The e-commerce industry is experiencing a boom in the 21st century with a massive surge in sales and profit. According to reports, the industry contributed around 2.4 trillion dollars to sales in year 2017 and is expected to reach the mark of 4.5 trillion dollars by year 2021. It was also concluded that the e-commerce platform benefits small retailers as they experience almost 30% increase in the conversion rates. Another survey claims that almost 60% of users shop using mobile devices and about half of them prefer interacting with chatbots for queries and buying purposes.
Chatbots are AI-powered computer software that simulate conversations in real world with human users in textual or speech form. With the advent of time, e-commerce platforms have emerged as favorites to incorporate this exciting technology to perform various customer-centric tasks.
Some benefits of chatbots in e-commerce include:
- Improved Customer Interaction
According to a study, it was claimed that customers expect a reply within 4 hours of registering a query. However, brands can take up a time of 10 hours while ignoring 89% of queries due to lack of resources. In such conditions, AI chatbot solutions emerge as the holy-grail as they make the interaction process quick and effective. They improve the brand-customer interaction by:
- Identifying customer requirements and conducting personalized conversations
- Analyzing previous actions and suggesting products
- Saving time while providing most efficient solution to the query
Chatbots act like virtual assistants that aim to provide excellent customer service and improve their shopping experience.
- Mass Message Delivery
Chatbots help in improving the whole communication process by reducing time lags. Since they are AI-infused bots, they can be used to send mass messages quickly across various platforms. This has benefitted the e-commerce brands the most as they can send personalized messages regarding discounts, special offers, etc. to their trusted buyers and increase conversation rate.
- 24×7 Availability
While traditional employee-led customer support can work for limited periods, chatbots are computer programs that are always available to customers, regardless of time. Their 24×7 availability assists the e-commerce platforms to communicate with the customer and resolve their queries in no time.
- Cross-Selling and Upselling
Cross selling is the process of selling additional products to an existing customer base while upselling is a sales technique that persuades customer to buy expensive products. Since chatbots are a part of artificial intelligence solutions, they are able to study collected data and work efficiently to surge sales. Brands can use chatbots to remind the customers about previously bought items and suggest them new products according to their likes.
Chatbots are one of the most effective investments that guarantee e-commerce businesses with substantial value and high returns. In such a scenario, AI chatbot solutions offered by the leading artificial intelligence service providers can aid e-commerce ventures to eliminate all physical barriers that hinder the brand-customer communication and generate higher profits.
