9 Reasons Your Ecommerce Needs a Chatbot

Post by
Sten Koobas
    Published: 
June 28, 2021
9 Reasons Your Ecommerce Needs a Chatbot

What Is a Chatbot?

Chatbot is an automated interface through which the user can obtain information from a machine. The interface is usually in written form (chat) and in many cases the chatbot presents the user information with a simple multiple choice type of option. Chatbots are used in multilingual customer support, lead generation and sales automation across a variety of channels (e.g. websites, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS).

1. Ecommerce bot can provide instant customer service, 24/7

Most businesses would like to service their customers constantly, but that’s often not possible due to lack of personnel or resources. Having good customer service 24/7 has a positive impact on your customer satisfaction.

Ecommerce bots, though, are always on and can cater to your customers whether it’s morning, afternoon or after midnight. Even if they can’t answer your questions, they can still save a customer’s details and their query and reassure them that their question will be passed on - much better than leaving the customer frustrated until they can speak to an agent.



2. Generate quality leads

An eCommerce bot can be designed to capture important user information such as email, phone etc. and send that information to sales representatives so they can do follow-ups on the conversation. The bot can run through a series of questions and evaluate the responses to filter and qualify potential customers. It can also be used by ecommerce businesses to upsell and cross-sell their products.


3. Give people messaging options they are looking for

WhatsApp and Messenger are popular because they allow users to quickly communicate with friends, and it's expected that customers will be able to do the same with businesses.


As consumers expect businesses to respond to queries in minutes (not hours or days), eCommerce companies need to offer live chat on their websites. AI-powered chatbots can benefit companies by reducing queue time for live chat, freeing up human agents to focus on other tasks.


4. Personalization

Integrating AI based eCommerce bots into existing back office systems means that the bot can do the bulk of the work for the customer service teams. By using easy to use APIs for authenticating the customer, the automated live chat systems provide personalized information about things like invoice payments, order status, available discounts, any trouble with specific services or products used. This translates into specific answers for customers and reduced human agent needs.

5. Gain insights into customer behaviour

Another huge advantage of chatbots for businesses is the insights they can provide into customer behaviour. You can derive valuable insights for your future business strategy from the questions, problems and popular products mentioned in the chat conversations.

You can optimize your content strategy based on the questions and problems of your customers. You can analyze what exactly moves your customers and what problems they face. This enables you to create content that provides the right answers. Also, the chatbot can unlock new business opportunities for telecom businesses.




6. Boost retention and loyalty with post-purchase experience

Now when eCommerce stores have captured the leads they have to send them down their marketing pipeline. Customer loyalty is one of the most important things a company should focus on. Online sellers know that the customer journey doesn't end with a conversion. A helpful, memorable post-purchase experience is crucial to retaining customers and boosting brand reputation and lifetime value. And an eCommerce bot can provide those experiences.


7. Ecommerce bot is easy to build with free templates

While it is true that artificial intelligence is something that requires technical skills, there's an increasing part of the industry that is making it available for anyone. It should be made clear that if you really want to have an AI solution that is tailored to your exact needs and customized, then you need to have people that possess the technical skills.

Well no, you don't need to be a developer or have previous experience to build a bot for your eCommerce company. With free templates for eCommerce you can set up your own bot within 15 minutes.



8. Personal shopping and product discovery

AI-powered eCommerce bots can understand shopper preferences to curate highly personal product recommendations. Chatbots are also used frequently during the holiday shopping season, helping shoppers find the perfect gift for everyone on their list based on price range, interests and other attributes.




9. Return prevention

It’s estimated that over 30% of all online purchases are returned. If a shopper is conducting behaviour that indicates a return is likely, eCommerce bots can preemptively intervene to prevent a return from ever happening. This not only eliminates a customer from having to go through the hassle of returning an item, but also saves the retailer significant costs related to returns.

Conclusion

Use of chatbots in eCommerce increases the customer experience and satisfaction while it saves business costs. Such bots integrate well with companies’ websites and are an excellent way to achieve the goal of providing a personal experience to the customers 24/7 instantaneously. 


If you are looking for AI chatbots for your customer service, then feel free to sign-up for an account with alphachat.ai In just 5 minutes you can get your own natural language understanding AI chatbot that you can connect with your website.


With eCommerce bots, brands can connect with customers at any time and on any device. Chatbots satisfy consumer's need for instant gratification, and give stores the ability to provide 24/7 customer service or advertise flash sales. We give you 10 reasons why your store needs an eCommerce bot.