November 6, 2018
In the last two decades, E-commerce has completely revolutionized the retail industry. Today, the options are endless and you can do everything from ordering your food and medication online to decorating your entire house and purchasing your weekly groceries. As this industry continues to evolve and customer expectations grow, several E-commerce businesses that are not able to manage customer interactions independently, outsource to a traditional call center to ensure smooth customer support.
But, as technology advances, consumers are increasingly turning to chat or messenger interactions over phone conversations. As a result, to stay ahead of the game, successful E-commerce businesses are opting for Chatbot integrations on their websites. If you’re not familiar with Chatbots and how they work, take a look at our article A beginner’s guide to Chatbots which is sure to get you up to speed.
The most essential thing for customers when they visit an online retailer is to have their questions answered and to get assistance and someone to guide them about different product options. Chatbots play a key role here and provide an ideal solution; they are an automated means of having conversations with customers and addressing queries in real-time.
Going one step further, when Chatbot technology is integrated with Live Chat on a website it provides the most efficient customer service by ensuring that customers with more complex queries are transferred to a human chat operator.
Read on to find out how Chatbots are benefitting the E-commerce industry:
1. 24/7 Uninterrupted Customer Support
Most customers come to a website expecting to get assistance with their purchase decision and expect someone to be available round the clock. Chatbots help to address customer queries any time of the day or night and their 24/7 365/day functionality provides for uninterrupted customer support.
Additionally, several E-commerce stores service customers from all over the world and often different time zones can become an obstacle for businesses who can’t afford traditional call center costs. Chatbots quickly eliminate this problem as they don’t need to sleep and the costs involved do not escalate as a result of the different time zones.
2. Improved efficiency in online store management
An attractive feature of website Chatbots is that they can be programmed to keep a track of a retailer’s inventory, thus providing customers with up-to-date information about different products. They can also help customers stay informed about which products are back in stock. Simply put, Chatbots help to improve business operations ensuring that you save time, effort and money in managing your E-commerce store.
One of the key ways in which Chatbots benefit E-commerce businesses in the current technological climate is their appeal to millennials; a group of people who are more comfortable with online shopping and communicating via messaging apps. By integrating Chatbots into your current website, you can continue to engage with different segments of your target audience thus ensuring you don’t lose out on potential sales, while simultaneously building customer loyalty.
3. Reducing Cart Abandonment and Assisting with Payment
One obstacle that every E-commerce business faces at some point is cart abandonment; this usually happens when customers are unable to find the product they are looking for. Chatbots can play an important role here by popping up on any product page and helping customers find the right fit for them. This makes customers feel valued as they don’t have to search through endless pages to land on their desired product. It also increases the likelihood that they will buy from the same brand again.
Chatbots provide a smoother purchase journey by sharing discount codes, or current offers with customers; they can help customers with deciding which payment method to use and how to save an item for purchase at a later date. This helps to reduce cart abandonment rates and ensures that customers are not neglected at any stage in the sales cycle.
According to research by Hubspot, 71% of people use chatbots for a quick resolution to their problems, 56% of people would rather message than call customer service and 53% of people are more likely to shop with businesses they can message.
Even though Chatbots are an ideal solution for any business looking to improve their customer service, they are limited in their ability to interact with users and in some cases, a human operator is needed to address more complex queries or concerns. This is why at CommVersion, we implement a hybrid model of customer care which seamlessly integrates Chatbot technology with LiveChat, offering customers a better experience. By combining Chatbots with LiveChat we ensure that all your customers are serviced without interruptions and interactions are either managed by automated Chatbots or transferred to a human chat operator when required.
If you’re on the fence about how Chatbots can help your business grow, get in touch with us and we’ll walk you through it.