Chatbots have grown immensely from simple programs which can answer a list of queries to understanding and answering even the most complex questions. eCommerce has also been topping the growth charts for any of the industries, and online retail is also known as the best thing that has ever happened to retail. With both technologies advancing so fast, one has to wonder about their combined uses, and so we came up with this blog.
Chatbots had already played a massive role, even when the technology wasn’t very capable. Now, things have changed to chatbots being an essential part of eCommerce. There are so many benefits of chatbots in eCommerce that we had to prepare an entire list. In case you are wondering if you should or shouldn’t invest in chatbots, you will be in a much better place by the end of this blog. So, let’s get started with what chatbots are and move on to the benefits of chatbots in eCommerce.
What are Chatbots?
According to the definition by Oxford, a Chatbot is a computer program that is made to simulate a conversation with human users, mostly over the internet. While the definition stands correct, the spectrum of conversation has increased, and so have the other capabilities of this computer program.
NLP software development has brought one of the major impacts on chatbots. Earlier, chatbots were limited to pre-written queries, but they can now understand what the user wants and act accordingly. Your conversational AI developer wouldn’t have to limit themselves anymore; with AI and NLP taking over, chatbots are more capable than ever.
Top Ten Benefits of Chatbot in eCommerce
Reduces Dependence
With eCommerce, the typical 9-5 won’t work anymore. While it may already be difficult to operate during odd hours, finding support teams can be much worse. Chatbots take off a major load from human support staff and answer generic queries on their own.
Chatbots reduce dependence on support staff and can upkeep most user requests on their own. When needed, the chatbot can route the query to human staff and move on to assisting another customer. The whole support system is more independent with Chatbots.
24/7 Availability
A chatbot is a computer program it can run 24/7 for 365 days without breaking a sweat. For a global eCommerce business, there are multiple timezones to support; while one couldn’t imagine doing it, chatbots make it possible.
Chatbots can be customized for audiences from around the world and help them with their queries. As a simple example, a chatbot could easily be integrated with couriers of a particular country, while the support won’t be able to fetch information for completely different locations.
No Personal Bias
There are no pre-set biases when a chatbot operates; however, you can introduce the ones that could help provide personalized support. Human support might be inclined towards a product when making a recommendation, but a chatbot works solely on analytics and presents the buyer with facts.
A chatbot also doesn’t have any emotions or sentiments (more on this later), so it couldn’t possibly offend anyone. No personal bias also has uses outside of support, especially in cases where a fair resolution is required, and a human’s judgment could easily be clouded.
Brand Consistent Tone
No matter the amount of training you provide to your support staff, they can never match the consistent brand-specific tone of Chatbots. Your conversational AI developer will make the chatbot specific to your requirements, so you can always set the tone to reflect your brand.
Not only would this benefit your business, but also your brand. People are now more oriented toward customer service, and while some may not like chatbots at all, others would appreciate the consistent tone. Always make sure to put it as your requirement, and ask the developer to ensure the tone remains consistent for all use cases.
Multi-Language Support
Considering you opted for multi-language support while opting for eCommerce development services, you would need support for multiple languages too. While you would still need human staff for the said language, chatbots can take the majority of the load off.
You can get your chatbot to support 100s of languages and make do with a much smaller team of support staff for the given language. This lets you deliver better support and ensures a much wider reach and acceptability across the world.
Extended Knowledge Base
Chatbots have an extended knowledge base when built to process information. Your AI development services partner could ensure the chatbot has answers to every possible query. The extended knowledge base would far surpass any human’s, ensuring no questions go unanswered.
You do have the option to customize everything here, and if you want your chatbot to give specific answers for a set of queries, you can program it too. Your NLP software development partner can map answers to queries of your choice, so the chatbot would remain in specified purview when acting independently.
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis is a less explored functionality you can add to a chatbot. But once perfected, it can completely change the game for your eCommerce website. Sentiment analysis allows the chatbot to know if the user is angry, happy, or feeling any defined emotions.
Based on the above information, the chatbot can answer queries based on how the customer feels. This show is empathy can act wonders for support and is usually why customers prefer human support. If you can implement it perfectly, people would absolutely love the chatbot support your eCommerce business offers.
Data Gathering
A well-built chatbot can be used to gather data across the website and for the support a user seeks. While not many are exploring it, the data generated from the chatbot conversation can be used in multiple ways. If a user enquires for a larger size, you can use that data to decide future production decisions.
The majority of data can be reused to make important business decisions. If you are interested, you can ask your online shopping app development company for the possibilities related to this.
Support Mapping
The chatbot could easily double as a support mapping system, where queries are assigned much more responsibility and with every metric in mind. While chatbots already boost efficiency and are extensively scalable, these capabilities improve the entire ordeal.
You would be able to analyze who could wait a few more seconds and push angry customers to human support first. While it may seem theoretical, discuss it with your AI development service provider for more details. This feature could help you reduce the majority of your support spending when implemented perfectly.
Scalability
A chatbot could serve 1000s of users at once, without any lag or delay in responses. While customer support executives could handle 4-5 queries at max at once, and that too without dropped efficiency, a chatbot program could handle any given number of users.
The limitations to these benefits are none; chatbots can access the full information and provide the same level of support to every user. You may need to invest some more money in cloud services or servers, but it is usually a much lower investment compared to hiring 100s of support staff.
Ready to Get a Custom Chabot for Your eCommerce Business?
We hope we were able to clarify your doubts about the benefits of chatbots in eCommerce. The above list wasn’t exhaustive, as you can count as many benefits as you can imagine. We believe the technology is still in its infancy and could make it much bigger in terms of how we perceive customer support.
We can do it for you if you plan to take your eCommerce business to the next level with a custom chatbot. Our Chatbot development services ensure you can make the most of your investment while getting the best possible features. Contact us for a free consultation on the benefits of eCommerce chatbots and how they would suit your business needs.