Live chat is a game-changer for ecommerce stores.
Providing support to your customers in real-time can be instrumental in improving the shopping experience, driving sales, and boosting customer retention.
And the stats show that customers who message you via live chat have higher conversion rates, average order values, and LTVs.
Live chat also happens to be the most preferred customer support channel for customers.
But despite customer preferences, many ecommerce stores don’t use a live chat on their website.
So if you're one of them we thought it’s important to highlight the 7 biggest benefits of live chat for your ecommerce store.
Let’s get right into it!
Provide instant service to your customers
Purchase decisions are made in seconds. And a prompt response from you could be the difference between making a sale and losing one.
If a customer has questions about a product in a traditional brick-and-mortar store, you’d probably send over a sales assistant to address their concerns.
With live chat, you get to recreate the exact same experience for your online shoppers.
And not doing so could prove costly. 57% of customers abandon their purchase if they can’t get their questions answered quickly.
Simply put, most customers will find it easier to switch over to another store with similar offerings than wait to make a phone call or send an email.
A live chat allows you to be on-hand and provide instant service that prevents sales from slipping away.
Give customers a frictionless way of resolving queries
Imagine you’re at a store and ask about their exchange policy. And they ask you to go home and send an email for an answer.
You probably wouldn’t do it, right? Plus, chances are you may just stop browsing products and leave the store altogether.
Similarly, you don’t want to be sending your online shoppers to a different tab or platform to have their queries answered.
A live chat allows customers a simple and convenient way to contact you without interrupting their shopping experience. A live chat window is easy to spot and just takes a single click to start the conversation.
Plus you can use the same language used on the rest of your website that allows customers to continue the conversation without requiring any mindset adjustment.
Serve multiple customers at the same time
If we look at something like phone support, an agent can only deal with one customer issue at a time.
But with live chat, a single agent can talk to multiple customers simultaneously.
Plus you get an overview of each query and can decide in what order you’d like to tackle them.
Whatever the case, your customers are not stuck waiting in a queue and instead get their queries answered in a timely manner.
With 12% of customers stating lack of speed as their biggest frustration with support, this is a major pitfall that live chat can help you avoid.
Deliver personalized service based on customers’ shopping history
One of the biggest advantages of using a live chat is the ability to deliver personalized service to each of your customers.
If you use any of the top live chat apps for ecommerce, you’ll be able to view valuable customer information like:
- chat history
- purchase history
- the different pages they were browsing
- and the time spent on each of these pages
So for example, let’s say you notice a customer ‘stuck’ on your checkout page. You could initiate a conversation yourself and clarify questions related to payments, returns, etc. (or whatever issue they're facing) to help them complete their purchase.
Picking the right ecommerce helpdesk with a live chat will provide you with customer information that’ll save you from asking unnecessary or repetitive questions.
But more importantly, provide you with a lot of context about your customers. Context which you can use to deliver highly personalized suggestions and recommendations that result in an amazing shopping experience.
Save time with automation
We’ve already touched upon how live chat can help save the time of both your customers and agents.
And with most of the best Shopify live chat apps coming with powerful automation features, this is taken one step further. Most of these tools will have features that allow you to:
- Send automated welcome messages
- Help them find order tracking information on their own
- Use customized fast reply templates to respond with two clicks
- Set up automation rules that handle queries when they meet certain conditions
A large proportion of your queries are probably repetitive in nature. Ones related to order status, payments, and returns, etc.
But with the automation features most live chat apps come with, this can be handled on auto-pilot. Providing customers with instant resolutions and allowing your team to focus on complex tasks that require more attention.
Capture leads even when you’re offline
You already know that customers won’t only visit your store during business hours.
But at the same time, you don’t want to let leads slip just because you’re offline.
And you won’t have to with an after-hours form you can set up on your live chat.
It’ll simply prompt customers to leave their contact information and query. Which your team can respond to as soon as they’re back online.
Collecting contact information, even when you’re online, is the starting point for nurturing your relationship and converting visitors into loyal customers.
Measure how well your team is performing
To improve the quality of your ecommerce support, you’ll first need to understand how well you’re presently doing.
Most live chat apps come with reports and analytics that help track your team’s performance and provide you with data like:
- First response times
- Resolution rates
- Average handling times
- Performance of individual agents
- Customer satisfaction scores
This allows you to set a benchmark for your support performance. And following this up by doubling down on what you're doing well while also addressing areas for improvement.
Conclusion
So there you have it!
A live chat for your ecommerce store is an effective and economic way to improve the customer experience, differentiate yourself from competitors and ultimately boost sales.
It’s arguably the best platform for you to start a conversation and build trust with online shoppers. And these relationships are ultimately what’ll define the success of your ecommerce store.
If you need help picking a live chat tool for your business, we’ve broken the pros and cons of the 15 best ecommerce live chats apps to help make your decision easier.
