Ecommerce chatbots are emerging as a new way to bring new and fantastic shopping experiences for customers. That is why adoption rates are expected to soar in the coming years.
For online stores, it has become challenging to stand out and differentiate, as new competitors disrupt markets.
Are you looking to engage customers with zero wait time, through the messaging and social media channels they already love?
Would you like to ease up the order and payment process and make the experience enjoyable?
Chatbots for ecommerce have the potential to make the customer experience much better. Many businesses, big and small, are integrating them into their online stores already.
In this post, we will show you 10 ways ecommerce chatbots can bring fantastic shopping experiences. Complete with various examples.
What Is a Chatbot for Ecommerce?
Chatbots are software programs capable of making conversations over the internet. Thus, users can interact with them through messaging apps, much like they would with any human.
In our posts about chatbots for ecommerce and how they can get you more sales, we elaborate on what is a chatbot.
Chatbots can be AI-powered or scripted:
- AI chatbots use Natural Language technologies, and therefore can emulate human interaction.
- Scripted chatbots are menu navigating focused, but are more accessible and less costly to develop.
Now, to the 10 ways that chatbots for ecommerce can bring new and enjoyable shopping experiences to customers.
10 Ways to Bring Fantastic Shopping Experiences with Ecommerce Chatbots
1. – Welcome New Customers with Ecommerce Chatbots
Imagine that you could have an automated virtual assistant greeting every new customer. This way, you could thank them when they buy for the first time or when they subscribe to your ecommerce chatbot.
Take, for example, this interaction with the Whole Foods chatbot:
Note it greets the customer by name and offers a value proposition and a call to action.
Welcoming messages make your customers feel valued and begin to trust you.
With a chatbot, you can also customize thank you messages after they buy or welcome them when they come back, this shows trust and leads to a long-term relationship.
Would you like to know more about how to develop chatbots? Check out our post about 10 free Chabot platforms for superior customer engagement.
2. – Help Customers Find Products
The product-finding experience of online stores has gotten more convenient since its early days. Nevertheless, it can still be difficult when you need help identifying the best product fit.
With AI-powered chatbots, customers can ask broad questions and have the chatbot look for the best available options.
Furthermore, by linking chatbots and recommendation engines, you could even offer related products, or make suggestions based on previous browsing history.
Take the following example, have you noticed how difficult if for customers to search for a specific tone of color? Enter the Sephora Virtual Assistant:
This chatbot is capable of scanning images, objects or the face of a celebrity, and then searching for a list of matching lipstick colors.
Imagine the kind of shopping experience you can give to your customers if they can make these searches so easy.
3. – Answer Questions Quickly with Ecommerce Chatbots
Most of the calls that online stores receive are about general questions, with quick, always the same, answers. For instance, questions about return and refund policies are among the most common.
Can you imagine a customer seeking an answer, but doing so out of the labor hours of your call center? Or does he wait 5 or 10 minutes in the queue, get frustrated and take his business elsewhere? Things don’t have to be this way.
General questions are ideal for ecommerce chatbots since their response time is instant, in any time zone, regardless of labor hours. Besides, they can handle many customers at the same time.
Full disclosure: Some of the links on this post are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.
Take a look at this Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Bot from Mobile Monkey, an online chatbot platform:
Now imagine a customer asking a question in the middle of the night. With a FAQ chatbot, you can answer customer questions quickly.
You can set up FAQ chatbots in Facebook Messenger, using Mobile Monkey or many other chatbots online services.
4. – Personalize the Shopping Experience
Small details, such as calling the customer by name or remembering his choices, can go to great lengths to make the client feel that personal touch.
If you use Facebook as your messaging platform, personalizing ecommerce chatbots is more convenient, because, through Facebook, you can access some of the information, like his name.
Chatbot platforms like Mobile Monkey let you personalize the experience, as shown in the following figure:
5. – Engage Customers Through Social Media
Your customers are already flocking to social media. Facebook alone boasts more than 2 billion users. Why not take the shopping experience there?
Let’s say you made a post on Facebook, and one of your customers commented: “I want to buy it right now.” Once he does, what if ecommerce chatbots could engage the customer?
ManyChat, an online chatbot platform, shows us how comments to chatbots work in their Ultimate Guide to Messenger Marketing and Facebook chatbots:
The text tells people to leave a comment if they want to receive a free guide. Once they do, it will send an automatic response message:
Besides selling products and onboarding clients, you can use ecommerce chatbots to contact customers who voice concerns in post comments. Thus, chatbots can help you improve relationships with your brand and business.
6. – Let Customers Place Orders with Your Ecommerce Chatbot
Businesses can stand out with order processing through ecommerce chatbots. The process begins when the customer finishes selecting products. Once they do, the chatbot can ask for shipping and billing information, as well as delivery preferences.
Brands are already using ecommerce Chatbot for order processing, like Pizza Hut:
Want to try? Here’s the link to the Pizza Hut Instant Ordering Chatbot.
With the Pizza Hut Chatbot, customers can complete orders and get updates on their status and fulfillment.
7. – Integrate Payment Processing with Your Ecommerce Chatbot
While the technology is new, developers and online stores are beginning to integrate payments into ecommerce Chatbots.
To let Chatbots process payments, first, you need to integrate them with the software of a payment processing company.
One of the most well-known services is Master Pass from MasterCard. Unfortunately, your customers need to have a Master Pass account to use it.
In August 2019, ManyChat, a Chatbot Online Platform, rolled out a feature that allows payment processing via Stripe. As the store or business owner, you only need to have a Stripe account. Then, you can accept payments from customers, which only needs to enter their card information.
Here, we show you how this feature works:
If you don’t use any of these already-developed payment chatbots, you can still go and implement the interface with in-house resources or an external developer. Many payment companies like PayPal, Stripe and Easy Pay, offer Application Program Interfaces (AP I’s) that you can use. Of course, why would you do that if there are vendors that can supply you with ready-to-use software as a service (SaaS)? It would only make sense if it is less costly or you need to have control of the technology.
8. – Update Customers on Shipping
Remember when offering web order status and tracking set ecommerce stores apart?
Does days are over, today, customers expect order and delivery status as a standard feature.
Online stores can differentiate themselves by allowing customers to get order updates via messenger Apps. Thus, Chatbots are an ideal means to update customers.
That is what Abercrombie, an American fashion brand, does in the following example:
It is much easier to look up order status from messaging apps than from a mobile web browser or the store app. Hence, an improved shopping experience.
Chatbot developers can use APIs from courier services, or ready-to-use software from online Chatbot platforms to offer this capability.
9. – Follow-up with Customers with Ecommerce Chatbots
In the social media age, customers want to be more than mere observers. They want to talk about the products they like and tell it to their friends.
Customers are no longer annoyed by businesses asking them for feedback; they want to have their voices heard. If they like your product, you can be sure that they would like to tell you.
Full disclosure: Some of the links on this post are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.
With ecommerce chatbots, you can prompt customers to fill out surveys or place reviews, as the following example from Mobile Monkey shows:
Of course, after you receive your feedback, you need actually to listen to and act on it. Do this, and you will improve your product and show that you care. If customers see that you care, they will buy more from you and their social media friends too.
10. – Offer Resolution to Complaints or Problems
Customer service is a common pain point for online customers today. There are tons of stories on the web about awful call centers and how difficult it is to find real solutions to problems.
Common grievances about customer service call centers are that many of them are not available 24/7 across all time zones. Another common problem is long wait times to reach a live rep.
Chatbots can tend to an unlimited amount of web users at the same time. Furthermore, they service customers, regardless of labor hours or time zones, and response is instant.
Chatfuel, an online chatbot platform shows us an excellent example:
Want to try the Chatfuel customer support bot? Follow this link. If you think your customers will not feel comfortable with chatting about their problems with a bot, you can still offer it as an option.
You could prompt them with a message telling them that all your reps are tending to other customers and if they would like to chat with the bot. As a result, you can shorten the waiting time to reach live reps as the chatbot will handle some calls.
Bring Amazing Shopping Experiences to Your Customers with Ecommerce Chatbots
In this article, we have showcased some innovative ways that ecommerce chatbots can improve shopping experiences. From welcoming customers, engaging them on social media, and helping them with order processing and payments, there are many ways that businesses can make use of this technology.
Now it is time to take action, do your business partners or clients need more convincing on the benefits of chatbots for ecommerce? Then, show them this amazing way to provide fantastic shopping experiences.
If you would like to know more about how to develop chatbots, check out our post about 10 free Chabot platforms for superior customer engagement.
Chatbots can also help you get more revenue. In our post about Chatbots for e-commerce: How they can get you more sales, we tell you all about it.
Do you know any more ways that chatbots can bring fantastic shopping experiences? Tell us in the comments below.
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Reference / Further Reading
Afrosages. 5 Best Chatbots to Check out for your Business
ManyChat. The Ultimate Guide to Messenger Marketing and Facebook Chatbots
