One of the reasons why ecommerce sites are so powerful is that they allow shoppers to purchase from your business 24/7.
Of course, it’s not possible to provide instant customer service at all hours of the day. Instead, chatbots act as virtual shopping assistants to guide customers on any questions they have or assistance they may need.
It’s possible to build your own chatbot, or use AI chatbot software tools such as HubSpot to quickly make your own.
So is a chatbot going to be a great fit for your ecommerce website? Here is what to weigh up to make an informed decision.
What Is A Chatbot?
Chatbots are a type of interactive pop-up which typically appears on the right-hand corner of a screen. They contain a dialogue box with prompts that allow users to ask questions or leave their information for you to be able to contact them at a later point. Using natural language processing and AI techniques, chatbots offer an instant response to users to enhance the user experience and streamline the sales process.
“AI-powered chatbots use natural language processing to understand and answer basic questions your customers might ask to help enhance their shopping experience, which can ultimately improve your conversion rate. To give just a few examples, chatbots can recommend products, track product inventory, give real-time order tracking information, and even issue discount codes alongside abandoned cart reminders. A major advantage of using chatbots is cost-saving; they can simultaneously handle multiple interactions with customers around the clock, and can be scaled as an e-commerce business grows, which can keep operational costs that might otherwise be spent on a customer support team to a minimum. One study estimates that ‘chatbots can save businesses up to 30% of costs on customer support alone’.
But there are some drawbacks to be aware of. Chatbots will work as well as they’re ‘taught’ to, meaning a time-consuming initial set-up and integration process. They can typically handle basic customer queries, but more complex or nuanced questions can be harder for chatbots to process, which could lead to your customers feeling frustrated.
Bogdan Rancea, Co-founder of Ecommerce Platforms.
How Chatbots Can Help Your Ecommerce Business
As an ecommerce website owner, it’s impossible for you to do it all alone. So by using a chatbot to assist with digital customer service, this can lighten the load by answering questions and preventing excessive customer service tickets from coming through.
Any information entered can also be extremely useful for information gathering. This information or data can then be used to inform your marketing strategy and can also provide a competitive advantage.
Since chatbots offer an instant response, they also provide speed and convenience for users. When you’re not in the office, chatbots can offer a fully automated conversation. Or when you are online, you can instantly pick up the conversation with the user, and even filter the nature of their query to different departments.
Chatbot Considerations
An obvious flaw with chatbots is that for the most part, they offer automated conversations with your customers rather than human ones. This isn’t a complete downside, since this can offer a fast response to queries along with a whole host of other benefits. However, be aware that customers will expect a way to reach you that offers a direct or personal response. Therefore, chatbots should never try to be a complete replacement for customer service.
It’s also important to build or select your chatbot provider carefully, to ensure the chatbot doesn’t slow your website down, looks credible and is also trustworthy. That’s why installing a chatbot on your website is a job that’s best left to the professionals, since the chatbot will ultimately be an extension of both your website as well as your wider brand identity.
Imaginaire – Ecommerce Web Design & Development UK
Before you install a chatbot on your website, would a conversation with our web specialists be useful?
Imaginaire is a digital marketing agency based in Nottingham, and we work with businesses from across the UK. Our services include web design, web development, SEO, PCC and more. Therefore, we can help you with all aspects of creating and promoting your ecommerce website, including adding a chatbot.
Tell us about your ecommerce brand along with how we can help by giving us a call on 0115 697 1367. Alternatively, you can leave us some further information on our contact form and our team will be in touch shortly.
