Having an ecommerce business means it is now time for you to expand and increase its growth.
Can live chat for ecommerce assist you in everything from delivering exceptional customer service to increasing your sales?
Certainly, it is possible.
Where should you begin your search for the ideal ecommerce live chat that suits your business?
This is the place!
We will provide you with comprehensive information about ecommerce chat and assess the top software options for your business, covering advantages, disadvantages, and pricing comparisons.
What is ecommerce live chat?
Ecommerce live chat software is a feature present on your online store’s website that allows you to engage in communication with visitors while browsing. Typically, it includes a chat button that, when selected, presents a messaging window for potential customers.
A live chat app can be beneficial as it assists shoppers with inquiries regarding your products or aids them in navigating your pages. Additionally, it can offer solutions to frequently asked questions and guide individuals to your knowledge base for more comprehensive instructions.
Having a live chat feature is essential for ecommerce customer service as it enhances the overall experience and fosters trust in your online store. Consequently, this can effectively contribute to boosting sales as potential buyers will perceive a higher level of assurance when making purchases from your site.
Your customer support team members are able to monitor the system, arrange inquiries, and guarantee that all questions and concerns are addressed, all thanks to ecommerce live chat. Additionally, ecommerce chat has the potential to boost your conversion rates at a faster pace than you may have anticipated.
Why is live chat for ecommerce important?
When online businesses first learn about ecommerce chat, they often wonder about its effectiveness. However, once they implement the chat box on their website and begin utilizing it, the outcomes are clear. They observe significant benefits such as boosted sales, enhanced customer satisfaction, and time saved.
Using ecommerce live chat software for your online store is crucial due to the following factors:
- Saves time for you and your clients
Surprisingly, waiting on hold ranks as one of the main sources of client frustration in customer support, affecting more than 33% of shoppers. Additionally, approximately 50% of buyers opt for online chat over other customer communication channels.
You can reduce customers’ waiting times and handle customer queries more effectively by utilizing ecommerce live chat support. Your support agents can attend to multiple inquiries at the same time and access the customer’s history to resolve issues faster. Additionally, certain live chat software offers chatbots that automate ecommerce processes and further enhance your team’s efficiency.
- Converts visitors into leads
Adding live chat to your ecommerce platform offers the advantage of boosting lead generation and checkout rates. When equipped with chatbot capabilities, live chat can convert approximately 4% of website visitors into potential leads. By incorporating pre-chat forms and lead-generation bots onto your website pages, you can leverage this feature effectively.
When it comes to increased sales, more than 79% of businesses claim that incorporating live chat has had a positive impact on their customer loyalty, revenue, and sales. Incorporating live chat on your website could potentially be the simplest method to enhance conversion rates, taking less than two minutes.
- Provides valuable insights
Collecting customer insights typically involves obtaining contact data, tracking visited pages, and assessing customer satisfaction. Implementing pre-chat forms enables the collection of this information. Additionally, the pages visited by the customer can be automatically displayed on their profile upon contact. To further gather customer feedback, surveys can be incorporated at the conclusion of each chat interaction.
Why is this beneficial? Well, to begin with, a majority of shoppers (specifically 89%) desire the ability to provide feedback, and asking for their input can result in approximately 77% of buyers forming a more positive perception of your brand. Enabling individuals to express their thoughts is appreciated, hence ensure they have the chance to voice their opinions. By storing their information, you can subsequently enhance their future encounters with your store for an improved experience.
- Helps with proactive customer support
Reaching out to shoppers and sending follow-ups can result in a return on investment (ROI) of over 105%, making proactive chat crucial. Therefore, by leveraging the chat service, you can quickly witness the payoff of your investment.
Furthermore, proactive communication is highly valued by customers. The experience is deemed satisfactory by approximately 94% of clients who are approached without their prompt. Consider this – wouldn’t you appreciate it if a business initiated a conversation and ensured your well-being without any prompting?
Are you anticipating the presence of a chat widget on an ecommerce website? If so, you belong to the 41% of customers who anticipate the inclusion of live chat functionality on a business site.
Not only do they enjoy using it, but approximately 82% of customers express satisfaction with their live chat experience, whereas only 61% of shoppers are content with their email interaction, and merely 44% of clients have found pleasure in their phone communication.
It is important to keep in mind that a satisfied customer directly contributes to a successful business. This is demonstrated even more strongly by the fact that 91% of customers are more inclined to engage in future purchases with your brand following a positive experience.
Which software should be used to experience all the advantages of live chat for ecommerce?
Shall we discover?
8 best ecommerce live chat for your store
It is important to select a solution that meets all the necessary features for your business, fits within your budget, and possesses a user-friendly interface. Numerous live chat software options are available for ecommerce stores, some of which even offer a free plan. Hence, even start-ups can leverage chat on their website to foster business growth.
Below is a comprehensive table comparing the top-rated ecommerce live chat software options.
So, let’s now take a closer look at the comprehensive evaluations of each ecommerce live chat solution.
Tidio
Tidio provides a chat system with chatbots to enhance customer engagement and boost sales. It also offers a shared inbox for managing communication from various channels like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and your website.
In addition, this live chat feature in ecommerce gauges customer behaviors and satisfaction, allowing you to receive comprehensive reports on your outcomes. Moreover, it facilitates reaching out to visitors, delivering proactive customer service, and reducing instances of shopping cart abandonment.
The primary characteristics are:
- Ecommerce integrations with platforms including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce
- Multichannel shared inbox to respond to all your customers from a single place
- Visitor notifications to provide proactive customer service
- Website visitors’ live view to see pages they visit
- Mobile app for iOS and Android to provide customer service on the go
- Visitor profiles with information such as location, contact details, and visited pages
LiveAgent
IveAgent is a helpdesk that is open-source and can be integrated with various social media and messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Slack, and Viber. It provides voice integration, email piping, and email templates as well.
From a single system, this ecommerce chat assists your agents in managing and prioritizing tickets. It offers a ticketing system to enhance task organization and expedite query resolutions.
Advantages:
- Spam filters to protect you from phishing attacks, scams, viruses, and malware
- Role permissions and settings to manage the accounts effectively
- Centralized ticketing system to organize and resolve inquiries in one place
Drawbacks:
- Some reviewers state that the UI design is outdated
- Limited integrations with other platforms
Gorgias
Dedicated to ecommerce businesses, this CRM software offers a shared inbox workspace that enhances efficiency in client interactions by accommodating all chat agents.
With an impressive range of analytical features including social media sentiment analysis for gauging user opinions about your business, this live chat software for ecommerce is regarded as one of the top choices. Furthermore, it seamlessly integrates with popular platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento.
Advantages:
- Seamless integration with ecommerce platforms, such as Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce
- Advanced analytics like social media sentiment analysis
- Marketing chatbot templates available
Disadvantages:
- Only suitable for ecommerce businesses
- Reviewers report technical difficulties caused by frequent system updates
Tawk.to
This live chat offered by Tawk.to is ideal for small businesses and start-ups as it is free of charge. It allows you to track the actions of your website visitors in order to offer customized and timely assistance. Moreover, if you require prompt customer service, you can hire agents by the hour directly from the Tawk.to platform. Additionally, you can access this live chat feature on your mobile device as it is compatible with both iOS and Android apps.
Advantages:
- Multilingual with over 45 language translations available
- Fully customizable chat widget
- Real-time view of website visitors and data on how often they visit your site
Disadvantages:
- Some reviewers report inconsistent notifications about messages
- Limited reports
LiveChat
This helpdesk, as its name suggests, specializes in providing customer support through live chat. It is most suitable for medium to large enterprises who will benefit from the informative reports concerning the performance of individual agents and customer satisfaction ratings.
With this ecommerce live chat software, you can improve your customer communication through features such as a ticketing system, customizable chat widget, and ready-made responses. Additionally, it offers a self-service tool for visitors to easily schedule appointments with you.
Advantages:
- Chat supervision to overlook interactions with your customers
- Canned responses, product carousels, and message templates with buttons
- In-chat customer satisfaction surveys and chat ratings
Disadvantages:
- Technical difficulties with the mobile app
- Limits on the number of customers in queues, additional requests redirected to other channels
LivePerson
LivePerson is highly favored by Fortune Global 500’s largest e-commerce companies as the leading live chat solution. Specifically designed for larger businesses, it prioritizes the provision of advanced functionalities to cater to the needs of more discerning customers. It offers diverse possibilities for incorporating your business chat with various mobile communication channels, such as integrating with Facebook Messenger, SMS, or effortlessly implementing chat into your business’s mobile application.
E-commerce businesses can benefit from some of the advantages offered by LivePerson.
- Co-browsing functionality, allowing for guiding a visitor remotely through your store, while chatting
- Integration with mobile applications letting you set up a live chat option at your company’s Android or iOS application
- Integrating with your phone’s SMS system, letting you reply to chats quicker, using simple SMS messages
- Connecting your chat with iOS interface, letting Apple Maps users chat directly when they find your business on their iPhones [currently in beta mode]
- Adding a chat button to your AdWords campaigns increasing the chances of contact from the customer
UserEngage
UserEngage is a comprehensive software solution that combines CRM, live chat, and marketing automation features, catering to businesses of all sizes. With its user-friendly drag & drop editor, you can access a range of creative templates and create personalized chat boxes. By encouraging team members to fill out their short biographies, visitors gain insight into who they are engaging with, enhancing the conversational experience.
UserEngages features for e-commerce businesses
UserEngage offers a range of beneficial features for e-commerce businesses.
- Catching hot leads by analyzing visitor’s behavior, building customer profiles and sending required details to an assigned agent who contacts the visitor with a personalized inviting message
- Creating a visual pipeline canvas that gives you a clear view of your current situation and organizes the sales team and their activities
- Analytical tools that later create reports monitoring the progress of your business
- User tracking – UserEngage creates a profile of each user that includes all information about the events performed on a given website and provides a timeline of all interactions + later stores this data in one location in pre-selected logical units
- Sending follow-up email campaigns – requests for review or reminders to those who have added products to their cart but have not bought them
Chatra
Chatra is a live chat solution that is both simple and user-friendly, offering a free plan for individuals and a paid version for those requiring multiple agents. It is particularly beneficial for small and medium businesses due to its useful features. Chatra also provides integration with popular platforms like Slack and Google Analytics and possesses mobile iOS and Android apps for convenient customer response.
Chatra features for e-commerce businesses
Included in Chatra’s offerings for e-commerce are a range of useful features.
- Event and goal tracking with Google Analytics automatic integration
- Insights of what visitors are typing – it allows the agent to prepare answers in advance and provide faster help
- Screensharing via Median app – a real-time view of what your customers are doing on your website
- Group chats – in case of a more complicated issue many agents will be able to simultaneously chat with one client
- “Cart saver” option available with Shopify integration – helps closing deals by sending automatic messages to those who have put products in the cart and left without completing the order
- Conversation history is kept forever both for you and your customers – a visitor can continue the conversation even if they go to a different page while chatting or if they leave your website and come back later
…how can a live chat help your e-commerce business?
Quick communication
Live chats are highly effective in reducing the time required to contact your existing or potential customers. According to 79% of customers, live chat is their preferred support channel due to its immediate nature. Rather than sending an email, a visitor exploring your store can directly reach out with any queries about delivery, specifications, or alternative products. Additionally, this does not have to be a one-sided conversation initiated by the customer. By setting specific triggers, you can swiftly address the most common questions your customer may have on a particular sub-page. For instance, you can ask the customer about estimated delivery costs if they spend more than 10 seconds on the product page by simply setting the trigger to display a chat message at the opportune moment.
Gathering data
A chat installed on your website offers an important advantage in terms of the analytical engine it includes. It enables you to gather insights on visitor behavior, such as the example shared by CartHook in the video where customers left the website upon viewing the “About us” page. This realization prompted CartHook to prioritize building website credibility and ultimately increase customer purchases. Live chats not only provide behavior analysis but also provide immediate access to visitor data, allowing you to differentiate between repeat customers and first-time visitors to your landing page, which can be crucial.
Optimization
It is insufficient to merely gather and analyze data; one must leverage it and implement strategies that will effectively convert valuable insights into increased sales. There exist various methods to optimize your store based on the collected information. Could you provide some instances?
- Do you tend to get the same question from every 2nd customer who’s chatting with you? Maybe you should optimize the information on your product page or add this question to your FAQ to save your and your customer’s time?
- A visitor abandons your website as soon as he checks the availability of other color options? Maybe you should extend your offer with new colors?
- A visitor abandons the cart after visiting your “About me page”? Maybe you haven’t paid enough attention to building the credibility of your brand? Why don’t you put the photo of your team to the “About me” page so that your visitors know there are real people behind the store?
Increase in customer’s loyalty and satisfaction
The studies on the effect of live chat software on visitor behavior show that it greatly influences customer actions, loyalty, and satisfaction. Live chats are associated with the highest customer support satisfaction, with 73% of users satisfied with this service compared to 61% for e-mail and 44% for phone support. This preference for quick responses is not surprising. Additionally, the study suggests that live chat support can impact customers’ inclination to purchase, with 47% of online shoppers more likely to make a purchase if they can speak to a live online assistant. Furthermore, 63% of respondents express a higher likelihood of revisiting a website that offers live chat support, indicating that it can effectively enhance visitor loyalty.
