eCommerce Live Chat: Benefits of Live Chat for eCommerce

Convenient for both businesses and consumers, eCommerce live chat addresses customer pain points instantly, allows for cross-selling and up-selling opportunities with personalized product recommendations and decreases shopping cart abandonment by answering customer inquiries promptly. Keep on reading to uncover some more benefits of leveraging live chat for your website.

Way back in 2014, our Owner and CEO Ethan Giffin interviewed Ben Congleton, the CEO of Olark. Comparing the though processess of last decade to that of today's is sure to be a treat for all readers.

How eCommerce Live Chat Benefits Brands & Consumers

1. Immediate customer service
2. Open line of communication
3. Control who sees the chat box
4. Track feedback and report on metrics
5. Gather customer inquiries 24/7

Immediate Customer Service

Brick-and-mortar stores have associates that help shoppers find what they're looking for. Similarly, online brands use eCommerce live chat to provide prospects, leads and customers with immediate service at their fingertips. Though it's more challenging to converse with a customer service representative through live chat than in person, effective live chat tools give shoppers access to a real person as soon as they need help.

This prompt response from brands helps online shoppers find what they're looking for and accelerates the purchasing process. For example, if a person browses a website and cannot find the total cost of shipping for a particular product they're interested in, they can simply message a representative using live chat to find an answer to their question. Give your customers a better overall experience by answering their questions instantly.

Open Line of Communication

Unlike being on the phone or face-to-face with an employee at a brick-and-mortar store, eCommerce live chat lets customer service representatives speak with multiple customers at once. This open line of communication makes it easy for individuals to respond to customer inquiries more often. Invest in a live chat app with valuable features that enable representatives to respond and don't leave online shoppers waiting to get the answers they're looking for.

Control Who Sees The Chat Box

Controlling the pages in which visitors can see the chat box is a huge benefit for eCommerce brands. Search for and invest in a tool that has intricate targeting features, so you can display the chat box based on web page, time a person spent on a page, demographics and much more. Depending on your strategy, you may want to hide the chat box on various areas of your website.

It's common for brands to want to show the eCommerce live chat button to customers who are about to complete a purchase, like on the shopping cart page or checkout page. International companies may want to target their live chat options to specific countries to better gather customer feedback in certain geographic locations. The list goes on; there are many strategies to hiding and displaying the chat box to cater to customers' needs. Just remember that this button is the most valuable to customers who need specific information in order to make a purchase.

Track Feedback And Report On Metrics

One of the most important metrics to track and report on is the total number of chats, response time and satisfaction with the chat feature. First, determine your industry's benchmark to have a better idea of where your company lies in correlation to the industry average. Then measure the effectiveness of your team's use of the live chat tool. If your metrics fall below the industry benchmark, re-evaluate your strategy and the way that you're using live chat.

Further, live chat is a great place to track feedback from your audience. If you receive the same questions over and over again about a certain product, it may be time to make a decision about the information that's on that product detail page. If there's inconsistency in the language used on your website and notice that live chat inquiries often describe products or services using different verbiage, consider evaluating the copy used throughout your website to ensure consistency and avoid confusing visitors.

Gather Customer Inquiries 24/7

Whether you're using a chat bot to engage with customers in the hours your store is closed or want to gather customer inquiries when your customer service team is unavailable, create a form. Forms let businesses gather shoppers' information and inquiries when the real team of people are off the clock. In this instance, the live chat button is swapped with a form that lets shoppers type a message about the issues they were experiencing. This way, businesses capture all potential customers even during their off hours.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many benefits to using eCommerce live chat. If you want to implement this functionality on your website, get in touch with our team by filling out the form below. We'll be happy to assess your specific website needs, learn more about your company's eCommerce goals and discuss with you how Groove Commerce can help you leverage live chat functionality.