Successful ecommerce marketers are always looking for the next big thing. And getting in on a new marketing technology before your competitors can give you a crucial edge.
But too many well-intentioned store operators fall into the three-step trap.
- Find a new trend that could help grow your business
- Get to work on integrating it into your processes
- Find a new trend which pulls your attention away from the half-implemented action, beginning the cycle again.
You end up jumping from trend to trend without ever really putting the time in to master them.
It was email marketing then social ads, and now the conversation has turned to…conversations.
Conversational commerce has arrived in a big way.
According to recent customer research in four major markets, up to 85% said they’re already messaging businesses, and 75% said they expect to use messaging to make purchases in the future.
This trend isn’t going away. In fact, it’s just getting started.
But before you jump onto this trend, you need to look at the options within conversational commerce and how best your brand can use it.
To help you do that, let’s first break down the most common ecommerce business models. For each, we’ll get into the meat of which conversational solutions are best suited.
And then we’ll look at some real-world examples and discuss how to leverage the right solution to take your sales to where you really need them to be – at the multi-million dollar level.
Read on to discover which solution is worth investing in for you.
Ecommerce business models and the best conversational solutions for each
Subscription model
Margins are low with subscription businesses, especially the subscription box business model. A low price is usually necessary to attract customers.
Thing is, churn rate for subscription businesses is huge. B2C brands can expect an average 7.05% churn rate every month.
That means for positive growth, you’re going to need to grow your subscribers by a minimum of 8% every month.
One of the most effective ways of reducing churn and attracting new business is to offer better customer service.
And there’s nothing better for customer service than live chat.
Live chat
Adding a chat element to your landing page is a great way to engage with customers and quickly give them the support they need.
A 2019 report put the global satisfaction rating of live chat at 82.26%, far higher than any other channel.
The chat can be with a live agent or a bot, or a combination of the two, as long as it gives the user the required information.
BarkBox is a subscription service for dog-lovers, supplying a monthly box of doggy treats, toys and accessories. The brand relies on a warm, personal touch, so they’ve opted to have live chat agents available from the landing page. They use a conversational tone and lots of dog puns to engage with dog lovers specifically.
You can see the problem here though:
This is not good.
It defies the object of having a live chat option if the conversation never gets started.
In this instance, it would be better for them to have an automated flow to at least capture the user’s name and query while they wait. And then send them to a live agent when one is available.
But it’s a good example of how to integrate a conversational element into your subscription service landing page to boost engagement.
Automated FAQ flow
Looking at numerous subscription services sites, they all have a pretty extensive FAQ. This makes sense as there are always going to be questions and objections to overcome before someone signs up to a recurring payment.
And 91% say they would use an online knowledgebase if it was tailored to their needs.
Usually, it looks something like this one from coffee subscription service Trade:
Clicking on each of these questions take you through to a separate page with the answer. Having users wade through long, static pages like this is unengaging and impersonal.
Dollar Shave Club (DSC) is a great example of how to implement the subscription model. DSC introduced a conversational way to browse its FAQs. Scroll halfway down the landing page and a box pops up in the bottom right corner.
Although the offer could be more compelling and on-brand (eg. Any questions?), once you click on Help, you enter a conversation:
It then offers the chance to ask another question, get in touch or speak to a live agent.
The conversational FAQ holds the attention much better and keeps you on one page, minimizing the chance of drop-off and maximizing the chance of a sale.
This also demonstrates the winning combination of an automated flow with the option of a live agent. This gives the visitor the choice which is always a good thing.
Leaving the simpler, more common questions to an automated flow frees up live chat agents to deal with more complex queries.
How to implement this solution with Jumper
Jumper’s new Live Chat dashboard keeps all your chats in one place, allowing you to manage multiple conversations at once while making them all personal to the individual.
When you enter a conversation, you have the option to chat live with the customer or hand the conversation over to a bot or initiate an automated flow.
Just click the button to the left of the text entry box and choose an option from the drop-down menu.
Either Start a product flow, Start a custom flow, Transfer conversation to bot or Stop current flow. (You can manage your product and custom flows and set up an AI bot from the Conversations Manager.)
You can switch between live interaction and any of the other options mid-conversation. Just choose Stop current flow and click on Takeover Conversation to resume control.
It’s like putting your car on autopilot and allows you to hold multiple conversations at once, while being ready to assume control of any one of them when needed – if you need to answer a difficult question for instance.
Jumper’s Conversations Manager can be accessed through the dashboard. It features an intuitive interface where anyone can quickly and easily build an automated conversation flow without a single line of code.
Here’s an example of a simple flow to find out what the customer needs help with. From there you can direct them to a chat agent or an automated FAQ flow.
The conversation below automatically takes the customer through the product selection process and on to give their payment details. This is what it looks like for the live agent:
Complex frequently asked questions with multiple steps can be handled with ease. And the flow can be initiated from any existing conversation directly from the Live Chat interface.
And when you get to the point the customer is ready to buy, you simply start your checkout flow and let the bot handle the rest!
Print on demand – PoD
PoD margins are typically small.
To take a PoD store to the multi-million dollar level, it needs to be big. It needs an engaged audience willing to spend money.
You’ll note that many PoD stores build their merchandise around an established interest. Something with an existing community like pet owners, or hobbyists.
Leveraging an existing strong community in the right way attracts passionate customers who keep coming back and who are willing to spend more each time.
Thing is, when you’re trying to sell to such invested fans, you need to come across as one of them. You need to make yourself a part of their community.
And the best way to build that trust is through conversations that speak to their emotions and passions. Especially if those conversations are personalized, on-brand, and in the language the customer uses.
Automated flows to build brand loyalty
Initiating a conversation from your store’s landing and product pages is a great way to get engage with customers and answer questions. Both of which help foster a community around your store.
Sarah Marie Design Studio is a successful store built around regional running communities.
A pop-up chat window on the homepage offers a choice of buttons that lead to different outcomes.
They lead customers to a loyalty program or a referral scheme, both of which aim to keep loyal customers coming back for more.
This is a simple flow without the option to type in specific queries, but you can see how the same principle could be leveraged to foster loyalty in whatever way best suits your needs.
Depending on your focus, you could use an automated flow to:
- Offer after sales care
- Offer after purchase review
- Send an upsell message with an incentive
- Process refunds with an incentive to re-purchase
- Retarget customers who have abandoned carts
All of these options allow you to build trust and brand loyalty at scale.
Think of the conversations you currently have with your customers that help to keep them coming back to your store. Then ask yourself if they could be automated and still do the same job.
Detailed customer feedback
Conversations can be used to get detailed feedback on what they like and don’t like about your store and which products they want to see in the future.
PopLyfe, a clothing store for new dads, takes a novel approach by engaging visitors with an exit pop-up. When visitors are showing signs that they’re about to leave, it starts a conversation asking why.
It also offers a discount in an attempt to gather the email address for remarketing.
Finding why your customers are exiting is key information which you can use to improve every aspect of your store.
You can extend this idea into a full flow and get to the root of the problem.
For example, if ask the customer why they are leaving without making a purchase and they say:
- Too expensive:
- Ask what they would be willing to spend.
- Didn’t have designs they liked:
- Ask them what they’d like to see more of.
- Didn’t have their size:
- Ask them what size they need.
If you get a load of similar responses, it’s time to make a change. Then you can even get in touch with those who gave the feedback to let them know you have listened to their concerns and get them to come back.
Adding a customer feedback flow with Jumper
Jumper’s flow builder can be used to engage the customer and automatically get their feedback. Depending on whether it is positive or negative, they see a personalized answer:
- If it’s positive, they could be shown further similar products or offered a discount.
- If it’s negative, they could be asked for more detailed feedback and perhaps given a freebie as a goodwill gesture.
Here’s an example of a conversational flow to collect feedback, built with Jumper’s flow builder. Canned response buttons make the process quick and easy, increasing the likelihood the user will respond.
For more on running your print-on-demand business through Jumper, check out our video which walks you through the process.
Dropshipping
This model is all about scaling, typically relying on selling a high volume of products at a low margin.
The more processes that can be automated the better, so this is a great candidate for an AI chatbot for a range of tasks. FAQs, personalized offers, and even the checkout process can be automated at scale.
AI chatbot for FAQs
Automating FAQs with AI chatbots is a huge cost and time saver compared to having live agents. Research suggests that 80% of queries can be resolved by chatbots. And these queries can be solved 24/7 in any time zone without added cost. So AI chatbots for FAQs offer fantastic scalability at low cost.
Let’s take a look at an automated FAQ in action.
BlueCrate uses a conversational pop-up to engage visitors to the store. This is a good example of more engaging copy than the standard Help.
BlueCrate uses emojis and welcomes with a leading statement, “Hi there, let us know if you have any questions.”, making it more accessible.
After clicking the chat bubble, they offer a choice of live chat with a sales assistant or entering an automated FAQ flow.
Based on the typed query, the chatbot selects the most relevant answers from the FAQ.
AI chatbot for lead generation with special offers
Another way to use the excellent scalability of AI chatbots is to offer personalized offers to customers. This makes them feel special without the cost of actually engaging them in a 1-on-1 conversation with a live agent.
It’s also more immediate than sending an email offer as they are engaged right on the page they are browsing.
Treasure Fan specializes in offering a range products at knock-off prices.
Since the site is all about deals, that’s also how they tempt visitors into a conversation. As you scroll, a pop-up appears offering a discount if you enter into a Messenger conversation.
Messenger is used to deliver your reward. From there, they could engage you with a live chat agent or use a bot to drive you towards a sale or take you through checkout.
Implement AI flows with Jumper
It’s super easy to train an AI chatbot with Jumper
Simply add common queries and the answers you want to appear.
The chatbot will pick up on the keywords and deliver the desired answer to the user.
There is a risk with this approach that the bot will get confused and deliver a poor user experience. That’s where Jumper’s new Live Chat dashboard comes in.
It allows you to easily monitor multiple conversations, switching between custom automated flows, bots or manual live agent interactions. Monitoring conversations at scale offers the best of both worlds: the scalability of chatbot technology with the personal touch of a human agent.
Jumper’s integration with Shopify makes adding a conversational element to your dropshipping business a doddle. Check out this video for more details:
White-labeling/Private-labeling
If you’re running a successful store using a white-labeling model, you’ve likely invested heavily in marketing and need to be able to communicate with customers at scale.
To deal with queries and provide a great support, automated flows are the solution.
Answer queries and capture data with an automated flow
Thrive Causemetics sells white-labelled cosmetics and beauty products from a Shopify storefront. While browsing, visitors can click on a Help? pop-up in the bottom left-hand corner, and type in a query.
The automated flow attempts to answer the question and offers a contact form if you would like to leave a message.
This is an effective way to answer questions at scale and generate leads. But a lot more could be done here.
A better way to collect information would be to use a simple conversational flow. It’s far more likely that someone would give their name and contact information if prompted in a chat, than with a static form.
Or it could be used to answer questions and then take the customer through the checkout process within the chat.
Implementing automated flows with Jumper
As discussed earlier, Jumper offers intuitive interface where anyone can quickly and easily build an automated conversational flow without a single line of code.
Here’s an example of a simple flow to find out what the customer needs help with. From there you can direct them to a lead generation flow, a live chat agent, an automated FAQ flow or whatever else they need.
The conversation below automatically takes the customer through the product selection process and on to give their payment details. This is what it looks like for the live agent:
Complex frequently asked questions with multiple steps can be handled with ease. And the flow can be initiated from any existing conversation directly from the Live Chat interface.
Traditional ecommerce model supported by offline stores
Stores doing it the old fashioned way use their offline physical presence to enhance their online stores and vice versa.
Conversations can be used to increase engagement while automating tasks that would be impossible to do at scale otherwise.
Book an in-store appointment
Sephora is a make-up brand well known for being ahead of the curve when it comes to digital marketing and sales. The brand uses a chatbot to automatically engage visitors who are browsing products and help them set up an in-store appointment.
Here’s the full flow ending with the appointment confirmation.
Although younger generations are moving away from brick-and-mortar purchases, the U.S. Department of Commerce reports that 88.3 percent of sales still happen at brick-and-mortar stores.
For certain products that lend themselves to physical interaction before purchase, it makes sense to bridge the gap between physical and digital commerce in order to capture as much business as possible from both channels.
Browse products with a smart shop assistant
Levi’s still has hundreds of physical stores but direct ecommerce business is growing by around 20% yearly. The brand engages visitors with a chatbot called Indigo.
The smart shop assistant guides the visitor through the process of selecting the right pair of jeans and towards checkout.
Finally, a product is offered with a Buy Now button.
Narrowing down the purchase options towards a decision in this way is far more engaging than browsing a store. It encourages visitors who are ready to make a purchase to act. While anyone who just wants to window shop can do that at their leisure.
Implement a smart shopping assistant with Jumper
As discussed earlier, Jumper’s Conversations Manager makes creating conversational flows like this quick and easy.
Here’s what it looks like in practice.
You can access the Jumper’s flow builder from the dashboard via the main menu: Conversations Manager > Create Flows.
The user-friendly interface allows you to add welcome messages, questions with canned response buttons or product information, and link all these elements into smart flows, as simple or complex as you need.
Get started with the right solution today
Hopefully, this has shed some light on the options out there to get the best out of the leaps forward in conversational commerce technology.
There are many ways to go about integrating a conversational element with your store and it’s important to understand which one is right for your business model before jumping in.
Now that you know what’s available, it’s time to take action. Decide which solution is best suited to you and your customers and get to work implementing it today.
Jumper offers a free 14-day trial which gives you access to all the tools discussed in this post. Sign up today to revolutionize the way you interact with your customers.