Constructor Unveils AI Shopping Assistant Blending Generative AI and Personalization for Ecommerce

Shoppers on ecommerce sites can ask the assistant detailed questions and get personalized recommendations; see it in action at NRF: Retail’s Big Show at the Constructor booth (#3160) and Constructor partner AWS’ booth (#6020)

Constructor, the leading AI-powered product discovery and search platform for enterprise ecommerce companies, announced its AI Shopping Assistant (ASA), a leading-edge conversational product discovery tool. Shoppers on ecommerce websites and mobile apps can interact with ASA to discover and explore products related to their interests and intent — with ecommerce companies increasing loyalty, engagement and conversions.

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Powered by transformers, ASA blends generative AI with Constructor’s AI-based personalization technology and ability to optimize experiences for ecommerce companies’ unique key performance indicators (KPIs). When they engage with ASA on ecommerce sites and apps, shoppers can explain what they want in long-form natural language, or even have a conversation if they like, and then receive product and content recommendations personalized to their preferences, history and intent, and reflective of the ecommerce company’s real-time inventory.

“Our AI Shopping Assistant gives online shoppers a new, useful way to discover items they need and love — disrupting the current search and product discovery paradigm,” said Eli Finkelshteyn, Constructor CEO. “We already have good product discovery solutions for people who know what they want and just want to search for it, or people who just want to browse a category, or take a product finder quiz.”

“But in cases where shoppers have a more complex need that they can only explain in natural language, like ‘I need healthy items for a picnic’ or ‘I want a trendy shirt to go out in,’ the current paradigms don’t work. There was no good way to explain that need to the search engines of the past,” Finkelshteyn continued. “That’s where our AI Shopping Assistant comes in. ASA makes suggestions based on detailed requests from a shopper — like a trusted, in-store associate would — while also instantly factoring in everything it knows about the shopper at hand. ASA underscores our commitment to applying generative AI to drive tangible value: enabling shoppers to better find what they need and be confident in their purchases, while helping ecommerce companies keep shoppers on their sites and boost their likelihood to purchase and their loyalty.”

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AI Shopping Assistant Use Cases
Ecommerce companies across industries — including leading grocery chains, apparel brands and general retailers — are already taking advantage of AI Shopping Assistant on their ecommerce sites. They’re using the tool to address use cases and queries such as:

• Finding recipes and procuring ingredients — E.g., “What’s a good dessert I can make for someone who likes strawberries and is gluten-free?” In addition to generating recipes with items the grocer has in-stock, ASA makes personalized recommendations for each ingredient (so if the recipe calls for milk, and the shopper tends to buy organic, then options for organic milk will be shown). Customers can easily add every product to cart from the recipe page.
• Finding occasion-appropriate apparel — E.g., “I’m going to a formal wedding in the Caribbean in August. What can I wear in the summer heat?” Recommendations returned make sense contextually; are in-stock in the shopper’s size; and map to the shopper’s preferred styles, colors, price points, etc.
• Identifying relevant items across categories — E.g., “I’m going camping with my pre-teen kids for the first time in the White Mountains. What kinds of supplies and camping gear do I need?” ASA can provide personalized suggestions across different areas of the retailer’s inventory.
• And much more.

By applying AI to enable shoppers to search for products in new, flexible and interactive ways with ASA, ecommerce companies can better meet shoppers on the pathway to purchase and build brand affinity and loyalty.

In fact, according to a report¹ by Forrester Research’s Nikhil Lai, senior analyst, “Generative AI turns search into a channel that not only harvests demand but also generates it.”

Much More Than a Chatbot
While traditional chatbots and virtual assistants are often limited — requiring ecommerce companies to configure complex if-then logic, and only able to address “frequently asked questions” — Constructor’s AI Shopping Assistant goes much further. With the ability to answer a broad range of queries, ASA provides:

• Intent-based, natural language prompting to return highly relevant and attractive product suggestions, and refine results.
• Support for many types of results: from product recommendations, to articles and guides, to task-specific instructions (recipes, do-it-yourself guides, etc.).
• Intuitive user interface and results display, so shoppers can easily navigate recommendations across an ecommerce company’s catalog.
• Incorporation of Constructor’s connected product discovery algorithms, including clickstream, personalization and KPI metric optimization. Ecommerce companies using ASA benefit from Constructor’s holistic and award-winning product discovery platform, named “Best AI Solution” in the Convrt Awards for retail and ecommerce innovation. Constructor treats every action in a user’s shopping journey as something it can learn from to improve and personalize the user’s shopping experience.

See ASA in Action at NRF
Constructor will demonstrate the AI Shopping Assistant next week at NRF ’24: Retail’s Big Show from its booth (#3160). A video of it will also be on display at the booth of Amazon Web Services (AWS; booth #6020), a Constructor partner.

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