Why E-Commerce Should Use Chatbots in 2019

Why E-Commerce Should Use Chatbots in 2019

The use of chatbots on e-commerce has a significant impact on providing quick service and improving conversions for sales and marketing. Further, the innovation of artificial intelligence or AI has also been improved for the past few years. Consequently, Advertisers are struggling with having to keep up with the pace of its development.

Chatbots are software capable of simulating a conversation in natural language with people to execute specific tasks and answer queries. Following this, because chatbots use Natural Language Processing or NLP, they’ll be able to understand anything you say as well as replies accordingly.

Moreover, even though chatbots only look like a Question-Answering system from a technological point of view. The use of chatbots in e-commerce can be beneficial, especially for enhancing a user’s experience by simplifying it. Here is why e-commerce should use chatbots in 2019.

Also Read: S ​ uccessful E-Commerce Marketing Campaigns You Can Learn From

What Exactly is a Chatbot?

Source: incredbots.com Although a brief description has been provided to describe chatbots, there are still plenty of questions remained unanswered. Following this, it’s still quite vague how the advantages of using chatbots can be beneficial to e-commerce.

Chatbots are made up of either artificial intelligence or simple, scripted software that comprises of a set of predefined conditions, triggers, and events. These set of predefined conditions, triggers, and events automatically help stimulate interactions with the customers. Further, there are two types of chatbots, scripted and intelligent.

Scripted Chatbot

Source: etimg.com The scripted type of chatbot is the most basic type of chatbots. The way the scripted chatbot works is that the reply in conversions is set to have been predefined. Which means that whatever kind of question you have, as long as it contains a particular phrase, you will receive a programmed response.

The purpose of the scripted chatbots is to provide customer service automation such as purchasing an item or booking a room. Automated customer service processes reduce the cost of human customer support representatives and are available for 24 hours.

Intelligent Chatbot

Source: ordina.nl The intelligent type of chatbots comprises of artificial intelligence. The way the intelligent chatbot works is that it learns from the experience gained from each conversation. Further, the intelligent chatbots apply the gained insights to answer further questions asked by the user.

However, an intelligent chatbot cannot understand complex contexts or lead conversation.

Although, the best thing about this type of chatbot is that it’s more flexible with the responses it provides to a customer.

The Importance of Chatbots in E-commerce

Source: newgenapps.com Chatbots have become a significant trend in 2019 because of the continuous growth of artificial intelligence and the innovation of technology. Artificial intelligence is becoming more useful with regards to assisting the customers’ needs and wants to purchase products and services.

Although chatbots have been around for a long time, the rise of the improved chatbots has provided customers a more personalized experience. A more personalized experience means that people can interact with the chatbot efficiently.

For instance, you could ship packages using Amazon’s Alexa through FedEx’s new application, by merely stating, “Alexa, I’d like to ship a package.” Anything you command the chatbot will be learned and developed for future uses. Due to the learning algorithms of the chatbot, it will become smarter and more realistic over time.

The learning algorithm feature of chatbots is extremely useful in e-commerce, especially when dealing with customers regularly. Customers tend to face issues or have questions that can be

handed down to a chatbot to provide information and answers to customers more efficiently and effectively.

Another advantage of using chatbots for automated customer service is that it develops a better dialogue for every customer based on the history and the progress of the chat. In addition, chatbots are available 24/7​ which reduces the cost for human customer support, which can be very expensive over time.

Messenger Chatbot

Source: medium.com The social media platform Facebook is known for having Facebook Marketplace, where people can sell products and services to the local market. In addition to the Facebook Marketplace, Facebook also has Messenger, a mobile messaging application allowing users to send instant messages to friends or customers.

Although Messenger is connected to Facebook, it surpasses the number of active users because of the ​billions of users​ who only use the application for messaging purposes.

Following this, stores in the Facebook Marketplace can create a chatbot to help you ​sell your products and services​ through Messenger.

Further, the chatbot can be considered as your employee because it will work for you 24 hours a day, and seven days a week. You can also personalize your chatbot to be casual, goofy, sarcastic, or formal with a customer.

Another feature the Messenger chatbot has is it informs the customer if they can’t understand the question or request of the customer, and will pass the message to you. You can even set the chatbot to advertise your products by sending a group message to users that follow your store.

Takeaway

Source: tools.sap The competitiveness of the e-commerce industry can be challenging, especially with the involvement of the continuously changing technology. Keep in mind that a well-optimized

chatbot can be used as a powerful tool to boost conversions for your business. It’s better to start early using ​chatbots​ for e-commerce to engage customers efficiently and effectively.