Why E-commerce will be the first industry to undergo the Generative AI Revolution

E-commerce is poised to be the first industry to undergo the stable diffusion revolution because it is a highly visual industry that is constantly evolving. Since its inception over 40 years ago, E-commerce has been a revolutionary way to buy/sell products. The first big revolution within e-commerce came with the advent of the internet and Amazon, who was one the first e-commerce sites to capitalise on the idea of e-commerce. Since then countless e-commerce sites and platforms have followed suit.

Today E-commerce is a 3 trillion industry with unfathomable no.of products being sold every single day across fashion, electronics, furniture, beauty, books, movies and pharmacy. And with increasing adoption and an ever expanding user base, the demand is soon going to be overwhelming in more ways than one. Speed is of essence, time costs money, the sooner you put a product, the more number of products you sell, lesser is your cost, and more money you make.

What are the advantages of Stable Diffusion?


With Generative AI now in the picture, many such pain points can soon be eliminated and automated. Its now just over a year since Stability.ai released the SD 1.4 model, since then the model has advanced leaps and bounds with 5 more updated releases until the latest SDXL 1.0 model. Very recently we have seen SDXL LoRA's and fine tuned models also come into the picture with models such as Dreamshaper SDXL and Realvis SDXL.

So what are some of the advantages of Stable Diffusion that e-commerce businesses can leverage today,

  • Reduced costs: Stable diffusion can help e-commerce businesses to reduce their costs by automating the product photography process. Businesses can generate realistic images of their products from text descriptions, without the need to hire professional photographers.
Product Images generated using a fine-tuned SDXL 1.0 model
  • Increased sales: Stable diffusion can help e-commerce businesses to increase their sales by creating more engaging and informative product listings. Businesses can use stable diffusion to generate images of their products from different angles, in different settings, and with different customisations. This can help shoppers to better understand the products and make more informed purchase decisions.
  • Improved customer experience: Stable diffusion can help e-commerce businesses to improve the customer experience by providing a more personalized shopping experience. For example, businesses can use stable diffusion to generate images of products that are tailored to the individual shopper's preferences.
  • Product visualisation is essential for e-commerce. High-quality images are one of the most important factors in converting shoppers online. Stable diffusion can be used to generate realistic and visually appealing product images, even for products that are difficult or expensive to photograph, such as furniture, clothing, and jewellery.
Product visualisations created using Segmind's Inpainting and ControlNet models
  • E-commerce is a data-driven industry. E-commerce companies have access to a vast amount of data on their products, customers, and competitors. This data can be further used to train stable diffusion models to generate images that are tailored to specific audiences and products.
  • E-commerce is constantly evolving. The e-commerce landscape is constantly changing, with new products, trends, and platforms emerging all the time. Stable diffusion can help e-commerce companies to keep up with these changes by allowing them to quickly and easily create new product images and marketing materials.

In addition to these advantages, stable diffusion is also a rapidly developing technology. This means that e-commerce businesses that adopt stable diffusion early on will be able to gain an insane competitive advantage.

Practical examples of how Stable Diffusion can Power E-Commerce

Here are some specific examples of how e-commerce companies can use stable diffusion:

  • Product photography: E-commerce companies can use stable diffusion to generate product images for new products, seasonal collections, and other special occasions. This can save companies a significant amount of time and money on product photography costs.
Product photography of a wine collection using Dreamshaper SDXL 
  • Personalisation: E-commerce companies can use stable diffusion to generate personalised product images for each customer. This could involve showing customers different products in different colors or styles, or even showing customers products in their own homes or on their own bodies.
  • Augmented reality: Stable diffusion can be used to create augmented reality experiences for e-commerce customers. For example, customers could use their phones to see how a new piece of furniture would look in their living room, or how a new outfit would look on their body.
  • Marketing and advertising: E-commerce businesses are using stable diffusion to create more engaging and effective marketing and advertising campaigns. For example, a retailer could use stable diffusion to generate images of their products in different settings, or to create personalised video ads.
Marketing Material for products generated from a fine tuned SDXL model
  • Improve product search: Stable diffusion can be used to improve product search by generating more relevant and accurate search results. This can help customers to find the products they are looking for more quickly and easily.

Conclusion

Stable diffusion has the potential to revolutionise the e-commerce industry by making it easier, faster, and more affordable for e-commerce companies to create high-quality product images and marketing materials. This could lead to a significant improvement in the shopping experience for consumers.

In addition to the above, e-commerce is also a relatively new industry, which means that it is less burdened by legacy systems and processes. This makes it easier for e-commerce companies to adopt new technologies like stable diffusion.

Overall, e-commerce is well-positioned to be the first industry to undergo the stable diffusion revolution.