AI-generated content is changing how online retailers connect with their shoppers — streamlining operations, product descriptions, email marketing, and more. Yet as automated content moves to the forefront of search engine results, consumers still crave relatable content to enhance their experience. That’s why a human voice is key to establishing trust and driving engagement.
This article covers a variety of strategies for retailers to find the balance of capitalizing on AI’s efficiency without sacrificing the human touch. Paradoxically, in a world where prioritizing AI seems more common, authentic storytelling can help your brand stand out within competitive markets where product and service choices are endless. Now more than ever, it’s crucial for eCommerce teams to back their content with storytelling, valuable insights, and trustworthy information that strengthens a brand’s relationship with their consumers.
What Google’s Helpful Content Update means for eCommerce
The Google Helpful Content Update is an algorithm shift launched and refined between 2022–23 that incentivizes online retailers to make content that people want to see, rather than produce content that checks SEO boxes in the hopes of earning higher rankings. This update impacts eCommerce brands, especially those relying on automation strategies, since it’s designed to reward people-first content while deprioritizing AI-generated content.
Staying competitive means producing authentic content that moves your audience while also keeping efficiency in mind. Use AI tools in conjunction with human oversight so you can optimize for search engines while staying up-to-date on industry trends.
The risks of over-automating retail content
Google is seeing a rise in AI-generated content among retailers looking to produce copy for items such as blogs, promotional emails, and product descriptions. Although automation tools save time, overusing them can be detrimental to your brand long-term, incurring SEO risks that penalize organic traffic:
- Thin content
- Duplicate content
- Increased bounce rates
- Decreased customer engagement
Some of the biggest downsides of over-relying on AI: Your brand will blend in, organic traffic could drop, and the SEO visibility to your site will decrease. Pushing out volumes of content that feels like a robot automated it might result in low-quality output. No surprise that your brand might fall out of favor with the user-first algorithm shifts we’re witnessing — and it can dissuade customers from converting.
Our advice? Integrate AI with human creativity and editing to preserve your voice, find success in the search engine results, and ensure that your brand is authentic but also scalable. In other words, an optimal eCommerce strategy for retailers should include human plus AI — not human versus AI.
The human advantage: Building trust through authentic retail content
What sets human content apart from automated content? Building trust, which starts with framing content into a story that consumers can relate to. Content formats that can help build a foundation for trust include:
- Testimonials from consumers
- Reviews from experts
- Stories from founders or leadership teams
- Videos of the product in action
Brands can get ahead of the competition here by filling the “knowledge gap” — identifying gaps in information that is common on the web and providing additional value, considering different POVs, or even by offering thought leadership that may not yet exist on the SERPs. Some examples of how to put this strategy into action:
- Use multiple LLMs (Large Language Models) to identify the “consensus knowledge” (common knowledge and themes that exist online about your product categories)
- Identify what information appears consistently across multiple AI platform responses
- Map gaps in the information out there and the benefits to your current product content
- Identify unique point of views, information from internal thought leaders, or dissenting opinions that reflect your brand
- Ask LLMs to provide customer objections to identify content that addresses barriers
- Create information-rich product content that exceeds what AI models can generate
Human + AI = A smarter retail content strategy
Integrating human and AI skillsets can build better relationships with consumers and allow producers to refine existing content to gain recognition from AI-driven search engines. Integrate AI-powered tools into your retail strategy to generate:
Humans can create content with the brand and human consumers in mind, while AI can help tie the story together with formatting updates, messaging refinements, and background research. Fusing those disparate skillsets can result in optimized content that enhances trust and drives conversions.
4 actionable ways retailers can prioritize authenticity in content
How exactly can retailers prioritize content authenticity? The four tips below can help with tasks ranging from templating website product pages to creating social media posts — ensuring retailer content is optimized for search engines while resonating with consumer target markets.
- Draw from the knowledge of in-house experts to create interview-style blog content
- Create customer-focused buying guides to anticipate the buyer journey for your product or service, and which questions may occur to users
- Highlight employee spotlights wherever relevant to attach a unique value proposition to your brand, making the universal shopping experience more personal
- Incorporate user testimonials to develop FAQs that show how your product or service solves problems for consumers
Future-proofing your brand
The emergence of mainstream AI has prompted a variety of innovations in the digital workplace. Within minutes, today’s retailers can generate blog posts, page templates, or product descriptions that used to take hours to piece together. But the unprecedented speed that we’re witnessing comes with a potential risk — the loss of connection and personalization that brands rely on to survive, stand out, and connect with their core audiences.
Even as automation efforts continue to evolve, consumers will still want to feel like a brand is speaking to them — solving their problems and making their lives easier. Balance the efficiency of AI with that unique quality of human empathy and approachability that a large language model can never wholly replicate. Otherwise, you may discover that your brand has joined the trend, only to fade into the noise. Want to ask a question or learn more? Get in touch with us today.
