Conversational chatbots are currently making waves across industries, and the eCommerce sector is no exception. In this post, we will shed light on how chatbots are revolutionizing the global eCommerce industry and how it will shape the future of eCommerce. However, before delving deeper into the role and significance of chatbots, let’s elucidate the meaning of conversational chatbots.
What are Conversational Chatbots?
Conversational chatbots are AI (Artificial Intelligence)-enabled computer programs that function through the Machine Learning (ML) technology. Chatbots are capable of mimicking human speech (in writing as well as the spoken form) for interacting with human beings.
Since conversational bots are powered by Artificial Intelligence, they can collect and analyze historical chat data as well as voice transcripts to address customer queries and concerns. They can also resolve issues related to invoice processing or technical support without the least human intervention. What’s more, the chatbots are programmed to comprehend even the complex human language, including mispronunciations, abbreviations, and slangs.
In an era of omnichannel interactions, AI-enabled chatbots act as an essential tool for improving customer service. These conversational agents function seamlessly across channels and are capable of replying through voice as well as text.
Uses of Conversational Chatbots in eCommerce
Also known as conversational commerce technology, conversational chatbots help eCommerce businesses in the following ways:
- Chatbots help eCommerce companies roll out results-driven marketing campaigns;
- Allows eCommerce companies to maintain a seamless flow of services 24/7;
- These automated conversational agents help businesses pitch products to customers as per the latter’s choices.
- They allow eCommerce companies to streamline their customer-centric practices to connect with their existing and potential customers in a better way.
- Since chatbots provide consumers with immediate answers to their queries, they reduce customers’ waiting time in queues, thus improving customer experience.
- Enhances customer loyalty, which in turn improves your eCommerce company’s customer retention rate.
In the current digital era, e-Commerce businesses cannot afford to count on the conventional methods of customer engagement as they are not adequate for satisfying the nextgen customers. Since unhappy customers can prove catastrophic for a brand’s reputation, e-Commerce businesses always strive for innovative and unprecedented ways of delighting their customers. That’s why e-Commerce companies are increasingly deploying chatbots in multiple areas ranging from customer engagement to inventory management.
Conversational Bots- A Trailblazing Tool for eCommerce Businesses
Conversational chatbots are evolving with time to create a better experience for the modern, tech-savvy customers. They have already changed the way businesses and consumers interact with each other. The day is not far when this cognitive technology will usher in a new era of customer experience. Here are some remarkable ways in which AI-powered chatbots will redefine the future of chatbots in the coming years:
- Cost-effectiveness: Conversational chatbots are an easy and cost-efficient way for eCommerce companies to offer customer assistance. The chatbots are intelligent enough to resolve queries and recommend the right products to your customers via live chat. For example, suppose you want to purchase a handbag, but you are unsure about the type of handbag you want, chatbots can help you by offering product recommendations based on style, shape, color, size, etc.
Chatbots come with multiple automation capabilities to help you minimize the operational expenses of your business. For example, a multilingual chatbot can interact with customers in multiple languages, thereby eliminating the need for outsourcing companies offering multilingual customer support. Thus, with a chatbot, you can automate a lot of day-to-day chores that are performed by your customer care team and other departments in your organization.
- Personalizing Customer Experience: Conversational chatbots are known for their dynamism. They are capable of keeping your customers engaged with your brand on different levels. For example–
- Chatbots provide customers with technical assistance, sales information, product recommendations, and much more.
- They are programmed to keep tabs on customers’ browsing patterns and purchase history for recommending the products or services they are looking for.
- Chatbots also analyze the products in each customer’s cart for comprehending customer requirements and choices.
A chatbot stores massive amounts of data pertaining to customer purchasing habits as well as their past purchase history. A high-performance chatbot leverages the same data for upselling your business offerings besides making personalized recommendations based on the likes and dislikes of the customers. They also make use of the same data for cross-selling relevant products.
- As a Remarketing Tool: Remarketing is a crucial digital marketing tool that helps boost your ROI from sales. In the coming years, conversational chatbots will take complete care of the remarketing needs of eCommerce companies. As the ultimate remarketing tool for online businesses, chatbots know what exactly needs to be offered to your website visitors for pushing them into taking action and converting them into customers. Thus, chatbots will continue playing the role of an innovative sales channel for eCommerce businesses.
- As a Customers Engagement Tool: Chatbots are an excellent way to keep your customers engaged. These intelligent bots use various interactive tools, including audio, video, and GIFs, to grab customers’ attention and keep them engaged. In the forthcoming years, more and more eCommerce companies will utilize chatbots for sending personalized messages to their customers to enlighten them about a new product launch, new collection, or discounts.
- As an Inventory Management Tool: AI-enabled Chatbots are also capable of tracking your eCommerce store’s inventory The chatbots notify you whenever there is an overstocking or under-stocking. They also alert you as soon as a particular product is out of stock so that you can refill product stock at the earliest. Simultaneously, they notify customers as soon as an item is back in stock.
- Facilitating Conversational Self-Service: The Millennial customers want to get their problems resolved in no time. Chatbots enhance the efficiency of eCommerce businesses by offering quick and immaculate services to customers. Chatbots play the role of self-service support tools for providing consumers with instant answers to their queries. By facilitating advanced self-service options using chatbots, eCommerce businesses will streamline customer communications and also empower customers to find answers to their queries more efficiently without the assistance of human agents.
Advanced self-service capabilities will also allow human customer support agents to focus on other complex aspects of customer service in the years ahead. It will also enable customer service agents to offload a lot of manual tasks and focus only on those problems or queries that chatbots are not capable of resolving.
- As a Product Comparison Tool: Conversational chatbots lets your customers compare different products to determine which product would suit their requirements. As chatbots are getting better, it helps customers filter out the accurate products based on their specifications.
- Keeping Tabs on Website Traffic: High-tech chatbots will provide eCommerce businesses with more detailed information about website traffic. This feature will help marketers and sales reps identify potential customers and engage with them so as to convert visitors into prospective buyers. Additionally, cutting-edge conversational chatbots will help marketers gauge user engagement metrics by generating an improved and comprehensive list of user engagement analytics.
- Improving eCommerce Services and Customer Satisfaction: AI-enabled chatbots provide eCommerce companies with real-time customer interactions. A thorough analysis of customer interactions allows online businesses to enhance their services besides maximizing efficiency.
Since forward-thinking businesses place utmost priority on user feedback to provide customers with improved services, conversational chatbots offer eCommerce companies with real-time insights into consumer satisfaction. The chatbots gather consumer feedback, reviews, and ratings and share the information with the concerned departments. Customer feedback collected by chatbots not only helps eCommerce businesses improve their products and services but also helps identify chatbot errors such as inaccurate/repetitive answers, knowledge gaps, information overload, and much more.
Conversational Bots are Here to Stay
Instant and accurate information delivery plays a primary role in running an eCommerce business. That’s why conversational bots have been garnering the attention of big as well as small eCommerce players. Since the impact of AI-driven chatbots is growing by the day, they will play a pivotal role in transforming eCommerce businesses into smart enterprises to help online businesses grow and flourish in the coming years.
Conversational chatbots are currently becoming more mainstream in the eCommerce industry. These AI-driven emerging technologies that have been specially devised for easing the problem areas in eCommerce businesses. At the same time, chatbots are also driving m-Commerce (mobile commerce) to help online businesses generate sales revenue from this fastest-growing channel.
Key Takeaways
Considering the factors cited above, we can conclude that chatbots are all set to redefine the future of eCommerce. The eCommerce market is expanding globally by leaps and bounds. Therefore, small as well as big eCommerce businesses are adopting innovative measures to catch up with the ever-growing demands of consumers. In the next few years, conversational chatbots will replace a lot of traditional applications as well as search windows.
The benefits offered by conversational chatbots are driving even e-Commerce giants, including Alibaba, Amazon, and Flipkart to embrace the chatbot technology to stay ahead of the curve. Thus, if you do not want to lag in the competitive eCommerce space and want your e-Commerce businesses to stand out from your business competitors, you should consider investing in conversational chatbots without further ado.