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Product matching (AI): the key to streamlining e-commerce

March 27, 2024

In the fast-paced world of online business and the internet, e-commerce enterprises constantly aspire to find ways of staying ahead of the competition. Product matching with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) is one tool used effectively in recent times.
In short, product matching with AI uses algorithms and machine learning to link and match competitor products, storing the relevant data in the business’s private database. These links could be based on various criteria, such as item category, brand name, model type, color, geographical area, initial search terms, and so on.
Through machine learning and AI-assisted algorithms, your database compares how you price a product next to competitors’ listings. If applicable, it also recommends how much you should list it for on your site to maximize revenue.
Effective implementation means businesses can streamline operations (and profit!), improve the customer experience, and boost output. In this article, we’ll explore product matching, its advantages, and how you can implement it in your business.

What is product matching (AI)?

Product matching with AI uses artificial intelligence to match products (and their prices) across the internet. These ‘matches’ might be based on various criteria, such as brand, size, color, price, average customer, purchase time or season, etc.
Product matching with AI aims to drive sales by comparing and monitoring competitor pricing. Through this method, you can constantly balance supply, demand, and cost. It drives your organization’s sales and maximises productivity. Customers will also be more satisfied thanks to more reasonable market rates.
Product matching involves analyzing vast amounts of data across the internet. Compiling all this into a dedicated database allows a company to identify patterns. The resulting output is then streamlined (again, through AI and machine learning) into an easy-to-understand piece of software, helping you select approaches and establish rules-based algorithms to set your own prices.
So, how does it work? In short, AI-powered product matching algorithms scrutinize text, images, and other data using machine learning and natural language processing techniques. These processes identify patterns and provide precise product recommendations.

For example, as an e-commerce business selling watches, a product matching (AI) algorithm might monitor how much other websites are listing the same watches for. It uses title text, images, sub-model mentions, and further data to ensure all products are exact matches.

product matching with AI

Advantages of product matching

You’ll discover numerous advantages of product matching with AI. Along with improved customer experience and increased sales, companies can identify popular products and trends, guiding their product development and marketing strategies. Product matching also helps enterprises manage their inventory more efficiently by reducing the number of dead-stock items. 

  • Increased sales: Businesses should improve sales and revenue by consistently providing customers with automated competitive pricing that maximizes sales and profit.
  • Market trend identification: With an extensive database spanning multiple products, it’s easy to see which are selling well, how pricing adjustments affect those successes, and decide on the best course of action.
  • Improved customer experience: Businesses can improve customer satisfaction by offering perfect pricing based on current market trends, ensuring the customer is always happy without negatively affecting profit.
  • Streamlined inventory management: AI-powered product matching can help businesses manage and sell inventory more efficiently, without putting customers off through overly high (or low) prices.

How to implement product matching in your business

Implementing product matching (AI) in your business can initially seem daunting, but it’s easier than you might think.

Here are some steps you can take to get started.

  • Identify your needs: To effectively implement product matching, it’s crucial first to identify your business’s particular requirements. Your firm’s needs are unique and distinguish it from your competitors; this uniqueness sets you apart. By clearly understanding your needs, you can determine which features and functionalities are necessary for your product-matching software.
  • Choose a reliable web-scraping provider: Implementing product matching (AI) requires dependable, trusted web-scraping technology that can accumulate and interpret huge quantities of data from various sources without collecting unnecessary information.
  • Train your algorithms: Once you have selected a web-scraping provider, you must train your product-matching algorithms. This involves feeding them competitor product and pricing data and instructing them to identify patterns. Depending on your configuration, they may also make recommendations through intelligent analysis models.
  • Test and refine: It’s crucial to test and refine the algorithms after training. Constant tweaking based on IT department suggestions, customer feedback, and data is necessary to ensure accurate and relevant pricing based on your competitors’ offerings.

Enjoy the benefits of AI-based product matching!

And there we have it! This blog post has walked you through the basics of product matching with AI and how it can benefit your e-commerce or online sales business.
At the incredible pace with which online markets fluctuate these days, using automated tools like web-scraping and product matching give your organization the boost it deserves. Maximize your sales and profit by getting one up on the competition and always being able to instantly react to their strategies.
Ready to get started? Start preparing your business for product matching today!