. AI arguably reinforces this underdog story. The tools are certainly accessible. Generative AI has dramatically lowered the cost of producing content such as product descriptions, articles, images, and videos. AI seemingly makes small businesses more competitive."
"AI is universally available, but does every business have the ability to employ it? On the one hand, there are enterprises and digital-native retail and direct-to-consumer giants that use AI for supply chain forecasting, dynamic pricing, and other essential tasks. With money and engineering talent, these merchants are creating a reinforcing efficiency loop. Some have direct relationships with OpenAI, Perplexity, and Google for AI shopping integrations and data access."
"AI-driven "zero-click" search may be the most immediate threat for small-to-midsize ecommerce businesses. Until recently, search results sent users to websites. Long-tail discovery - "best hiking boots for wide feet," for example - was often a lifeline for SMBs. A well-written buying guide or blog post could rank, attract readers, build trust, and generate sales. AI has broken that model. Google's AI Overviews and emerging genAI platforms answer product questions directly on the results page. Summarized recommendations, feature lists, and comparisons don't require a click."
Artificial intelligence has changed ecommerce dynamics by raising barriers to discovery and competitiveness. Generative AI lowers content costs but larger retailers use AI for supply chain forecasting, dynamic pricing, and integrations with major AI providers, reinforcing advantages. Resource-limited entrepreneurs often lack infrastructure and engineering talent to deploy AI at scale. AI-driven zero-click search and generative platforms answer product queries directly on results pages, reducing click-throughs and long-tail discovery that once helped SMBs. Well-written guides and blogs lose referral traffic as summarized recommendations, comparisons, and feature lists replace links to merchant sites.
Read at Practical Ecommerce
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