Newegg launches AI-based home product shopping experience

Newegg Commerce Inc. is expanding its use of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance how customers interact with its site.

The global technology e-commerce retailer is rolling out Home Showcase, an interactive online shopping experience for home products. Newegg developed the offering by utilizing AI to improve the visuals and descriptions of products in the assortment.

Designed for homeowners, the Home Showcase features a user interface resembling a two-story house, with eight clickable room icons including office, kitchen, living room, bathroom, gaming room, bedroom, garage and yard. Clicking on a room icon opens up a curated list of recommended products commonly used in that specific area, accompanied by deals, top brands and room-specific inspiration photos.

For example, clicking the kitchen icon may show appliances like a cooktop burner, tortilla maker and a pressure cooker. The backyard, which covers all outdoors, shows outdoor heaters, security cameras, bikes, scooters and wearables.

Newegg used Stable Diffusion AI (a text-to-image AI model) to improve product photos to illustrate features for customers, and ChatGPT to create product descriptions and text on abbreviated quick view pages.

The retailer also utilizes the ChatGPT AI model, which interacts with users in a conversational style that mimics human interaction and uses machine learning (ML) to continually refine and improve its responses, in a number of key customer-facing areas of its site. These include the PC Builder shopping tool, as well as to optimize text content throughout its website and to transform customer service chat, customer email subject lines, and search engine optimization.

Home Showcase is available now on the Newegg site for desktop and laptop computers, with a mobile version expected to be available later in June.

“Homeowners often consider products’ utility based on the area of the home where products are used. We’re simplifying the shopping process by creating a useful tool to help customers peruse products that may improve their lives at home,” said Lucy Huo, VP of application development for Newegg. “We’re a big believer in the benefits of AI and we frequently upgrade our shopping platforms to offer the best customer experience using the latest technologies. For this, we’re offering a useful UI to make the shopping experience easier and more enjoyable. Users can now open rooms and explore the myriad interesting products available. We’re also seeing how AI can improve photos and descriptions.”

Newegg expects to share more AI-related features during 2023 and expects AI to play a significant role in the future of e-commerce to improve the entire customer experience.

Headquartered in City of Industry, Calif., Newegg was founded in 2001 and serves a global customer base throughout North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East. The company offers direct sales and an online marketplace platform for PC and IT hardware, consumer electronics, automotive, gaming products and finished goods.