Innovative technologies are paramount for helping businesses stand out and boost sales in today’s customer journey. With the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI), retailers now have more power than ever to expand their reach, captivate shoppers, and streamline business operations.
As many home furnishings retailers grapple with shifting consumer behaviors due to inflation and high housing interest rates, AI in digital marketing can be the tool that keeps their business afloat and enables them to scale.
While there are ample ways home furnishings eCommerce retailers can take advantage of AI, this technology is particularly useful for enhancing digital marketing strategies. With this cutting-edge solution, brands can build stronger relationships with more shoppers while saving significant time and resources.
To help home furnishings brands set themselves up for success in today’s economic climate, we’ve compiled three ways AI can take their digital marketing efforts to the next level.
How to integrate AI into your digital marketing strategy
1. Email and SMS marketing
Email and text messages are two of today’s leading channels for connecting with both new and existing customers. However, with personalization becoming the norm, many consumers now have higher expectations for the messages home furnishings brands send to them.
Thankfully, AI offers a powerful solution that enables businesses to create tailored email and SMS communications effortlessly.
For ecommerce retailers, this sort of AI integration is becoming increasingly accessible. Those who host their online store on BigCommerce can use the platform’s partnership with leading AI technologies, like Klevu. With Klevu, home furnishings retailers can build custom product recommendations based on shopper-specific data. When paired with Klaviyo, this information can help craft personalized email and text communications.
Klaviyo empowers businesses to build custom messaging, streamlines business operations, and, with its AI functionality, helps them learn how to target shoppers more effectively. Home furnishings retailers can use this cutting-edge technology to build email flows and segments, write compelling subject lines, A/B test personalized campaigns, and more.
“We used to randomly select bestsellers from the last 90 days for the transactional emails, and since making AI-driven recommendations, we’ve seen a 200% increase in revenue. The AI recommendations have also allowed us to automate many of our email campaigns, saving the team a great deal of time,” explained Richard Bell, President and Owner of UntilGone.
2. SEO strategy
A robust SEO strategy is necessary for home furnishings retailers to effectively steer anyone searching for related products to their online store. This will help their site rank higher on search engines, making shoppers more likely to choose their store over a competitor’s.
Building and maintaining an SEO strategy is a full-time job. With AI, retailers can save significant time and money when optimizing their online store for SEO.
Businesses that host their ecommerce store on BigCommerce can take advantage of features like BigAI Copywriter. With this tool, home goods retailers can generate SEO-optimized product descriptions in their brand’s tone of voice. By incorporating relevant keywords, these descriptions can help improve search engine rankings and enhance visibility.
BigCommerce also partners with other AI-powered content creation tools to help brands optimize their sites for SEO. With tools like AI Copywriter, they can craft meta descriptions, FAQs, social posts, and blogs designed to increase organic traffic and position them as industry experts.
“We use a variety of AI and SEO writing tools that connect to each other and help craft our blog content,” explained Brendan McCarthy, Managing Director of Designerie.
3. Paid ad campaigns
In addition to leveraging AI for organic search optimization, retailers can use it to enhance their paid advertising strategies. Implementing AI in paid ad campaigns helps retailers achieve the best ROI by effectively targeting the most relevant audiences and managing their budgets.
Home furnishings retailers aiming to maximize their return on paid advertising should consider tools like AdRoll. AdRoll utilizes machine learning AI to optimize bid pricing and manage campaign budgets. It also analyzes data to identify and target the right audiences, ensuring the best campaign performance.
Beyond AI, brands can explore other emerging technologies — like augmented reality — to elevate their ad campaigns. With tools like Threekit, furniture retailers can offer interactive displays of products in their digital advertisements. Taking advantage of this AR feature allows shoppers to see all angles of a product, leaving a lasting impression and making them more likely to click on your online store.
The final word
AI is the way of the future.
With home furnishings retailers feeling the hit of inflation and high home interest rates, competition is higher than ever. To be successful in today’s market, retailers need to embrace new technologies and explore how they can use them to drive sales.
Explore BigCommerce’s suite of AI-powered tools and partner integrations designed to boost engagement, streamline operations, and empower new, creative ways to attract and convert shoppers.
