Nowadays, shopping has drastically shifted to the online sphere of retail over the past year due to the coronavirus pandemic, creating a strong digital relationship for consumers, in lieu of brick-and-mortar shopping. In fact, e-commerce reached $408.51 billion in the first two quarters of 2021, up a staggering 21.9% from last year. To assist with the incoming amount of e-commerce related requests, AI-powered chatbots are becoming the reliable and commonly-used option as a way of the first contact point. Our e-commerce award-winning solution can help your company make the most out of the shopping experience.
What are the benefits of using Conversational AI for e-commerce?
With 57% of consumers saying they plan to do a majority of their shopping online this year, online retailers will need assistance maintaining and answering customers’ questions. The retail sector can greatly benefit from Conversational AI implemented chatbots, as they offer automated responses, round the clock support and omnichannel service, which all help boost customer satisfaction and retention, and increase company revenue.
Sales have drastically shifted online
The COVID-19 pandemic forced customers to purchase their goods online over the past year, shifting the traditional way of in-store shopping. With many restrictions still in place within stores and malls, it has become much more convenient to ship a product to one’s house and receive it within a matter of days than deal with the wait time of entering a store and hassling a long queue. Seventy-five percent of consumers have shifted their shopping behaviour during this time, and they continue to do so even after the pandemic. Thus, customers will rely on websites for their specific requests. Questions like, “Does this shirt come in a size large?” or “When will this toy be back in stock?” are able to provide automated responses via chatbot. Our bots have pre-trained knowledge from the start of day 1 and can effortlessly answer a website’s general FAQ’s.
When it comes to online shopping, 85% of consumers trust virtual assistants in answering FAQ’s, while 75% rely on help when choosing a product. Our AI hybrid solution offers automated processes and responses on different channels, making the online shopping process much faster and easier for customers while relieving the number of requests for your service agents.
Avoid employee churn and save costs with digital assistance
With an overwhelming amount of customer requests during the holidays, it’s common that employee service agents will feel the added seasonal pressure. Customers ask several typical yet individualised questions during the ordering process, such as “When will my package arrive?”. In order to avoid both customer frustration and employee churn, chatbots can assist in maintaining the vast amount of ordering and shipping enquiries that are received throughout the holiday season. Currently, 87% of shoppers trust virtual assistants with shipping and delivery updates. When customers’ needs are fulfilled, employees’ jobs are made easier and more pleasant. Customer satisfaction will thus be retained throughout the shopping process, and service agents will be able to focus on second-level requests while easing their workload, ultimately decreasing the churn rate.
As these general questions and FAQ’s get automatically answered, chatbots also help in saving costs for companies. With Conversational AI, it can reduce customer supporting costs by up to 30%. Digitalising assistance in today’s day and age is essential in boosting all-around workplace efficiency.
Customers expect excellent service, no matter the season
Massive sales, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are typically always a profitable success for retailers. Shoppers are eager to buy items on sale, but with corona restrictions, businesses must adhere to and transform the shopping experience. With 69% of consumers preferring a contactless holiday shopping season, businesses must have a plan assembled to manage these online sales. e-bot7’s solution offers ways to help the shopper’s journey, including a multilingual function and omnichannel service to increase efficiency amongst the influx of online sales.
Yet, even prior to the pandemic, Black Friday had started to begin a week earlier – and in some cases, at the beginning of the month in November – to achieve a strong Q4 to kick off the Christmas shopping season. With the overload of consumers online, retailers have to be prepared to handle online requests prior to December or November. As our bot is ready to process first-level requests upon integration, your business can be prepared for online sales regardless of what time of the year it is.
Conclusion
Be proactive with your retail business by integrating a chatbot into your system. E-commerce is expanding more than ever, and consumer habits and expectations are changing because of this. The functionalities of a chatbot are advantageous throughout the entire customer service journey, delivering individualised customer responses, producing lower churn rates for your employees, and generating a highly scalable solution.
If you’re interested in learning more about e-bot7’s solution, schedule a demo here.
