When the concept of Conversational Commerce first emerged, it was said to be “the future of eCommerce.” Today, it’s part of the routine for thousands of users who seek the help of virtual assistants to shop online. This trend has grown with the boom in remote shopping during the pandemic, and that’s why even more companies are incorporating it into their digital sales strategy.
Conversational commerce uses text or voice interfaces to enable users to discover and search for products or services through dialogue.
(Source: Gartner)
How can Conversational Commerce help you boost your sales? Here are 4 proven benefits of adding intelligent chatbots to eCommerce sites.
1) A streamlined shopping experience
By including a chatbot on an eCommerce site, users can find what they’re looking for much faster and without browsing through all the inventory on the site. Many eCommerce sites have good search engines or filter and categorization systems to help the user; however, the conversational shopping experience is much more streamlined and convenient.
Besides helping users choose items, the chatbot guides them through checkout and shipping. The customer can make any kind of customer service inquiry from the same interface (over the phone would probably involve calling different service departments).
A big advantage of integrating the ecommerce chatbot with the CRM is information from the conversation is inserted directly into the customer’s profile. If the customer asks a question again, the bot already has their data and can assist them much more efficiently. Which brings us to the second point…
2) More personalization and higher customer retention
Artificial intelligence doesn’t just allow the bot to automate customer service and understand the user’s natural language. It also processes customer data and analyzes their shopping behavior to provide truly customer-centric service.
We all like going to a store where a salesperson knows us so well that they recommend the perfect design, color, or size without us needing to say anything. Conversational Commerce does exactly that. And of course, a customer who feels special is more likely to come back and recommend your brand.
3) More conversions
Another advantage of Conversational Commerce is that it performs immediate lead follow-up right when there’s the most interest to purchase. This increases on-site conversions. But the customer lifecycle is also enhanced through effective cross-selling, because the bot can recommend specific products related to the purchase. Customer retention begins during the sale itself.
In turn, the data collected by the bot during each interaction can be used for future marketing campaigns that are much more powerful and personalized. Outbound messages can even be configured on other messaging apps (such as WhatsApp or SMS) to let the customer know that a new product they’d like has been introduced.
4) Lower operating costs
For commerce to be conversational, there doesn’t necessarily have to be a bot. There are a lot of online stores with agents via chat for any questions. However, there’s a lot of investment required to have a team of agents available 24/7/365, especially when you consider that certain customer questions tend to be repeated.
The eCommerce chatbot makes the operation more profitable by automating a large part of the service. This way sales reps can focus on more complex products or services, which may require real-time assistance from a real human.
Are you interested in implementing Conversational Commerce for your business?
inConcert develops AI bots especially trained and integrated to ecommerce sites. We want our clients to embrace this trend, increase sales, and build customer loyalty through unique experiences in the shopping process.
Learn more about what’s next in this interview with Mauricio Lázaro, inConcert’s AI Applications Manager.
