If Conversations between lovers are restless then a conversation with a true friend is endless. If you observe, you’ll find a conversation taking place everywhere! It’s happening between the group of friends standing outside the cafeteria, even the eyes of the couple sitting in the same cafeteria speaking a lot.
The conversation is beautiful and is food for the soul! Don’t you think the same?
The only thing is, now people prefer to communicate more through messaging apps- as it enables them to form communication with people outside their geographical range, instantly get answers to their queries and so much more.
New and advanced tools always replace the old. Here conversational commerce has replaced postcards and face-to-face communication i.e automated conversational support provided by bots and voice bots like Amazon Alexa have ensued in supplying exceptional support and thus have gained a unique place in our lives. Well, it has its own advantage. Let me list some of them.
- People can communicate at the time that suits them.
- No geographical boundary limitation.
- Resolves the raised queries on the support help desk in seconds.
- Businesses can create their presence… and there are many more which we will further discuss in this post.
Conversational commerce is here to stay. Thus online retailers need to know what is conversational commerce? And how can it benefit their business? Let’s start the technical part of this post by explaining to you the definition of conversational commerce.
What Is Conversational Commerce?
Some additional information! 🙂
Chris Messina (in 2016) was the person behind the creation of the term Conversational Commerce. He is the man who introduced Hashtags to Twitter in 2007. He has been a true inspiration for millions and will continue to be…
In conversational commerce, communication takes place between brands/businesses and customers via digital platforms. The communication platform can be Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, Slack, Alexa, and Live Chat. If concise, all messaging apps that support AI can be utilized for business objectives. Conversational Commerce is a prime example of how AI is transforming retail. It’s Time to check the definition of Conversational Commerce.
Conversational commerce is two-way communication that occurs between brands/businesses using bots or voice bots in an attempt to automate the conversation so that businesses can close more deals and build a strong bond with their customers.
A conversation is always there- when a buyer asks for an offer, discount, customization for the dress on Instagram, or anything from the seller its’ been there from the time people started selling products and will be there until the end of this world. Here we end with the definition of conversational commerce. Now it’s time to explore the ways conversational commerce benefits online retailers. Let’s go through the benefits one by one!
How Conversational Commerce Help Online Retailers?
1. Establishes Strong Bond
You can’t create a bond until you form interaction with others. The greatest benefit of conversational commerce is that you don’t need to put too much effort into building a relationship with customers. Because… you enable your customers to reach you through the platform they like the most and provide them with the answers they were looking for!
For instance, if a customer connects with you on Facebook and completes his purchase, you can greet him with a thank you message and make him feel special.
2. Reduces Cart Abandonment Rate
Shoppers treat their cart page as a wishlist page. Unintentionally, they increase the overall abandonment rate of e-stores. The product abandonment can be because of several reasons- the main of them are- because customers want to compare product prices or maybe they don’t have a sufficient amount.
It’s a vile situation through which not a single online business wants to go through. Well, you can’t run away from your customers’ unusual behavior but you can still save your business using AI chatbot! Let me explain.
Suppose, you run an online fashion store. A customer browses for fashion stores and finds you on Google. He starts searching for his product(assume he is searching for a formal shirt). Ultimately, he finds the shirt he wants to have for his workplace. He adds the product to the cart but before completing his checkout he suddenly leaves the cart page.
This might be because he finds the product too costly, some additional charges, or wants to compare the product with the products of other sites. These are the primary causes but it can also include secondary possibilities like an important call from his girlfriend that he simply can’t ignore. 🤭
Here, using the conversational commerce interface Facebook Messenger, you can send personalized messages for the product being added in the cart after a few hours as a reminder call. With this, you can also increase the open rate of your messages- as the message appears as a notification on the users’ screens. The possibility that the user opens that message and completes his purchase is damn high. Thus by forming a simple conversation via Facebook Messenger, you would be reducing your cart abandonment rate.
3. Closes More Potential Leads
The time has changed, marketers of the present date are smarter than you or I can imagine. I am saying this because there was a time when store representatives used to wait until they finally got recognition from their customers- but now the sellers don’t favor adopting this marketing methodology. They know if they want to expand their business and maintain their roots in the market they have to reach the place where their customers invest their most time.
The customers of advanced technologies want quick responses and thus the most popular means of communication for them are messaging apps. In which Whatsapp rules the list as it encounters 1.6 billion active monthly users and followed by Facebook Messenger.
Except for messaging apps, customers also favor live chat handled by a well-trained chatbot or voice bots like Amazon Echo or Alexa. Well, businesses that are using chatbots are effortlessly converting potential leads into customers.
Let’s do a quick check on how they’re doing so!
Suppose, you want to give your house an all-new look and feel. You have prepared a list of things that need to be replaced without harming your budget. In order to give a new look to your house, you also wanted to paint your wall with soothing colors. And selecting the colors that suit your personality from a wide range of colors, trust me it isn’t that easy!
Dulux understands this and thus in order to help its customers, they have provided live chat support handled by a chatbot. Whenever a customer lands on their page, the bot is always there to help and guide the visitor. It also consists of the human takeover functionality in case the bot fails to resolve any of the queries raised by the customer. Once they are done with the searching part they can also complete their purchase within the chatbox. Thus they are closing more potential leads within seconds.
The work that includes hours of investment is completed within a few minutes, benefiting both customers and sellers. At every stage, the chatbot is providing an exceptional user experience that can’t be achievable through human support.
Similarly, if a lead approaches you through Facebook Messenger, you can automate the entire chat by integrating a bot in your Facebook Business Page and resolve queries in seconds to close more leads. Further, in this blog post, I’ll let you know how to connect you, FB Business Page, with a chatbot.
If you want to know in-depth about the tactics that can help you provide human touch at the same time gains more leads then do refer to the post on “How Chatbots Can Be Used In Lead Generation Strategies?” published by Satyam Mishra.
4. Removes Manual And Repetitive Work
Whether its an online retail store or offline- the thing that is consistent in both is its customer’s questions. Before the purchase, customers want to gain full confidence in the product you sell- and thus their questions never end. In such a scenario, your support team ends up solving the same query number of times- and you always hold a dependency on them.
It involves a lot of repetitive and manual work. It also creates an imbalance in your support members’ work-life and personal life as they are supposed to extend their limits and provide support whenever demanded by a customer.
But if you integrate a chatbot on your site or Facebook page, you can automate all the repetitive and manual activities. With a small training, you would be helping your support and protecting their health and keeping them away from stress.
5. Keeps Updated With The Current Order Status
When you order something, you keep on checking its status like a child no matter what your age is. Order tracking facility ensures customers that their product is on its way and going to be delivered within the specified time. Customers do want to get the ability to track their purchased products/services.
The e-stores that facilitate their customers with order tracking ability simply increase their customers’ purchasing frequency. Click to read the complete post on how the order tracking process can increase purchasing frequency! You can use Facebook Messenger to provide order tracking facilities to your customers. This kind of facility can help you maintain interaction with your customers.
6. Elevates More Positive Reviews
Before purchasing any product online customers always choose to go through the review section. Thus new customers’ purchases always get influenced by previous customers’ purchases. Customers provide their reviews only when they are satisfied with your services and the reviewing process involves fewer steps.
During a live chat, you can train your chatbot to ask for customers to review or after the successful delivery of the product on Facebook Messenger. But make sure the reviewing process shouldn’t involve multiple steps. It should be as simple and quick as you can offer!
7. Upsell & Cross-Sell Opportunities
Upsell and cross-sell strategies provide an opportunity to earn more by selling more products to the customer present at the checkout page. It’s proven, when a customer is about to complete its purchase and if you approach him with an upsell or cross-sell offer the chance that he’ll respond is 10X higher.
Whether your customer completes his purchase on live chat or Facebook Messenger you can show him the benefit of upsell/cross-sell product to earn more. For instance, when a customer is about to complete his purchase for mobile at that time you can show him the most purchased headphones as an upsell product. If the customer finds the deal attractive he will surely revert back and increase your sales graph.
After checking the benefits for online retailers let’s review the benefits conversational commerce provides to customers!
Not Just Ecommerce Retailers But It Can Benefit Customers As Well!
1. Reduces The Research Process
Before reaching the checkout page, we all have to go through the most tedious process only in order to have the desired product. AI chatbots help us in finding the most suited product by providing smart suggestions according to our tastes and preferences. Thus reduces the browsing process and saves a lot of time.
2. Provides Smart Recommendations
Chatbots just do not ask what you want but they also provide the best suggestions. If you’re looking for a mobile phone under 15000 then they will recommend the best product that simultaneously fulfills all your basic requirements. Not just this, but they can also suggest an upsell/cross-sell product that simply makes customers purchase complete.
3. Present 24/7 & Resolves Queries In Minimum Time
If you were surrounded by a flood of questions then you don’t need to look at the clock. You can open the chat whenever a question strikes your mind. You can ask as many pre-sale/post-sale questions as you want without giving a second thought. The cherry on the cake is that the answers are provided within seconds.
4. Provides Ease At Each Step Of Online Shopping
Customers want an enjoyable and trouble-free shopping experience. Live chat/chatbots/voice assistants just do the favor from the retailers’ side. Chatbots provide ease at each step to customers’ and when a customer feels appreciated then they do recommend your services to their friends. Thus by providing a happy and satisfied customer experience, you would be acquiring referral customers without that much effort.
Ways To Implement Conversational Commerce In Your Online Retail Store!
1. Live Chat
A live chat widget always appears at the bottom of the page to provide chat support 24/7. Customers can use the live chat widget to get instead of support without submitting a ticket on the customer helpdesk. This conversational business is being used by every store that is established online. Click to know the steps to inbuilt a live chat widget to your store.
2. Voice Assistant
Voice search is 3.7 times fast and easy. Trends say in the upcoming years’ maximum users prefer voice search rather than typing on the Google search bar. Read the post shared on how to implement voice bot to make your voice bot ready to provide a better user experience.
3. Chatbot
Chatbots provide fast-accurate responses without being dependent on the support team. My favorite among all is Facebook Messenger chatbots as they allow you to leverage the second most popular messaging app. Using Facebook Messenger bot you can automate all your work in a cost-effective approach to acquire more profit. Click to know the steps to create a bot for your online store. When you go through this post, you’ll also get to know how to connect your FB business page with a chatbot.
Finishing Lines!
Conversations are always there.. the thing is you never noticed it before! Use conversational marketing in your eCommerce business to gain more profit- as the future of conversational commerce is damn bright. If you think the same do and like this post, do comment and let us know your opinion.
If you’ve doubts about the steps or BotMyWork Chatbot Builder contact us at support@botmywork.com or Facebook community.
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