When customers can’t find what they need while shopping online, it makes for an unnecessarily difficult user experience. Thankfully, emerging tech like artificial intelligence can help e-commerce sites better understand what customers are looking for and match them with the right products quickly and accurately.
Raj Jaiswal, founder of the fashion e-commerce platform Neyon, has firsthand experience using AI tools to make apparel shopping more intuitive and personalized. But this is just the start of what he has planned. Learn more about how he envisions his platform driving innovation across the entire e-commerce ecosystem.
Challenges With Personalized Search in Traditional E-Commerce
When shoppers visit an e-commerce platform, they expect to type in a keyword and quickly find relevant products. Unfortunately, research shows that 72% of e-commerce sites aren’t meeting those expectations. That’s because traditional e-commerce platforms have several innate weaknesses.
For example, many keyword-based search engines lack semantic understanding (that is, they cannot understand the meaning behind language) and have trouble finding relevant results if the search terms don’t perfectly match what’s in their system. When there’s no exact match, some systems return no results at all, frustrating users and potential customers.
What’s more, different people often describe the same products using different words. Some users make spelling mistakes or use language that’s too broad. The result is the same: unoptimized search terms that can’t be processed by a rudimentary search engine.
Many e-commerce storefronts also fail to make use of user data to offer personalized search options. For example, each shopper has their own search habits, purchase history, and browsing patterns that could help tailor search results. But without the ability to understand and leverage this data, online shops fall short of providing the customized experiences that shoppers really want.
Finally, as product catalogs grow, traditional search engines can struggle to manage large volumes of data — they end up taking longer to process queries, driving users away.
Merging Tech Expertise With Entrepreneurial Spirit
As a software engineer, fundraiser, and supply chain guru, Raj Jaiswal brings a unique perspective to the challenges facing e-commerce. Growing up in Gujarat, India, Raj was inspired by his parents (both self-made entrepreneurs), and watching them build their ventures from the ground up sparked his own drive for innovation and problem-solving.
After moving to the U.S. to pursue a Master’s in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at Brown University, his career became a whirlwind of diverse experiences. He co-founded and worked as the CTO for Fetchum, a delivery platform for college campuses, and joined Brown University’s Summer B-Lab incubator, raising $100,000 in pre-seed funding.
Then, he became a Senior Software Engineer at Modivcare, a healthcare services company that offers tech-based support solutions for public and private healthcare providers. After that, he led a team building crucial supply chain services for the delivery app GoPuff.
In each of these positions, Raj had the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies like AI and machine learning, applying them to real-world business challenges. So when he came face to face with the obstacles that burden traditional e-commerce storefronts, he had an idea.
“I had an ‘aha’ moment while shopping online for a specific style of coat,” he explains. “After 30 minutes of fruitless searching, I thought, ‘There has to be a better way.’” This frustration led Raj to start developing Neyon, which will use AI to bridge the gap between what shoppers want and what they can actually find online.
Neyon: Overcoming Challenges with AI
The key was making AI actually understand what users needed — a key area that traditional e-commerce platforms have always fallen short in. “The best AI shouldn’t just answer our questions,” Raj says. “It should understand our intentions." To this end, he’s developing a natural language processing tool for Neyon that understands users’ complex search queries, helping them find the brands and clothing they’re looking for.
Neyon will also use advanced visual algorithms to analyze users’ tastes and help them find visually similar products. By matching visual features across different product categories, Neyon can make shopping easier and more intuitive.
Finally, Raj aims to incorporate machine learning models to offer personalized search results and recommendations. By analyzing browsing and purchase history, Neyon will be able to suggest products that match each shopper’s unique preferences, helping them more easily find items that align with their needs.
Raj Jaiswal’s Vision for AI in E-commerce
Beyond Neyon, Raj envisions his work being used to improve experiences across the entire e-commerce ecosystem.
In the home goods space, for example, natural language processing can help a search engine understand detailed queries like “mid-century modern living room set” or “coastal blue dining chairs." Meanwhile, computer vision can analyze images to identify products that match specific design elements, like the style of a particular sofa or the color scheme of a rug. With the right technology in place, users could seamlessly design their entire homes and wardrobe in seconds.
“I believe we’re just scratching the surface of what AI can do,” Raj says. “My vision for Neyon isn’t just about making shopping easier; it’s about creating a more intuitive digital world.”
Transforming Customer Experience With AI
For Raj Jaiswal, artificial intelligence is the key to meeting customers where they are and helping them discover products and services that can improve their lives. His experience with tools like natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision is driving Neyon’s success in the fashion space, but he has no plans to stop there.
