The Future of E-Commerce, Powered by Generative AI

Generative artificial intelligence, or gen AI, has the potential to transform all corners of the e-commerce value chain, reinventing online customer experience and a retailer’s capabilities in reaching the end consumer.

With the increase of content and products available to consumers online, 74 percent of customers report walking away from e-commerce purchases due to the volume of choice, according to The Business of Fashion and management consultancy McKinsey & Company’s The State of Fashion 2025 report.

In tackling this challenge, 50 percent of fashion executives surveyed for The State of Fashion identified product discovery as the key use case for gen AI in 2025.

With its purpose of leveraging large data sets to generate new content across text, images, music and videos, gen AI can innovate customer interfaces like the search bar, virtual assistants and size-and-fit tools. It can also optimise product imagery, campaigns and item descriptions. In fact, McKinsey estimates that gen AI could add as much as $275 billion to the operating profits of the fashion and luxury sectors in the next three to five years.

“Generative AI opens completely new doors for us as an industry,” says Tian Su, vice president of personalisation and recommendation at Zalando. “It has the potential to revolutionise how we interact and engage with customers.”

BoF’s latest white paper, The Future of E-Commerce, Powered by Generative AI, explores how online retailers can embed this technology — from the customer experience and the creative output to the preparatory work needed and the legal and ethical frameworks required.

Published in partnership with Zalando, this paper spotlights gen AI use cases from the online retailer, as well as insights from expert consultants, gen AI specialists and retail executives, to offer advice on how to implement this technology to maximise customer value.

Discover the four chapters within this white paper below.

1. Building the Right Foundations for Gen AI

Before retailers look to implement gen AI tools and solutions across the e-commerce value chain, organisations and business leaders must first carefully evaluate how and where to integrate such tools. They must ensure the workplace and employee base are ready to embrace what will drive substantial organisational change.

This section explores the preparatory work that businesses should undertake before introducing new technologies like gen AI — and how executives might effectively socialise the opportunities afforded to companies and their teams, while addressing how these tools can best support the workforce.

2. Evolving the Customer Experience and Product Discovery

Eighty-two percent of customers want AI to help them reduce the time they spend researching what to buy, according to The State of Fashion 2025 report. Hyper-personalisation in the form of conversational virtual chatbots and tailored search bar functionalities, for example, can solve consumer pain points and even spark customers’ imagination.

This section explores how optimised product discovery functions can simplify the e-commerce customer journey. Gen AI can learn from end users’ search and purchase history to provide more relevant results.

3. Enhancing Creative Output and Content Displays

Gen AI offers new ways of amplifying the creative e-commerce output. Large-language-model-powered software can write consumer-led product descriptions and image-generating tools can create product backdrops or content displays, extending the life and use cases of product imagery as a result. The same technology can also be leveraged to identify and forecast trends to offer business intelligence.

In this section, BoF examines how gen AI can be leveraged for content creation to support e-commerce platforms.

4. Understanding the Business Ethics and Responsibility

Countries are charging ahead to become the frontrunner in this space, and governing bodies are racing to put frameworks and legal parameters in place. As a result, there is an emphasis on individual businesses to display an ethical and responsible use of the technology — with the knowledge that legal frameworks will eventually catch up.

This final section of the white paper examines what retailers must consider from a legal and ethical perspective, to implement the technology in a responsible and safe way.

Expert Voices:

Jessica Couch, retail tech expert and founder, Looks AI

Couch is a retail technology expert who has worked with companies like Nordstrom and Amazon, focusing on bridging gaps and promoting equity, especially for women. Leading Looks.Ai, a peer-to-peer shopping platform, her work has featured in Yahoo News, Forbes, Essence and Afro Tech. Couch is a board member of the Carnell Couch Foundation, worked as an advisor for MIT’s Kinetic Program and was a member of the NC State College of Textiles Dean’s Young Alumni Council.

Tian Su, vice president of personalisation and recommendation, Zalando

As vice president of personalisation and recommendation at Zalando, Su leads the business in improving and refining products, services and customer experiences using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Su has previously worked at Walmart and 7 Eleven and has a PhD from Yale University in Immunology, and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Alexander Sukharevsky, senior partner at McKinsey and managing partner of QuantumBlack

Sukharevsky is the global leader of QuantumBlack, McKinsey’s artificial intelligence arm. Under his leadership, QuantumBlack has become a recognised leader in applied artificial intelligence, helping organisations improve their end-to-end processes. As a leader in McKinsey’s research programmes, Sukharevsky has covered areas such as gen AI, future technologies, and the use of technology for the common good.

Jan Wittrodt, director of privacy, AI and technology law, Zalando

As director of privacy, AI and technology law at Zalando, Wittrodt designs and implements privacy strategies, programmes and governance functions. As part of his role, Wittrodt has developed and implemented a group-wide GDPR and privacy function, as well as a technology law function. Wittrodt previously worked at law firm Clifford Chance.

This is a sponsored feature paid for by Zalando as part of a BoF partnership.