Online shopping has become easier, but choosing the right product can still be surprisingly difficult. Customers often have questions about sizing, compatibility, features, delivery, or which option best fits their needs.

AI shopping assistants could help by answering questions and suggesting products based on what someone is looking for. But there's a difference between recommending something and genuinely understanding what the customer needs.

For example, an assistant might recommend a popular product without understanding a customer's budget or specific requirements.

For those working in ecommerce or AI, I'm curious:

• Have AI shopping assistants actually improved your customer experience?
• Where do they struggle the most: product recommendations, accuracy, or understanding context?
• Would you trust one to guide your purchase, or would you still prefer speaking to a person?

Interested to hear real experiences, especially from people running online stores.

There's so much changing weekly in this space, wondering what podcast/channels people follow to keep up to date on everything happening. Trying to build my own research list to keep up with.

hot take maybe. everyone says personalization is creepy so they stop doing it. i think most of the time the data is fine, the way its written is the problem

"hey, we noticed you looked at running shoes 3 times" -> creepy. nobody wants to hear you counted showing running shoes first on the homepage without saying anything -> nobody notices, it just feels like a good store

been in ux like 16 years and saw this over and over with clients. the team gets the data, gets excited and wants to show the user "look we know you". the user doesnt care what you know. they want the page to make sense for them

so for me its use the data, dont mention it. same with traffic source, if someone came from a google ad about free shipping just lead with shipping, dont write "since you came from google"

curious where you draw the line. anyone tested the "we noticed..." style messages vs just quietly changing the page?

I make product videos for brands and before i set up my offer i want to understand what store owners actually need. Not selling anything hee no links and i won't DM anyone.

if you run a store:
How many new product post do you post on social or run ads each month on?
- Who makes them now? you a freelancer? an agency? Ai tools?
- Roughly what do you spend on this per month and whats the most annoying part?
- if someone sent you 10 short product reels videos a month 15-25 sec for your social what would that be worth to you? would you rather pay a fixed monthly price or per video?

- have you ever hire someone from a cold email what you reply?

People use these interchangeably and they are not close.

The general tier, Wix and Squarespace and that sort of thing, generates a site. They are good at it. Homepage, about page, something that genuinely looks designed, finished before dinner.

Then arrives 30 SKUs with variants, shipping priced by weight, tax that is correct in two states, and a checkout that does not hand the customer somewhere else. Different category of product. Most of the general builders have never claimed otherwise. The assumption that the gap is small comes entirely from how well the first hour goes.

The store first tier, Amboras and Your Next Store among them, starts at the catalogue rather than the page. Different starting point, different ceiling.

Neither tier is the wrong answer. But work out which one you are buying before the weekend starts, not three weekends in.