New Ecommerce Tools: October 17, 2024

Every week we publish a list of new products from companies offering services to ecommerce merchants. This installment includes tools for AI-powered shopping assistants, video production, search engines, payment platforms, financing, and user-generated content.

Got an ecommerce product release? Email releases@practicalecommerce.com.

New Tools for Merchants

Storfund launches financing option with TikTok Shop. Fintech Storfund has partnered with TikTok Shop to create an embedded financing option for the U.S. social media app. Called Daily Advance, the new product enables Storfund to advance money to sellers as soon as they ship their goods. By providing access to quicker payouts, Daily Advance will assist TikTok Shop as it supports its sellers.

Amazon launches AI Shopping Guides for product research. Amazon has introduced AI Shopping Guides for over 100 product types on its U.S. app and mobile site, such as TVs, running shoes, and moisturizers. Amazon’s AI Shopping Guides help consumers save time before purchasing by consolidating information alongside a relevant selection of products. Each guide offers educational content to help make informed purchase decisions.

Google Merchant Center adds video generation and integrates with Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment. Google’s Product Studio now offers AI-powered tools to produce product videos. ​​Choose the product to feature and select a video theme, and Google’s tool will customize the video to match the brand, enhance images, and highlight product attributes. Videos can be downloaded to use across Google Ads campaigns, Merchant Center, a website, and other channels. Additionally, Google Merchant Center has integrated with Amazon Multi-Channel Fulfillment, providing retailers with more accurate delivery speed estimates.

Marketing platform Blueshift integrates with Shopify. Cross-channel marketing platform Blueshift has announced the launch of its Shopify App integration, designed to help ecommerce merchants and brands unlock the potential of customer data. The integration allows Shopify sellers to synchronize customer data, shopping behavior, and transactional information with Blueshift’s AI-powered platform. Merchants can (i) automatically sync data for personalized marketing campaigns and (ii) launch essential campaigns, including abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase follow-ups, and personalized product recommendations.

Zoovu AI search and product discovery platform available in Microsoft Azure. Zoovu, an AI search and product discovery platform, has joined the Microsoft Azure marketplace, enabling personalized ecommerce experiences at scale. Zoovu’s product discovery experiences — including Zoe, Zoovu’s new generative AI-powered product advisor — are now accessible to Azure customers. Zoe helps shoppers find the product that fits their needs. Shoppers can ask Zoe unlimited questions about the product and get real-time answers.

TikTok launches AI-powered advertising tools. TikTok has introduced Smart+ to automate the advertising process across targeting, bidding, and creative. Advertisers input assets, budgets, and target goals. Leveraging TikTok’s creative AI suite Symphony, Smart+ automatically creates or selects the best creative asset, chooses the right audience, and puts the best ad in front of the right shopper at the right time. Per TikTok, Smart+ drives web, app, and lead-generation campaigns, as well as catalog ads.

Bazaarvoice launches Vibe, an integrated social content service. Bazaarvoice, a platform for user-generated content and social commerce, has introduced Vibe, a comprehensive tool to source and optimize user-generated content across all channels. According to Bazaarvoice, Vibe combines creator marketing, social media marketing, social commerce, and product sampling. Vibe also provides analytics and insights for content, creator, and campaign effectiveness.

Point-of-sale provider Square launches Orders, a commerce platform. Square, a point-of-sale provider and payment processing service, has created Orders, a commerce platform with payments and ordering capabilities for sellers. The order-based infrastructure enables sellers to complete a sale anywhere. According to Square, Orders changes how the company builds products and will provide expanded commerce capabilities such as pre-auth and bar tabs to U.S. sellers.

Prefixbox releases AI Search & Filter for Shopify. Commerce search provider Prefixbox has launched AI Search & Filter on the Shopify App Store, empowering retailers to leverage Prefixbox’s product search and discovery solutions. According to Prefixbox, the new app enables Shopify merchants to access advanced AI-powered search technology to improve result relevancy, dynamic product filtering, detailed search analytics, and easy-to-use merchandising tools.

Lily AI unveils a no-code product attributes platform. Lily AI, a company specializing in AI solutions for retailers and brands, has launched the next generation of its product attribute platform, giving merchants control over product attribute management and workflow. Merchants can source products from their merchandise catalog, process them through Lily AI for enrichment, and propagate the updated product data across online touchpoints for enhanced discovery, return-on-ad-spend, and organic search.