Conversational commerce & marketing. How can e-commerce benefit from AI-based assistants?
When we hear the word “chatbot”, customer service may be the first association. That is far from wrong! In previous publications, here and on our internal blog, we expressed the vast advantages of virtual assistant implementation for both customers and CS teams. Nonetheless, the ever-growing e-commerce market fostered a hunger for sales-related use cases. Our solution has lately grown extensively in this field. Based on our experience, let us discuss some noteworthy applications of virtual assistants in e-commerce.
Recovery of abandoned carts
Given that a virtual assistant does more than reply to simple user queries (hint: our does!), you may use it to increase the most vital e-comm metric — conversion. Imagine that a customer adds an item to their cart but does not proceed with the checkout process, known as cart abandonment. The virtual assistant can gently remind them after a few minutes that the product is waiting.
The same applies if someone starts filling in the delivery details but never places an order — this time, they abandon the checkout. What is crucial, our solution remembers this event — it does not have to pop a reminder straight away but can even wait until a user’s next visit. This way, conversational commerce may prove itself better than marketing automation practices.
Companies often inundate customers with emails regarding reviews, matching items or promotions, which fosters irritation and ends up being counterproductive.
The essence of conversational marketing is the timely catch — a user revisits our website with interest in our offer here and now, almost seeking a nudge to purchase. Conversation rates depend on the sector, fluctuating around 2–3%, according to Statista. Any improvement in this metric can yield immense financial gains for e-commerce store owners.
Up & cross-selling
There is this one brick-and-mortar store which you regularly visit, being able to count on the kindness of their crew. Your dearest shopping assistant already knows your preferences and recommends a timeless piece. Do you have a store in mind? If so, they did the job right! Now, envision transferring this experience to the virtual setting. It is no longer a daydream with the proper use of AI algorithms.
Our assistant is contextual and can recognize the category or product the customer is exploring. Based on that, it may suggest a complementary item, e.g. a perfect shade of eyeshadow for the chosen lipstick. If you render services such as travel insurance, the virtual assistant may also find a substitute, better adjusted to user requirements.
Notably, you may continue the purchase path in the chatbot window. An advanced AI chatbot will also help accommodate product size or parameters. It might even add a product to the cart on the user’s behalf. Online shopping will never fully mimic a traditional store, but recommendation scenarios may add a human touch to your digital journey.
Smart navigation
Staying with the example of an exemplary physical store, let us recall a situation where a shop assistant finds an item of your size under a pile of apparel. E-commerce may sometimes be just as hard to navigate with their comprehensive offer.
AI-based assistants can smoothly transfer the customer to a searched subpage or product. A solution may scroll to specific sections on a site, open dropdowns, or modals.
One of the features we are particularly proud of is being able to offer proactive support. It means that our bot detects that a user is struggling, e.g. through nervous scrolling or clicks, and suggests assistance based on the context.
If you can include historical purchase data, AI shopping assistants may further personalize the search results. It might go as far as dynamically adjusting website content to what the user is digging.
Conversational marketing
Marketing efforts translate directly to commerce excellence. Ensuring the correct target group receives the right message at the proper time should be just as critical as implementing sales features.
We may not surprise you at this point — a virtual assistant is also invaluable in marketing. There are several ways to introduce a chatbot in your campaign. If you send emails or SMS to your customers, you may place a magic link to your assistant there. When opened, it automatically starts a conversation on a related subject.
That might be an inventive way to display discounted products or special collections. You may also encourage the user to commence a chat on a selected topic and reward them with a promotional code once they complete the flow.
Remember, you can place your AI assistant on social media and messaging platforms. Providing a unified omnichannel marketing experience may help you increase brand recognition and consequently ramp up sales.
The list of use cases grows as fast as e-commerce does. These are the ones we found particularly gripping as ground zero. Stay tuned for more content from the conversational commerce field! Should you consider your deployment, drop us a line at marketing@action.bot or wisit our website: action.bot
