What Just Happened: Improving the Purchase Journey Through AI

Different shoppers search for products in unique ways. It’s estimated that 87% of shoppers start their purchase journey with online searches. Personalization is an incredibly effective tool. But how can online retailers implement the language of the user throughout their product descriptions, search results, and website?  

On this episode of What Just Happened? host, Christine Russo talks to Purva Gupta, Co-founder, and CEO of Lily AI, about retail search and customizing e-commerce experiences. 

Lily AI started in 2015 when Gupta and her business partner, Sowmiya Narayanan, understood the power of implementing a consumer’s emotional experience into the context of e-retail. Today, it is an enterprise-grade, AI-powered platform that “supercharges” online shopping. “This is mind-blowing, and everyone should have it,” said Russo.  

The power of Lily AI is that it is built from a foundation of data from the retailers’ customers. From the basics, it can be integrated into a retailer’s plethora of existing stacks. There is no ripping and re-building, which can be a considerable undertaking and setback for online sellers. Unfortunately, most of these stacks were built without the consumer at the center. Instead, retailers use the phrases they think consumers will use to search and shop.

“We’re the first company that’s saying, ‘let’s inject this back into the entire e-commerce value chain,’ so that you can truly keep the customer or consumer at the center of this value chain,” said Gupta.  

Lily AI implements the language of the consumer across the platform. The user’s language becomes a core part of the purchase details, search results, and recommended products. This customization is key to enhancing trust through relatability. Ultimately, smart wording results in increasing sales. Gupta and Russo talk about how… 

• Custom language enhances the purchase journey and is a market advantage. 
• Lily AI can be applied across existing platforms, there’s no re-build. 
• To understand the unique client approach that Lily AI takes during implementation.  

 Reflecting on LilyAI, Gupta said, “[It] is the first CIP, or customer intent platform, where we can go and supercharge all of these different types of applications in the stack.”  

 Gupta received her BA in Economics at Shri Ram College of Commerce and her MBA in Finance at the Indian School of Business. Her career has taken her from Saatchi & Saatchi, to UNICEF, before launching Lily AI. Gupta is a Tory Burch Fellow and serves as a YPO member.