How are AI Chatbots Changing the e-commerce Scene?
Chatbots are gradually transforming the contours of the e-commerce industry. They are constantly introducing new dimensions to different aspects of the industry, including proficient customer service, targeted sales, lead generation, customer retention and engagement. Artificial intelligence (AI) powered chatbots, programmed using Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) can prepare your business for the future of e-commerce. Infact, Forbes claims that 62% Of US consumers prefer the use of a chatbot to interact with businesses
This article will take you through the positive impacts of AI chatbots in the e-commerce domain and the possible future they hold in the world of online shopping.
How do AI Chatbots Function?
AI Chatbots are smart chatbots that can be programmed to learn from a training data set. They then use these learnings to provide the best possible response or formulate a plan of action for a query. AI chatbots can upgrade their way of handling a situation based on past experiences and interactions. Machine Learning technology helps chatbots gain experience from previous customers’ conversations and make smarter decisions. Through NLP, AI chatbots can hold smart, natural and relevant conversations with the consumer, giving them the feeling of interacting with a human agent. AI chatbots can be deployed on various mediums like websites, mobile applications, web applications, messaging and social media platforms.
10 ways AI Chatbots are Impacting e-commerce
Let’s take a look at how seamlessly an e-commerce business can function through the help of automation
#1 24/7 Customer Service
Unlike a human employee, AI Chatbots can be virtually present 24*7, 365 days of the year. They do not take “time off” and respond immediately to a customer’s query, irrespective of the date or time of the day. With a simple click of a button, consumers instantly lodge a complaint, provide feedback and reviews related to the service provided and check for ongoing discounts and offers. With the help of an AI chatbot, consumers always feel “heard” due to the short time taken to respond and the appropriate course of action suggested by the chatbot.
#2 Personalized Product Recommendations
AI Chatbots gather data pertaining to consumer purchasing patterns and suggest recommendations related to the same. A chatbot can either study a consumer’s likes and dislikes through purchase history and reviews to make the recommendation or even request consumers to take a quick survey to find out the offers and products that they are interested in.
#3 Omni-Channel Presence
An AI Chatbot can be integrated on various social media channels like Facebook and Instagram and serve as a smart marketing tool. A chatbot can help promote products, drive offers and sales, deliver relevant information and even attend to customer queries. They can re-direct consumers to the brands main page or direct them to actual human agents for further conversations.
#4 Multilingual Support
An AI chatbot is intelligent and can be trained in various languages. This ensures that the business extends its audience base and doesn’t miss out on a global customer.
#5 Lead Generation through Smart Conversations
A chatbot provides the customer with relevant information about the business. They engage with potential leads and redirect the conversation to a human agent once the lead shows interest in knowing more about the brand or they even schedule an appointment with the business on their own! AI chatbots ask relevant questions for leads to determine whether the e-commerce business is a good fit for their requirement. An AI chatbot can save on everyone’s time including the effort put in by sales executives, account executives, prospects and the business as a whole.
#6 Business Analytics through Insight Analyzation
AI Chatbots can analyze consumer interactions and buying patterns, along with reviews, feedback and even sentiments provided in text and emoji format to help business leaders make insightful decisions. Whether that be process changes or product changes- the data collected by a smart chatbot can help you make tweaks to your decisions and thereby stand apart from the market competition.
#7 Reduce Customer Service Costs
An AI Chatbot has to be trained only once. They do not take up physical space and can be easily integrated into any digital platform. This saves business cost in terms of employee hiring, training, office space allocation, allocating digital resources and even saving on monthly salaries! Instead, businesses are able to focus on hiring professionals for advanced business tasks as opposed to performing repetitive activities like booking appointments!
Forbes says that 77% of surveyed organizations agree that AI takes the load off human agents to deal with simpler customer service requests and gives them the scope to develop additional skills to deal with complex and higher-value customer inquiries
#8 Chalk out Marketing Strategies
Depending on market insights obtained through the data gathered by a chatbot, businesses can chalk out marketing strategies to keep consumers engaged. Analyzing a consumer’s likes and dislikes and introducing process tweaks to keep the consumer as the focus of any brand will always reap long term benefits.
#9 Balance Automation with Human Touch
Combining AI technology with a human touch helps brands deliver unmatched customer support capabilities. Chatbot can be integrated with live chat software to help consumers connect with a human agent when needed.
#10 Scalability of Support
An AI chatbot can give every consumer undivided attention as opposed to a human agent faced with several queries at a single point of time. A chatbot will ensure every consumer gets their queries answered on time and maximum leads are converted into paying customers.
Final Thoughts
AI Chatbots bring multiple benefits to both, consumers as well as the e-commerce business. Customers can be provided with excellent customer service, while the e-commerce business can gain higher Returns on Investment (ROI), potential to paying leads, consumer analytics for insightful business decisions and reducing customer support costs amongst many other advantages.
To help your e-commerce business thrive in the digital domain, you need a team of experts to help you with chatbot creation customized to your business needs. FargoWiz team of experts can help your vision come to reality through our thorough experience in this domain. For more information on how FargoWiz can help your business boom, visit our website at www.fargowiz.com
