Is AI the New Front Door of the E-commerce Shopping Journey? Amazon’s Still in the Game

Story at a Glance

• Modern shoppers no longer follow a straight path. The online customer journey now spans search engines, marketplaces, and AI assistants. 🚀
• A well-defined customer journey map for ecommerce reveals where shoppers drop off and how to turn browsers into loyal buyers. 💡
• AI and large language models (LLMs) are revolutionizing how consumers discover, compare, and purchase products online. 🤖
• Brands that align Amazon SEO with AI-driven optimization (AEO) are setting the new standard for discoverability and conversion. 📈

Source: Adobe Stock

Comparing Traditional and AI-Driven Journeys

Before diving deeper into how AI is transforming ecommerce, it’s important to visualize how the shift from manual marketing to machine-driven optimization changes every stage of the buyer experience. The following table highlights how each phase differs.

Traditional vs. AI-Assisted Customer Journey Comparison

First Step of the Customer Journey: Awareness

Every ecommerce journey begins with awareness, or that moment when a potential buyer first encounters your brand. Whether it’s through an Amazon Sponsored Ad, an influencer reel, or an AI assistant recommending your product, awareness drives top-funnel growth.

Studies show that 68% of online shopping experiences begin with a search engine. Increasingly, those searches happen inside marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart, not just Google. For ecommerce sellers, this means ensuring your listings, A+ content, and brand story are optimized for both visibility and relevance across all discovery channels.

Building awareness today also requires adapting to AI discovery tools. Platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) are influencing consumer intent before shoppers ever reach Amazon. In fact, 66% of frequent shoppers noted that they now use AI to search for products, while 24% of shoppers said that they’re open to using it in the future.

 
Source: Yotpo

To better highlight the importance of this step, here’s an example of how beBOLD Digital helped one of our clients leverage ads and collabs to better target top-of-funnel visibility. beBOLD Digital partnered with a cruelty-free skincare brand struggling to gain traction on Amazon. Through targeted Sponsored Brand Ads and influencer collaborations on TikTok, beBOLD increased top-of-funnel visibility by 230% in 60 days. 

The brand’s Amazon Storefront traffic tripled after optimizing A+ Content and keywords for both Amazon search and AI assistants. This highlights how mapping awareness touchpoints can help identify where discovery and intent intersect for new customers.

Second Step of the Customer Journey: Consideration

Source: Adobe Stock

Once a shopper is aware of your brand, they enter the consideration phase, which consists of comparing products, reading reviews, and evaluating brand credibility.

In this stage, trust is everything. Over 94% of online shoppers read reviews before buying, and 46% say product imagery and A+ content influence their decision. High-quality images, user-generated content, and well-structured bullet points improve both the emotional and functional appeal of your listings.

For omnichannel sellers, it’s critical to align Amazon SEO, website content, and social proof. Consistency across touchpoints, from Google snippets to product descriptions, strengthens brand authority and reduces friction.

When mapped correctly, the online customer journey reveals key triggers: 

• Do shoppers convert faster after viewing lifestyle videos? 
• Do reviews with specific keywords boost CTR? 

These data-driven insights are what fuel smarter remarketing and conversion strategies.

For example, a premium pet supplement company engaged beBOLD to improve its mid-funnel engagement. We analyzed listing reviews and discovered that customers wanted clearer dosage information. By redesigning infographics and rewriting bullet points using data-backed keywords, the brand’s CTR increased by 40% and session-to-order rate by 22%. This illustrates how optimizing listings with social proof and clarity drives higher trust during the consideration stage.

Third Step of the Customer Journey: Conversion

Source: Adobe Stock

Research from Baymard Institute reports that 39% of online shopping carts are abandoned, often due to friction in payment, pricing clarity, or delivery timelines. On Amazon primary factors that separate conversion and cart abandonment usually fall on these factors:

• Shipping Speed
• Prime Eligibility
• Presence of Trust Badges

Ecommerce brands that integrate analytics with behavioral mapping, such as heatmaps, session replays, and A/B testing, can identify micro-barriers that cause hesitation. By refining these moments, you turn the customer journey map for ecommerce into a conversion engine that works 24/7.

For example, beBOLD Digital worked with a wellness supplement seller that faced high cart abandonment on Amazon. Through A/B testing checkout messaging, adding Prime shipping options, and implementing one-click reordering, conversion rates improved by 34%. 

Additionally, behavioral mapping revealed that emphasizing 'clinically tested' in the title improved purchase confidence. This shows how understanding micro-friction points on the customer journey map for ecommerce leads directly to conversion growth.

Fourth Step of the Customer Journey: Retention

Acquiring a customer is only half the battle. Retaining them costs five to seven times less than acquiring new ones, yet only 18% of ecommerce brands prioritize retention.

The retention phase focuses on deepening engagement through loyalty programs, personalized post-purchase emails, and proactive customer support. AI-powered CRMs can segment customers by lifetime value, order frequency, and satisfaction scores, helping brands deliver tailored communication that keeps shoppers coming back.

For Amazon sellers, tools like Brand Analytics and Customer Engagement campaigns offer direct post-purchase insights. With these insights you can:

• Re-engage buyers through promotions
• Put out restock reminders for repurchase
• Provie value-adding content for continued engagement

To better understand how important retention is, here’s an example of one of our experiences at beBOLD Digital. A home fragrance brand partnered with beBOLD to reduce repeat purchase drop-off. By creating automated post-purchase flows with refill reminders and loyalty discounts, beBOLD lifted repeat purchases by 27% in one quarter. 

Using Amazon’s Brand Analytics and Customer Engagement features, personalized restock reminders boosted open rates to 45%. This demonstrates how proactive engagement and segmentation foster customer lifetime value and long-term loyalty.

Fifth Step of the Customer Journey: Advocacy

At the final stage of the online customer journey, customers evolve into brand advocates. These loyal shoppers don’t just repurchase. They amplify your brand through word-of-mouth, reviews, and social media.

According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know, and UGC-driven campaigns generate 29% higher web conversions than traditional ads.

Encourage advocacy by creating community spaces, whether it’s a private Facebook group for repeat customers, early-access drops for VIP members, or influencer collaborations that highlight authentic customer stories. 

When your brand delivers consistently at every stage, your customer journey map for ecommerce becomes not just a sales tool but a framework for sustainable growth.

How AI Is Redefining the E-commerce Journey

Source: Adobe Stock

AI is reshaping the ecommerce landscape faster than any other innovation. From predictive recommendations to voice-based shopping, it’s influencing every touchpoint of the buyer experience.

In fact, 76% of CX leaders already use AI to personalize customer interactions, and 72% believe AI will power all proactive customer engagement within the next few years. This is also evident in how the different generations of shoppers now see AI in their shopping experience. Gen Zs, who are now poised to have a buying power of $12 trillion by 2030, think that AI will become a crucial part of their purchasing process. 31% of Gen Zs project that they’ll be using AI more in the coming years, while 35% think they’ll be using it as a supporting tool.

Source: Yotpo

But how exactly is AI reshaping the e-commerce journey for customers around the world? By integrating AI-driven automation, personalization, and predictive insights, online retailers can now deliver seamless experiences that increase engagement, boost conversions, and build customer trust. 

1. Customer Discovery & Engagement

• AI-powered product recommendations analyze browsing history and past purchases to personalize the shopping experience and boost conversions.
• Visual and voice search tools make product discovery more intuitive by letting shoppers search using images or natural language queries.
• AI chatbots and virtual shopping assistants enhance engagement by providing instant, 24/7 customer support and guiding users through the buying journey.

2. Personalization & Lifecycle Marketing

• Behavioral segmentation and personalized content help e-commerce brands tailor marketing messages, emails, and offers to each customer’s intent and preferences.
• Dynamic pricing models use AI automation to adjust prices and promotions in real time, optimizing sales and profitability.

3. Operations, Supply Chain & Fulfillment

• AI-driven demand forecasting predicts customer needs and ensures the right inventory is always available.
• Intelligent logistics and order management use automation to improve warehouse efficiency, delivery speed, and customer satisfaction.
• Fraud detection algorithms strengthen payment security by monitoring patterns and preventing suspicious transactions.

4. Product & Experience Management

• AI-enhanced product experience management (PXM) organizes, tags, and enriches product data to improve searchability and presentation.
• Generative AI tools streamline content creation by producing product descriptions, visuals, and marketing materials faster and more consistently.

5. Analytics, Insights & Optimization

• Predictive analytics and marketing attribution reveal which campaigns and channels drive the most conversions, improving ROI.
• Real-time optimization engines use AI learning to adjust product placements, layouts, and recommendations based on live shopper behavior.

6. Post-Purchase Experience & Customer Retention

• Automated customer service systems handle returns, FAQs, and order tracking efficiently, enhancing post-purchase satisfaction.
• AI-based churn prediction models identify at-risk customers and trigger targeted loyalty campaigns to encourage repeat purchases.

Modern Friction Points in the E-commerce Customer Journey

Even the most optimized journeys have weak links. The most common pain points across ecommerce include:

1. Lack of Structured Data

Search engines and AI assistants rely heavily on structured data (schema markup, GTINs, and attribute tags). Incomplete or inconsistent data can make your products invisible to both Amazon’s algorithm and AI-driven search results.

2. Unoptimized Product Feeds

If your feeds aren’t tailored for each platform, you risk poor visibility and mismatched attributes. Clean, regularly updated product feeds improve ad relevance, organic ranking, and discoverability across marketplaces and AI tools alike.

3. Inconsistent Branding Across Platforms

In today’s multichannel world, inconsistency between Amazon listings, Shopify stores, and AI search results can erode trust. Shoppers expect a unified brand identity, with consistent visuals, tone, and pricing, wherever they find you.

The Role of AI and LLMs in Today’s Shopping Experience

There’s no question that AI is reshaping how people shop. Consumers can now buy directly through conversational AI tools like ChatGPT’s “Buy it in ChatGPT” feature, where verified sellers appear within chat experiences.

For ecommerce brands, this means preparing product data for agentic commerce, where digital agents handle research, comparison, and even checkout on behalf of customers. Optimizing your listings for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) ensures that AI models understand and recommend your products correctly.

Create a Future-Ready E-commerce Strategy

To stay competitive, brands must align Amazon SEO with AI-readiness. Here’s how:

• Prepare product data for agentic commerce. Ensure structured data, GTINs, and clear attribute tagging for AI indexing.
• Invest in AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) alongside traditional marketplace SEO to improve visibility in conversational search.
• Adopt a data-driven approach. Use beBOLD Digital’s analytics solutions to monitor both AI visibility and marketplace performance metrics, ensuring alignment across search, social, and chat ecosystems.

How beBOLD Digital Helps Sellers Stay Ahead

At beBOLD Digital, we empower ecommerce brands to turn data into dominance. Our team helps sellers:

• Map and optimize every phase of the online customer journey
• Integrate marketplace SEO with AI-driven visibility
• Build conversion-focused listings and A+ Content
• Use analytics to track engagement, conversions, and loyalty

By blending human creativity with AI-backed precision, beBOLD helps your brand stay discoverable, whether on Amazon, Walmart, or the next generation of AI-driven search engines. Contact us today and let us help you navigate the changing terrain of ecommerce. beBOLD Digital stands ready to help you navigate this new frontier, where every click, query, and conversation leads back to your brand.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the customer lifecycle of ecommerce?

It’s the progression from awareness to advocacy: how shoppers discover, purchase, and stay loyal to your brand.

What is the HEARD technique?

HEARD stands for Hear, Empathize, Apologize, Resolve, Diagnose, a framework for managing customer feedback with empathy and action.

What are the four types of product life cycle?

Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline: these are the stages describing a product’s market performance from launch to phase-out.

What are the four pillars of customer success?

Onboarding, Adoption, Retention, and Expansion, ensuring long-term satisfaction and measurable value for each customer.

What are the three R’s of customer experience?

Reliability, Responsiveness, and Relationships, the foundation of customer trust and repeat business.