We have talked a lot about chatbots on Vault50 lately. More and more eCommerce ventures are using them.
Services such as LiveChat and Jivechat making chatbots affordable for even the most streamlined enterprises. There are many benefits to having one installed on your webstore.
In today’s article, we will take a look at 5 key ways using a chatbot will help increase your sales.
So if you are ready, let’s jump in…
Table of Contents
What is a Chatbot
Before, start, we should quickly summarize what a chatbot is and does.
Essentially, a chatbot is an automatic messaging service that allows visitors of your eCommerce site to get a response to their questions instantly.
The “bot” is an AI-powered program that can provide an accurate response to frequently asked questions in a manner that makes the customer think they are talking to a human.
This allows business owners to communicate in a more personal manner, providing a better service without delay.
Where more complex issues arise, the bot is able to forward the query seamlessly to a human or take down details and state that a more comprehensive answer will follow, (after human intervention).
Why use a chatbot?
We discussed the pros and cons of chatbots for eCommerce here. However, as a little taster, take a look at some of these recent stats:
- It is predicted that the international chatbot market size will increase to 1.25 billion dollars by 2025.
- Global e-commerce purchases are only growing, with it topping $4.2 trillion in 2020
- 1.4 billion people were using chatbots in 2020
- 53% of service organizations will be using chatbots by 2022
How to increase your eCommerce sales using Chatbots
Now let’s look into how you can leverage the functionality of chatbots to increase your eCommerce sales.
1. Create a more Personalized Customer Experience
Using a chatbot can help towards a more personalized experience for your customer.
The AI built into the chatbot algorithm is designed to mimic human communication.
Programmed to offer assistance and answer questions much in the same way a sales representative would, your site visitor will feel that an extra effort is being made in order to facilitate their needs.
This is a positive thing of course. Furthermore, because the chatbot can work from accumulated data, it can make more accurate recommendations based on your customer profiles.
This approach benefits the customer in that they get the information they need (24/7, see next point) and you are essentially providing a better customer experience.
2. A better customer experience, no matter the time of day
A chatbot is a computer program. This means it can be made accessible to the customer 24/7.
This means basic customer queries can be taken care of in and out of office hours without the need for expensive sales personnel or anyone working to answer calls or emails.
A customer could be browsing in the middle of the night and will still find the information they need to make a purchase.
The chatbot is always there to help.
3. Analyze your site visitors behavior
Chatbots can also be used for more than answering queries and redirecting issues if a human is required.
The nature of the AI inside a chatbot means that it is constantly collecting data.
Missed opportunities, financial leakages, and other factors can be recognized so that you can make efforts to improve the revenue curve.
A chatbot will help you monitor customer interactions with the online store, and will provide tracking data, analytics, and a list of the most common queries and buyer pain points.
And all without you having to hire expensive personnel or using the resources of an expensive analytical firm.
Make positive changes on the basis of this important data and you will make more sales.
4. Better Inventory Management
Another feature of a chatbot is that it can be programmed to track your store’s inventory.
A chatbot service can therefore be set up to provide you with alerts when merchandise is close to being out of stock.
The same system can keep your website frontend up to date so that customers do not order items that are unavailable.
A chatbot can also notify customers via email or within text conversations if an applicable product is back in stock.
This, of course, connects to point number 1, providing the all-important superior customer experience.
In a competitive environment, this might just be the added extra you need, to make sales above your nearest rivals.
5. BetterConversions and Lead Generation
Finally, we have the all-encompassing benefit of Chatbots, which essentially brings all the above points into one.
By employing chatbot functionality on your eCommerce store, you will convert more customers.
Once the correct optimization has been achieved (this normally happens after enough user data has been generated), a chatbot is able to guide the customer through the sales process, helping to direct them to the product they need, so that the sale is made.
A chatbot is programmed to detect a pattern in the customer’s navigation.
By understanding what the customer is looking for, it can automatically begin sending relevant services and products onto the screen for the user. (If an email address is collected, it can also send recommendations to the site visitor).
All of this leads to higher conversion rates. It can also help encourage your customers to buy more.
Final Words
As you can see, in 2021, the way chatbot technology has progressed, it really does make sense to use such a service on your eCommerce store.
They are a cost-effective way of increasing your sales, while also benefiting your customer with a superior user experience.
A win, win situation by anyone’s standards.
