When shopping online, you find your perfect choice, add it to cart, and are ready to check out. However, a lingering doubt arises about some of its features.
You search through the website for the store’s contact details only to find one option; a telephone number. After several frustrating minutes of calling and waiting on hold, you abandon the purchase.
Now think of this; what if an ecommerce live chat tool was available on the website? Perhaps you could quickly connect with a customer service agent, confirm the details, and even negotiate a better deal.
That’s the true power of ecommerce live chat tools in businesses looking to better their customers’ experiences; real-time and efficient support.
In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into the importance, features and top vendors of live chat in ecommerce businesses.
Live chat is a digital communication channel often integrated into websites. It allows you to provide instant responses to customers, significantly improving your ecommerce customer service.
What you need to know is that it is, in essence, a chat box or a small window that appears on the screen of your ecommerce website to give customers immediate assistance whenever they have questions.
This is advantageous for customers and companies as they can use the chat window to address queries or problems instantly as opposed to email or support tickets where it is possible to experience a delay in responses.
In fact, a research by NICE, shows that nearly 52% of customers prefer chat support over other channels when seeking customer service help.
An excellent live chat tool should exceed customer expectations with advanced and comprehensive features at a competitive price.
Below are some key features that you should look for when selecting ecommerce chat software.
The best ecommerce live chat tools should go beyond just standard conversation software. A good ecommerce chat tool should be like a Swiss army knife, able to perform many functions from a single point.
It should be able to integrate with other business software, such as:
Help desk integrations allow for easy collaboration amongst agents and facilitate the conversion of conversations to tickets.
The awesome part about these is that it makes it easier to escalate the ticket and ensures uniformity in client interaction at all levels of the customer journey.
AI has greatly transformed customer service in recent years. AI-powered ecommerce live chat software can perform the following actions:
This way, customers receive tailored, swift and comprehensive solutions whenever they reach out to support.
As a customer support rep, you want your ecommerce live chat tool to have customization options for its chat widgets. This enables brands to be consistent with their branding style by choosing their preferred colors and logos.
Allowing brands to alter the chat widgets’ design to match their branding allows them to offer a unique customer experience on their e-commerce sites.
Client data such as customer satisfaction score can help you improve your service offerings. A good ecommerce live chat tool should be able to collect these data, such as response times and agent performance, and generate reports.
You already know why reports and analytics are critical. They can help you improve overall customer experience, make well-informed decisions, and efficiently allocate resources.
Now that we know what live chat is, we need to understand why it’s important. These tools significantly improve the convenience of contacting customer support and revolutionize customer service.
Here are some of the key advantages of embedding live chat software in your ecommerce site:
A survey by RingCentral shows that 57% of people find long hold times very frustrating.
Live chat allows for real-time customer interactions with support agents, leading to fast issue resolution and response times. Customers can get immediate responses without leaving the ecommerce site, improving brand perception.
Additionally, the software offers automatic replies and canned responses that save your support agents a lot of time, giving them more freedom to focus on pressing tasks.
Looking for a way to make your customers purchase more? Prompt responses might just be what you need.
Live chat guides customers toward making informed purchase decisions in their customer journey, especially at the point of sale. It helps agents provide proactive support that clarifies any doubts they may have without leaving the site.
Immediate support from a customer service agent reduces cart abandonment rates and leads customers toward making a purchase. This converts prospective customers from browsers to buyers, increasing sales and revenue.
Most ecommerce platforms that I interact with, such as Amazon, have ecommerce chat software to collect customer interaction data.
For those of us in support roles, this information, is highly valuable and can provide insights into customer needs, preferences and pain points. This allows you to tailor support, ultimately improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
E-commerce chat offers a great medium to connect with the customers. There is a support agent who attends to the clients at any time; but this does not limit the clients from airing their issues, giving feedback, and asking questions.
Its immediacy makes it convenient for customers. Moreover, the presence of an agent adds a human touch to your customer service offering, which boosts confidence and builds customer trust.
This consistency and reliability in communication makes your brand dependable and improves customer retention.
Ecommerce live chat software, enables your agents to ask for feedback in real-time after resolving an issue or having a conversation. This way, customers can give honest and unfiltered responses since they speak directly to the agent.
Moreover, the software has features such as CSAT reports and surveys which you can analyze to gain valuable customer insights.
Compared to other support forms such as e-mail, the ecommerce chat is a very convenient communication channel.
Customers can get help without leaving the e-commerce site, which is very convenient and reliable. Let’s say you want to optimize the customer experience, then, by using live chat the purchasing experience will be seamless.
Live chat provides faster response times than other contact methods, like phone calls, giving you an advantage over possible rivals who do not have it.
The best ecommerce live chat solution should blend functionality, cost-effectiveness, user experience, and integration capabilities. It should match your budget, have all the features your business needs, and be easy to use.
Many ecommerce live chat software offers comprehensive packages for enterprises and corporations and free plans that startups and small businesses can use.
Below are some of the best live chat software for ecommerce stores:
BoldDesk’s robust live chat software allows you to provide real-time chat support and manage customer interactions seamlessly within the customer service software. It focuses on enhancing your support process and significantly reducing response times.
This tool integrates seamlessly into your website or application; clients can easily embed the live chat into their websites using only a single line of code.
Moreover, this ecommerce chat tool allows your support team to handle multiple conversations, track the status of each interaction, and even export a conversation as a ticket to the ticketing system.
BoldDesk is also equipped with an omnichannel inbox for managing customer inquiries from a variety of channels, including social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook.
Moreover, BoldDesk’s mobile help desk allows teams to conveniently manage all customer interactions and provide support on the go.
This combination of functions in BoldDesk’s live chat platform results in a more organized and responsive support system that speeds up issue resolution and enhances the overall customer experience.
Key features
Pricing
Include tiered pricing for teams with 10, 25, 50 or 100 agents.
At BoldDesk, we aim to empower teams to provide seamless customer service that enhances customer experience.
To learn how BoldDesk can transform your e-commerce business, book a live demo or sign up for a 15-day free trial today.
Tidio is a simple-to-install live chat tool ideal for small enterprises. Its AI feature offers chat assistance to website visitors and can solve most common customer issues.
Key features
Pricing
Free trial: 7 days
LiveChat is a good ecommerce customer engagement option for businesses of all sizes. It offers several features, such as pre-set messages to initiate conversations and engage customers.
Key features
Pricing
Free trial: 14 days
LiveAgent provides features such as multilingual chat widgets, chat routing, and chat history. Its interactive ecommerce live chat software helps ecommerce support teams to provide exemplary customer service.
Key features
Pricing
Free trial: 30 days
Helpcrunch is another suitable ecommerce chat software just like LiveAgent for businesses. It has a user-friendly chat widget with reporting and analytics capabilities.
Key features
Pricing
Free trial: 14 days
Twilio provides APIs that add chat functionalities to applications, websites, and platforms. Twilio’s live chat lets you engage customers in real time and provide better support.
Key features
Pricing: There is a price of $0.05 per active user per month
Free plan: Available, with limited functions
Intercom‘s canned responses feature saves your support agents a lot of time responding to common customer questions. It also has several integrations that make it ideal for businesses of all sizes.
Key features
Pricing
Free trial: 14 days
FreshChat also deserves mention when discussing e-commerce live chat. It has advanced chat reporting features that enable agents to view past conversations and client details. The software can also proactively respond and enhance customer service.
Key features
Pricing
Free trial: 14 days
Olark is a cool an ecommerce live chat software with features such as automated responses and chat analytics. It is a good option that businesses can use to interact with their customers.
Key features
Pricing
Free trial: 14 days
ProProfs Chat is a live chat solution that enables you to respond to customers instantly and resolve issues instantly. It integrates easily with popular ecommerce sites such as Shopify. It offers features such as canned responses and chat transfers.
Key features
Pricing: The team plan starts at $19.99 per user per month
Free plan: Available for a single operator
Zohodesk’s live chat widget, which is easily embeddable and requires no code to integrate, lets you communicate in real time with clients. It also has an automation feature that automatically assigns conversations to support agents.
Key features
Pricing: Live chat is available in the Enterprise package for $35 monthly
Free trial: 15 days
We have finally come to our last tool, Gorgias. It uses customer data to personalize responses and improve customer interactions.
Key features
Pricing
Free trial: 7 days
New businesses are popping up daily in the ecommerce space, and competition is getting stiffer. Providing fast and efficient ecommerce live chat support gives your online brand an added advantage.
With ecommerce chat, brands can provide seamless customer service by optimizing their support process. Moreover, you can create a more fulfilling and engaging experience by providing customers with real-time assistance.
Remember that sometimes the most affordable choice isn’t the best. However, this list is a good guide for selecting the best live chat tool for your business.
We hope this blog was insightful. Is there a tool we might have left out? Please share your experience in the comment section below!
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