Chatbots are helping to make a big difference in the retail sector. They assist in paving a way to improve customer experience and business processes.
The main advantage of using chatbots is that they are versatile. They are able to go through activities and solve issues as quickly as possible. Since chatbots can also work 24/7, they’re able to answer customer questions any time of the day or night which proves to be beneficial to customer-centric businesses.
A recent report from Juniper Research said the adoption of chatbots across the retail, banking and healthcare sectors will realise business cost savings of $11 billion annually by 2023, up from an estimated $6 billion in 2018.
Industry verticals such as retail, banking and healthcare will cut costs by reducing amount of time spent on customer service enquiries.
Using chatbots, businesses will dramatically cut response and interaction times via phone and social channels. It forecast that consumers and businesses combined will save over 2.5 billion hours by 2023 in these sectors.
Research firm IDC recently noted that the market for intelligent conversational assistance is growing rapidly, fuelled by the use and acceptance of consumer tools like Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa.
Chatbot growth
According to 2017 worldwide Statista survey, 34 percent of respondents declared they would prefer to answer the questions from AI by means of a chatbot or a virtual assistant in regard to e-commerce.
In e-commerce, chatbots help businesses to serve their customers in a more efficient way by offering systems that allow people to find deals according to their preference. This is possible because chatbots come with a mix of natural language processing and machine learning.
Chatbots allow retailers to create a process of dynamic communication with users. Studies by Google show that 97 percent of consumers are using their phones while shopping for appliances to research for further information. When retailers incorporate machine learning in their mobile applications, providing chatbots as assistants, it allows for a wider audience reach.
Why chatbots?
Along with this benefit, chatbots need a smaller investment as compared to human assistants; to add to this, they also provide immediate assistance without the need for customers to wait for humans to answer their queries. This is because chatbots are functioned to cater to any number of customer requests and serve customers whenever they are needed.
Examples using chatbots include Sephora’s Virtual Artist and Estee Lauder’s Lip Artist. Both these systems allow customers to try on makeup by uploading a photo of themselves into messenger. They can select through a range of shades with a technology assisting them by recommending the right one in accordance with their skin tone. They can also quickly buy the product recommended by a simple click of a button or download the image to post on social media.
The chatbots used in online shopping are functioned in such a way that they display the products according to their search history or previous orders. They are able to associate customer’s preferences by simply going through their wish list and can easily satisfy them by helping them to find the products that they want.
Live examples
Sephora, by partnering with Kik Messenger and then Facebook Messenger in 2016 helped to increase the power of online shopping through smartphones. This is because the apps are being assisted by a virtual assistant that provides users with an experience that goes beyond mobile commerce and takes shoppers to the deals the want exactly.
For retailers, integrating a chatbot into a messaging platform decreases the problems that usually arise when customers need help. Moreover, chatbots being a relatively new tool makes users that much more curious to test such platforms.
Ebay is one example of a company who incorporates AI into its mobile applications. This makes way for a more personalized shopping experience for virtually anyone who has the app because the assistant goes through the shoppers wishlist and provides products and deals accordingly.
On 8 January 2018, Ebay partnered with Facebook Messenger to recommend holiday deals. Its virtual assistant ShopBot allowed customers to increase their personalized shopping experience by directing them to one of eight curated gift guides on the app. The system also allows shoppers to find what they want by simply telling the assistant what they want via text and pictures.
Jay Vasudevan, lead product manager of eBay states, “the mission of the bot is to make shopping with eBay as easy as talking to a friend, whether you are looking for something specific or just browsing for inspiration.”
Chatbots need a push
Juniper forecasts that improvement in AI, as shown recently by Google’s Duplex, will create a more personable user experience that would be fundamental in creating a ‘pull’ factor for chatbots.
Cost savings, up-selling, marketing and cart recovery will be the major chatbot push factors for retailer industry. Retailers will take advantage of these opportunities; propelling chatbot implementation and driving eCommerce transactions via chatbots to reach $112 billion by 2023, Juniper Research said.
With chatbots providing businesses with the potential to reach a bigger audience, the chatbot market is expected to reach $1.25 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 24.3 percent, according to a new report by Grand View Research.
Chatbots help boost sales because of the efficient workflow that has made an impact in every sector. Adding messaging app technology to a business will allow retailers to support buyers efficiently and personally.
Yadawanka Pal
