6 Proven Use Cases of E-Commerce Chatbots
Chatbots, much like live chat and CRM systems, are a must-have in e-commerce.
They help reduce cart abandonment rates while increasing your sales and conversions, much like an in-store assistant.
An e-commerce chatbot is also a “well-rounded” employee — much like a human agent, they can be programmed to answer FAQs, give gift buying advice and even upsell.
- What is an e-commerce chatbot?
- 5 irrefutable reasons why e-commerce businesses need a chatbot
- 6 ways e-commerce chatbots strengthen sales and support
- The best e-commerce chatbot examples
- Top recommended e-commerce chatbot platform
What is an e-commerce chatbot?
An e-commerce chatbot is an artificial intelligence (AI) tool designed to help customers with their shopping needs.
It’s compatible with websites, mobile apps and social media, and typically uses natural language processing (NLP) to understand and talk to customers.
5 irrefutable reasons why e-commerce businesses need a chatbot
Chatbots have been around in customer support before ChatGPT became a household name. Here are a few hard facts about chatbots, which show they’re ideal tools for e-commerce businesses.
- E-commerce chatbots save big money. Gartner predicts AI chatbots will reduce labor costs up to $80 billion by 2026.
- Chatbots give sales a good push. On average, businesses reported that chatbots increased their sales by 67%.
- An e-commerce chatbot helps more customers at one time. A live chat agent can help up to three customers at once, while chatbots can take on unlimited chats.
- E-commerce chatbots save abandoned carts. You can boost revenue from 7-25% with a chatbot on your checkout page.
- Younger generations prefer chatbot help. Gen Z and millennial shoppers prefer talking to bots first when it comes to website support.
6 ways e-commerce chatbots strengthen sales and support
- Answer common shopping questions
- Help find the right products
- Manage orders and accounts
- Promote offers and discounts
- Upsell products and plans
- Offer to schedule a live demo or consultation
1
Answer common shopping questions
Online shopping is such a casual affair…a little too casual. While it’s nice to have the freedom to scroll through products and compare prices to other sites in an instant, it also creates doubt and questions, which leads to changed minds and abandoned carts. This is where a chatbot can help.
A proactive chatbot can approach customers on product pages or at checkout to help with the shopping process. This can be fulfilling for both parties — customers don’t have to search your website for answers and you positively shape your brand image by being instantly available.
According to SuperOffice, 40% of consumers prefer self-service over human contact. We also learned in our consumer chatbot perceptions survey that customers would rather speak to a chatbot immediately than wait for a human agent. So in e-commerce, getting immediate help from a chatbot is ideal for keeping customers interested and engaged with your business.
2
Help find the right products
Jumpsuits in the dresses section, desk accessories in the tech section: sometimes the products we need are in unexpected places.
To help customers find exactly what they’re looking for, a chatbot can “quiz” the customer about their preferences and needs to make tailored recommendations. This can include asking about the occasion, their color preference, personal style, skin tone/type and measurements, problems they want to fix, ease of use — there are so many possibilities depending on your business.
If you sell software or a service, a chatbot could ask about the customer’s team size, budget, etc. to help choose the right plan. If your chatbot is connected to your live chat software, you can use the customer information you collect to build a profile, which you can also use in your CRM.
3
Manage orders and accounts
Tracking or making changes to an order are simple tasks that are more suitable for a chatbot, not your agents.
Chatbots, like Userlike’s AI chatbot, can check the status of a shipment or help the customer make changes to their order or account details. For example, Hermes uses their Userlike chatbot Bo to help customers track or redirect their packages.
It’s also more satisfying for a customer to quickly request a change in just a few words and button clicks rather than have a full conversation with an agent. This empowers your customers, and lets your agents focus on more serious inquiries and lead generation.
4
Promote offers and discounts
“Forget something? Enjoy 10% off your order if you finish checking out.”
Customers are familiar with these re-engagement emails because they’re highly effective. A report by Klaviyo revealed that businesses recovered 3 to 14% of customers who had abandoned their carts by contacting them through email.
Chatbots can engage your customer and lead to a sale before they even leave your website. For example, you can bring attention to time-sensitive offers and promote new items.
You can also use a chatbot to create a sense of FOMO — “100 of 150 available items have already been claimed. Want to check out?” or “This item is consistently rated 5 stars and is one of our top sellers. Want to learn more?”
If a customer starts the conversation with your chatbot, you could also “reward” the exchange by offering a discount at the end of the conversation — “Thanks for chatting with me today. Enjoy 15% off your next order: code”
The goal is to keep your customers on your website and prevent them from comparing prices. Chatbots can make an offer they can’t refuse.
5
Upsell products and plans
Most businesses just want a FAQ chatbot, but bots can do so much more. All it takes is the right script planning and calculated triggers.
If you connect your chatbot to your live chat, for example, you can set it to trigger after a visitor has spent a specified amount of time on a page. One idea is to use it on your plans page. The chatbot could share that x amount of customers are currently using x plan, and link to your reviews.
When a customer revisits your website or a specific page, your chatbot can use the customer’s profile and browsing history to make product recommendations.
Plus you’ll learn which services or products are hottest on your website, and can focus on promoting them more, plus any relevant add-ons or upgrades.
6
Offer to schedule a live demo or consultation
Chatbots collect customer information on the go, which makes them great lead generation helpers. But many AI customer service chatbots are also great at scheduling appointments when chatting just isn’t enough.
When choosing a chatbot, you don’t even have to look for a special chatbot scheduling feature — you can link the user to your online scheduling service at the most appropriate times.
Offering to conveniently schedule a consultation is also a great way to gain and qualify leads. If you use a lead scoring system, a customer’s interest in a demo or consultation automatically earns them qualifying points.
The best e-commerce chatbot examples
What does an effective e-commerce chatbot look like? Here are some companies who upped their sales game with automation.
Fissler
Cookware company Fissler uses their Userlike chatbot Cooky to help customers find product pages, answer shopping questions and more. It uses a combination of typed requests and button options to keep the chat going. Users can open Cooky at any time during their shopping experience or connect to an agent when needed.
Mailchimp
Though Mailchimp’s chatbot is tucked away under a “?” symbol, it’s fairly easy to access and is undisruptive. When you start a conversation, it “types” its responses, creating a more realistic conversation feel.
It uses a combo of written text and button options to keep the conversation going and offers help for both new and existing customers.
When you click on a topic, the chatbot shares button options for all the most popular relevant topics for this keyword. It’s clear a lot of knowledge base planning went into this bot, making it a helpful e-commerce assistant.
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Huawei offers an entire page dedicated to their Huawei Cloud chatbot. You can choose from a large variety of topics, whether you’re an existing customer or just looking to buy.
This is an unorthodox type of chatbot — it’s a hybrid knowledge base/bot that doesn’t leave room for much “conversation” but covers a wide range of topics. Its dedicated page feels more like a self-help section, but is so dense with good info and links that there’s little need to contact an agent.
It’s clear ample time was spent on this AI for their customers, which reflects well on the company.
Top recommended e-commerce chatbot platform
At Userlike, we are one of few customer messaging providers that offer AI automation features embedded in our product.
Our AI Automation Hub provides a central knowledge base combined with AI features, such as an AI chatbot, Smart FAQ and Contact Form Suggestions.
Your chatbot is managed like a human agent, and you can control it directly from your dashboard.
When a chatbot finds a lead or makes a sale, your agents have full documentation of it and can continue the nurturing process. Plus chatbot features such as carousels and in-chat media sharing helps with making visual purchase recommendations. In e-commerce, showing is just as important as telling.
In addition to our AI chatbot, we offer a Smart FAQ, which is a responsive self-service portal that helps customers resolve their issues quickly. You can pin popular topics to the top and ensure that customers receive consistent answers with every search.
We also offer Contact Form Suggestions, which attempts to answer the customer’s question before they write to your team. This reduces tickets and redundant inquiries, freeing up your agents’ time.
Our chatbot solution is built for e-commerce businesses like yours, so learn more about our intuitive solution by reaching out to us in the chat on our website or by emailing our team at support@userlike.com.
