E-commerce is no longer just a sales process, but treats customers as socially distant individuals. You must be their community. It offers them a different unique experience.But not by imposing your point of view on them; instead, by building relationships based on conversations, or so-called conversational commerce or conversational commerce. The discourse of the whole world has nothing but dialogue, exchange, and discussion. This is the most important value of modern people.
Then you will no longer be able to start generating revenue for your online store unless you use chat; because communication is the tool that takes care of your customer from the very first stage when he comes to you from the search engines and stays with him until he makes a buying decision and becomes your permanent customer.
how? let’s go..
Why Conversational Trading?
- If the brand supported live chat, consumers would spend nearly $500 per month.
- 51% of consumers say they would buy again if an online store had a chat function and instant response.
- Live chat outperformed customer support across all brands by 41%.
I think it’s easy for you to conclude that the option to speak to customers is the first value customers look for when dealing with different brands. the reason is simple. You can read our articles: Live Chat Rooms in Ecommerce: Best Practices and Top Tips for Delivering Great Service and Consumer Behavior in 2023 to understand exactly why conversational commerce is one of the most important profitability tools for online stores.
If you’re still not interested in developing real-time customer interactions, note that 79% of brands report using conversational commerce to have a real impact on sales and revenue.
Why Conversational Commerce for Online Stores?
Your conversation with the customer makes him feel safe and that you are not just a seller trying to make money for your online store. It exceeds your expectations; a customer may be close to completing the buying process, and once you have a simple conversation with him, he will make a decision very quickly. I think we’re all in a state of extreme anger because something went wrong with an online store we purchased from, so if a brief conversation with customer service not only satisfies you, but buys again. We can use it to:
1. Fewer baskets left in the cart
It is common for consumers to leave shopping carts in online stores; an estimated 70% of consumers abandon their vehicles, primarily due to rising shipping costs. (Any other reasons? Find out in this article: Why do half of shoppers leave e-commerce sites and abandon their carts before checkout? )
You can easily solve this problem. When a customer puts a product in their cart but doesn’t buy it, support them by sending them a private message. (To help you further communicate with customers in this situation, you can read article on the importance of email reminders for abandoned baskets in online stores).
2. Increase the number of customers
As we said, live chat is the most important feature customers seek. You will never be able to attract potential customers or turn them into permanent customers unless you choose to live chat with them. and provide them with:
- Seasonal deals and discounts.
- Opinions from influencers and experts.
- Pre-order information.
If you are hungry for customers whose needs cannot be met by an online store, you can simply use conversational commerce with them.
3. Provide after-sales service
After the buying process is over, the customer expects you to support him and make sure he loves the product. There may be some problems, and there are some special products and services that require after-sales support to help customers use them. Customers expect it from you, easily and instantly, and that’s what conversational commerce delivers.
4. Collect comments and ratings
What attracts more customers and then consistent purchases and profits? Just another customer opinion; 93% of respondents said reviews of online purchases influence their purchasing decisions. After the live chat process, you can honestly get the opinions of your customers.
If you are still skeptical about the importance of customer reviews, then you must read this article: The Impact of Customer Reviews and Product Ratings on Consumer Decisions in E-Commerce Projects.
5. Provide product recommendations
Do you know what it means for a customer to buy a specific product from an online store? It means you are an honest brand to him and he can buy again. how? Your product or service may have related products or belong to a certain category, and when you have gained this trust from a customer, you can ask him to help him buy other products that are suitable for him. A customer increases his desire to buy through live chat as it gives him a sense of more credibility and engagement.
To help you further, you can read this article: Tips for getting the best product recommendations in your online store).
6. Build customer loyalty
Building customer loyalty is very difficult given the fierce competition between different online stores. The mechanism of real-time communication with the client gives you a comparative advantage to make him like you more than others. The customer doesn’t know exactly what he wants, all he wants is that you make him feel that you know what he wants, and there is no better way than conversational transactions. (The Importance of Gaining Customer Loyalty in E-Commerce)
Categories of customers who prefer live chat
It goes without saying that younger groups generally prefer live chat as a support tool. They are still in the infancy of life, finding themselves, forming relationships, and augmenting their experiences through others. Older groups, on the other hand, tend to use traditional methods, such as voice conversations over the phone. Overall, all customers prefer direct chat, young people prefer messaging, and adults prefer voice calls. Therefore, conversational commerce is critical to the success of an online store.
How does conversational trading work?
To understand how conversational commerce works, you must understand exactly what customers mean to you. Or, more precisely, what was his journey as he learned about your brand until he became a permanent customer?
With each step of his journey, you’ll learn exactly how conversational commerce works. You can find detailed steps through the article on our website: Customer Journey. Here we only mention the stage and how the live chat works within it:
1- Consciousness
A customer has a problem and he thinks your product can solve it. You can show him through live chat that you understand him and his problems in order to provide him with the right products and services.
2- Research
This is where the customer learns more about you, who remains in the dark about your brand and your online store. You can provide him with all the information and answer all his doubts via simple live chat.
3- Preferences
A customer is about to make a purchase, and you can help him make a purchase decision with a simple message, affirm his feelings and dispel his worries about the product.
4- Purchase decision
Customers at this stage hope to be recognized by the brand when purchasing their own products. Through pleasant and lively conversations, you can thank him for his correct choice. to maintain its existence.
5- Publicity
At the final stage of the customer journey, the customer will invite other customers to the online store, all you have to do is send real-time motivational messages and ask their opinion on services and products; feel part of the team. Simply put, conversational commerce is the customer journey; all you have to do is understand the customer.
How do you use conversational transactions?
We give you four ways to use conversational commerce:
- Chat online.
- chatbot.
- messaging app.
- voice assistant.
You don’t have to use every tool; your marketing plan and the context in which you’re speaking with your customers dictate how you communicate.
Challenges and Issues of Conversational Commerce
- Inhuman feeling: Use a bot in a live chat or messaging app with a customer to make it feel like he is talking to someone who fulfilled the order. As we said, customers don’t want a sense of security and engagement from live chat that can only be delivered by another human being.
- Data isolation: You may use different applications to communicate with customers, the problem is that you may not be able to transfer data between applications and some of them may force the customer to repeat what he said because of the data translation center of the applications. Definitely a frustration.
Always make sure to avoid disappointing your customers, it’s not always about being nice, it’s about helping them with conversational transactions, even if you don’t give them what they expect.