By
In the past couple of decades, the shopping experience has been evolving back and forth. Customers went from having personalized shopping experiences in stores to absolutely no human interaction in the rise of the eCommerce industry, then back to expecting a personalized shopping experience with someone to talk to and ask questions. This is where conversational marketing for eCommerce comes in!
Nowadays, you can’t be running a successful online store if you don’t use conversational marketing and offer tools that give that human touch. In this blog, we will shed light on everything you need to know about conversational marketing for eCommerce and how to use it to become the number one online store.
Table of Contents:
- What is conversational marketing for eCommerce?
- Top benefits of using conversational marketing
- Types of conversational commerce
- Top 5 practices in using conversational for eCommerce marketing
What is Conversational Marketing for eCommerce?
Conversational marketing for e-commerce is a powerful tool that can help businesses increase sales, build long-lasting relationships with customers, and create a more personalized shopping experience. It involves using chatbots, live chat, and other AI tools to engage customers in conversations about their needs and interests.
In a nutshell, the goal of conversational marketing for eCommerce is to create a more natural and engaging shopping experience for customers without the need for actual personnel. By using automated messaging tools, eCommerce businesses can provide customers with personalized recommendations, answer questions, and provide helpful advice. This helps create a more human-like interaction with customers, which can lead to your business having happier and more loyal customers!
While all that sounds great, you probably still need some more information before starting to use conversational marketing. So let’s take a deep dive into the top reasons why conversational marketing for eCommerce is essential for the success of your online store.
Benefits of Using Conversational Marketing
In general, conversational marketing for eCommerce can help businesses save time and money. As automated messaging tools can be used to respond quickly to customer inquiries and provide personalized recommendations. As a result, eCommerce businesses save time and money by reducing the need for customer service staff.
And the cherry on top, these tools respond in real-time, so you will never lose an angry customer because one of your reps is not on their desk or they took too long to answer!
Still need some convincing? No worries, we still have plenty to say!
In the business world, nothing speaks louder than numbers, so here are some important statistics you should know about conversational marketing for eCommerce.
- Chatbot engagements in eCommerce might be worth $112 billion by the end of this year.
- Almost 70% of customers prefer conversational marketing bots to real customer service representatives, as they allow them to get answers around the clock.
- Conversational marketing bots can answer 80% of routine questions.
- Shifting to conversational marketing bots can reduce your customer service costs by 30%.
- Over 50% of customers would repeat purchases from a business that offers a live chat.
Types of Conversational Commerce
Source: Freepik
Conversational commerce can take many forms, from simple chatbots that answer customer questions to more complex AI-driven bots that can provide personalized recommendations and even complete transactions. Here are some of the most common types of conversational commerce:
-
Chatbots
Chatbots are computer programs that use natural language processing (NLP) to understand customer queries and provide answers.
Also, there are social media chatbots that can be added to many of the popular social media platforms, including Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. Social media chatbots allow you to send personalized pre-approved answers to the most common questions you get on your social media accounts.
-
Voice Assistants
Voice assistants are AI-powered bots that employ voice recognition technology to interpret and respond to customers’ questions.
-
Messaging Apps
Messaging apps are mobile applications that allow customers to communicate with businesses in real time.
-
Virtual Assistants
Just like chatbots, virtual assistants are AI-driven bots that use NLP to understand customer questions and answer them on the spot.
To sum up, all of these tools can be used to answer questions, provide product recommendations, and even complete transactions.
Now that you know the what and why it’s time for you to know the how! Let’s take a closer look at how your business can successfully use conversational marketing for eCommerce to skyrocket sales.
Top 5 practices in Using Conversational Marketing for eCommerce Businesses to Increase Sales
There is no right or wrong way to start using conversational marketing for eCommerce, but the following tips and tricks can make you stand out from the competition, increase sales, and gain the loyalty of your customers.
1- Conduct extensive research
To conduct the right research, you need to talk with your customer representatives and sales team as well as research your existing client base. All this will help you learn the most frequently asked questions and pain points, so you provide the right answers in your conversational marketing tools.
2- Use the right platforms
There are a large number of conversational marketing platforms and tools. This is a two-edged sword, as you have many options to choose from, but that also means you can easily choose the wrong one.
Unfortunately, there is no cheat sheet for that; you can start by choosing some of the most popular conversational marketing for eCommerce tools and try them out till you find the one that works best for your online store.
3- Personalize
Personalizing is a crucial step in every step of your marketing efforts. This also includes conversational marketing. This is an easy step; most of the tools already have the personalizing option available. You just need to trigger it and wait for your sales to increase drastically!
4- Simple and straight to the point wins the race
One of the major advantages of conversational marketing for eCommerce AI tools is their ability to quickly understand and reply to questions. So ensure the whole process is simple and can provide customers with exactly what they want in the easiest way.
5- Ask for feedback and follow up
Constantly ask your customers to leave feedback about how their experience with the tools, and make sure to put their comments into consideration.
Also, it won’t hurt if every once in a while you reach out to your loyal customers by email or even phone to ask them how your shift to AI-driven tools is affecting their shopping experience.
By following these practices, your eCommerce business can leverage conversational marketing to increase sales and create meaningful connections with your customers!
Did you know that marketing operating systems can help you take your eCommerce business to the next level? Book a demo now with ConveredtIn specialists and learn how to become the number one online store!
