Buying has changed. It’s no longer limited to physical encounters, but it spreads across all online interfaces between seller and customer. One could say that e-commerce is not anymore a small curiosity alongside brick and mortar stores but an essential part of business in almost every industry. Nowadays, it’s not a choice whether you want to be online or not – at least, customer experiences are already there.
Now that buying has gone online, it’s understandable that customers want good and personal service also digitally. And because competition is tough, customer experience is what differentiates you from your competitors. An essential question here is how and with what technologies you could drive customer service in e-commerce into a more customer-friendly direction.
Chat adds concrete value for both the customer and the online merchant
At the forefront of digital solutions in e-commerce is chat, which effectively converts and creates the basis for good customer experience in both B2C and B2B markets. There are many reasons for this. In the chat, the customer can get specified product and price information as well as details that are related to the delivery. In this way, the amount of returns decreases. In the chat you can also provide the customer with adding products and take care of possible problematic situations and complaints. The degree of trust increases when the customer receives instant service tailored to their specific situation. Like this, chat supports extraordinary well the experience of having a real person in the online store.
The convenience of chat in e-commerce is also supported by the fact that many customers prefer first digital communication, before meeting the seller face to face. In chat, you can quickly ask questions and then complete your purchase in some other way. Or you can start shopping in chat and then finish the deal over the phone, for example. It’s not rare either that the whole buying process is entirely taken care of in chat.
Increase in conversion rate with the help of chat
One of the key benefits of chat in e-commerce is the increase in conversion rate. According to the statistics, the average conversion rate of a website is about 2% and according to the traditional belief, a good conversion rate is about 2-5%. If there’s a chat on the website, online visitors convert 4-8 times more efficiently.
With the help of chat, 10-50% of online visitors engage with the company. If done correctly, typically, a third of those should become a lead or in the case of e-commerce/SaaS sites, buy or sign up.
And of course, in e-commerce you have to remember mobile customers, because they convert, too. So make sure your chat is optimized for mobile devices.
Added value to E-commerce
In today’s digital everyday life, it’s not enough for a company to have a website. What matters is how the site supports the visitor’s customer experience. The benefit of chat in both B2C and B2B environments is that there’s a real, qualified person at the other end of the technology, serving customers in real time and with a personal touch.
Chat also supports the customer in every step of the buying process. Information search, decision making, paying and problematic situations are typical examples of situations where chat creates real added value. When we add fast, professional and personalized customer service, we are knocking on the door of a good customer experience.
And in order to open the door to good customer experience, it’s always good to consider what are the desired goals with chat. Do you, perhaps, want to improve customer service, increase the conversion rate or boost the sales? Once the guidelines are clear, the e-commerce chat can be utilized in the best possible way.
