The rise of AI-based chatbot solutions in the business world has completely changed the way they make customer interactions. Today, 80% of the companies want to integrate some form of chabot development services in their business by 2020. The ecommerce industry is no different: chatbots in the ecommerce sector are enabling retailers to deliver better shopping experiences and streamline customer interactions.
According to some top retail and ecommerce software development companies, most retailers want to use an eCommerce chatbot as a primary customer service tool for the visitors of their online stores.
The chatbot market is also expected to grow up to 1.2 billion USD by 2025. Hence, as an eCommerce business, it is highly essential to integrate a smart chatbot or make constant improvements into your existing one for winning more customers.
The article will provide you with a detailed idea about the benefits, use cases of chatbots. You will also learn how technology, such as the chatbot, can be integrated into your eCommerce software solution with the assistance of a proficient & dedicated software development team so that you can increase online sales, traffic and outpace the competition.
Let’s dig deep and discuss everything in detail:
What is a Chatbot?
A chatbot is simply an automated computer program that simulates human interactions and performs the repetitive task at a much faster rate than humans. In essence, a chatbot is a form of “intelligent assistant” technology, which works similar to Siri or Google Assistant.
Chatbots in ECommerce
Chatbots in the ecommerce industry work as automated personal assistants, offering personalized product or service recommendations to users during online shopping. Chatbots of today and future will gradually improve the online shopping experience of users by allowing them to buy products faster by offering personalized suggestions.
- Using chatbot development services in ecommerce, you can perform the following tasks:
- Assist users in buying products or services online
- Offer personalized product recommendations
- Provide customer support
Well, these are few functions that are performed by chatbots in the ecommerce industry today as this technology is relatively new. Now let’s see some of the examples of e-commerce commerce chatbots and how they are helping companies to grow their business:
Examples of Chatbot Development in Ecommerce
Sephora
Sephora, the ecommerce retailer brand, has a unique chabot on the Kik platform. It assists users to buy products from its website after asking questions related to their makeup usage and styling.
This beauty company doesn’t limit its chatbot use cases here. The company has also built a Facebook Bot – Sephora Virtual Artist. This bot enables users to see how their products will look on them by imposing its beauty products on the user’s selfie. It is a great idea to draw customer attention and deliver personalized service. Isn’t it.
H&M
H&M don’t fall behind Sephora when it comes to the effective usage of chatbot in their online retail business. Its chatbot solution asks users questions about their dressing style through simple QnA or suggests two photos to pick one of them. By this way, it creates a fashion profile for each user, offers outfit suggestions, and guides them to the company site to purchase products.
Nike
Nike StyleBot is another excellent example of the effective usage of chatbot technology by Nike. Its chatbot enables its customers to style their shoe design, using previous shoe models. Users can also share these designs on social channels with friends via the bot itself.
Why Use Chatbots in Ecommerce Business
As Ecommerce is a highly competitive segment, you have to stay on top always by actively introducing new products or services for your customers. Tracking competitors and how they are reaching their target customers is equally important. Look at below stats to check the usefulness of chatbot services in ecommerce segment:
Here are some other reasons why you should use a chatbot for your ecommerce business:
Because More and More People are Using Messenger Apps Today
Customers today have plenty of messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc. along with social media platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. So, building a chatbot puts your business where the majority of customers are. Also, it helps your brand stay visible and provide more buying opportunities for customers.
Because it helps you Business Build Customer Relations
90% of times, users of an ecommerce store don’t get proper customer assistance. By integrating chatbot in your online store, you can fulfill customer requirements by offering them personalized assistance. AI chatbots are great for this purpose. It analyzes customer data and buying behavior to offer personalized product recommendations, helping you improve customer relations.
Because it boosts your Ecommerce Sales
40% of consumers want quick offers and deals from chatbots of an ecommerce store. They are also ready to spend up to 400 USD on an online store, powered by a chatbot. Chatbots attract customers by maintaining personal interaction and specific product suggestions This in turn, increases repeat purchases, customer loyalty and boosts overall sales for your ecommerce store.
Advantages of Chatbot Solutions in Ecommerce
According to most retail and e-commerce software development companies, chatbots are bringing a rapid transformation in ecommerce by recreating the experiences users have with an online store. Chatbots offers quick responses, useful product recommendations, and robust customer support.
Benefits of chatbot integration in ecommerce store are below:
Increase Customer Engagement Level
With smart chatbot services, customers get the ease of sending messages for online support while bullying products online, rather than making phone calls. Timely responses offered by Chatbots to user queries increases customer engagement rate by 54% for e-tailors.
Minimize Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Chatbots reduce CAC for an online store as they offer quick responses and are available 24/7 for customers to solve their problems while they shop online. Integrating smart chatbot solutions, you can convert website visitors into customers easily at low costs.
Decrease Costs related to Customer Support
55% of online shoppers want quick, simple answers whereas 64% prefer 24/7 online support while navigating through an online store. Here chatbots come handy: by integrating simple conversational or FAQ chatbot on your online store, you can reduce customer support costs by 30%.
Build Customer Loyalty, Offer Support 24/7
Customer retention rate is another metric that chatbots can improve for your online store. Consider integrating instant chatbot to stay in touch with your target audience, provide customer service 24/7 and useful product recommendations.
Offer Product Guidance for Faster Checkout
Customers can identify the product they want, find it in a matter of clicks, and buy it more seamlessly using an e-commerce chatbot. Thus, chatbots have become a new sales channel for online retailers.
Different Types of Chatbot in ECommerce
Simple Bots: These are simple conversational bots with a predefined set of rules or scripts. These are pretty useful for an ecommerce store to provide answers to basic user queries related to product buying on a website. Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities can be added to the bots to make user interactions more natural.
Smart/AI bots: Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered bots improve the user experience while they purchase products online. The NLP-processing capability and ability to learn quickly from past user interactions make them act in a human-like way while answering specific user questions.
Intelligent Agent: This is the most advanced category of chatbots with machine learning, AI and NLP-processing capabilities, making them entirely self-sufficient. Amazon’s Alexa, IBM Watson, and Siri are some popular examples.
How to Build an ECommerce Chatbot
There are two popular options that you can use to build a smart chatbot solution for your ecommerce store.
Build a Bot from Scratch
The first option is to build a chatbot from scratch for your e-commerce store. Hire a team of expert chatbot developers or a reliable chatbot app development company to proceed with the same. They will not only help you build a custom bot but will also integrate it with your existing ecommerce site, databases and other IT systems.
To Build a Bot from Scratch, you should perform the following steps:
- Select the chatbot type (Rule-base Simple Bot/ AI-chatbot)
- Identify the platform where you want to integrate the chatbot (Shopify or Magento system integration, Social Platform/ Messenger Apps)
- Define the chatbot features (product finder, order status checker, customer service, offer notifications, personal shopping assistance)
- Hire an Expert Chatbot Development Company/Team
- Build an MVP
- Train Your Bot
- Launch the Chatbot
Use Chatbot Development Platforms
The second option is to use one of the do-it-yourself (DIY) chatbot development platforms. Through these platforms, you can always build a simple rule-based chatbot that performs simple tasks and user queries. However, if you want a bot solution with complex functionality, consider hiring dedicated chatbot developers.
Top Chatbot Development Platforms to Build an ECommerce Chatbot
Wit.ai: A free, Facebook service platform for creating bots with voice or text processing capabilities.
Chatfuel: It is the most popular chatbot builder platform that you can use for Facebook and Telegram. Adding content cards, updating subscribers, collecting user information, and making interactions with customers can be done easily via bots, built through this platform.
Api.ai: It is an excellent chatbot development platform to build bot solutions with natural language processing capabilities.
Ready to Win a Chatbot for Your ECommerce Store!!
Hope you enjoyed the detailed guide about the usage of a chatbot, its benefits, and how to build a smart chatbot for the ecommerce industry. If you are someone who is looking for a smart chatbot solution, Contact us at A3logics.
We have an expert team of Chatbot developers who can build a custom chatbot solution for your ecommerce store. Drop us a line to know more about our services.
