Live Chat for Sales: Turning a Passive Visitor Into a Loyal Customer

Online shopping is a two-way street, where visitors expect engagement in exchange for their time and money. This is one of the reasons why live chat for sales represents an integral portion of the overall customer engagement journey. Considering the fact that 79% of businesses have reported a positive influence on sales figures thanks to this software, it's clear that chatbots can have a real positive impact. We'll examine some of the reasons why live chat has transformed the e-commerce sector, and why now is a better time than ever to leverage the automation and other benefits this solution offers.

What is Live Chat for Sales?

Chatbots come in a variety of unique platforms. Some represent instant messaging platforms (like WhatsApp) while others are intended to be used as software systems offering a set of canned responses to common queries.

However, live chat for sales solutions have taken on a life of their own thanks to generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Generative AI is the latest generation of algorithms capable of responding naturally and with context to human inquiries, and to resolve a host of issues that previous chatbots were unable to handle.

Definition and Purpose

From a sales perspective, live chat is all about visitor engagement—whether that's in conversation with a human agent or product discovery support offered by a bot. The main intention is to cater to the needs of website visitors to enhance the online shopping experience and drive conversions.

However, live chat shouldn't be viewed as a standalone strategy, but rather a blended approach to customer service that allows potential customers to be redirected to a human agent if the AI-supported chatbot can't resolve their issue.

Benefits of Using Live Chat for Sales

Increased Engagement

One of the main goals of any chatbot powered by the latest generative AI technology is to provide a means for customers to engage with the business in real time. If the software is able to offer superior levels of insightful support, whether that's answering questions accurately right away or upselling the customer, conversion rates are likely to benefit as a result.

Personalized Support

Generic sales techniques just won't cut it anymore. Customers expect a personalized user experience, from the moment they land on your site through interaction with a bot and on to purchase.

Targeted support solutions can help to streamline the sales process to convert buyers who might otherwise be on the fence.

Cost Effective

In-house efficiency is another benefit of this type of chat widget. One of the key features of live chat for sales involves automation. Multiple queries can be handled at once, and the notion of personalization at scale helps to guarantee that the unique needs of shoppers aren't sacrificed in favor of speed.

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Studies have found that loyal online shoppers are associated with an average order value 67% higher when compared to a one-off purchase. Live chatbot support drives loyalty, and increases the chances that first-time shoppers will come back for more.

How Live Chat Supports Sales

Real-Time Interaction With Prospects

Getting help in online shopping is no longer a waiting game. Shoppers rightfully expect to be provided with support at the exact time they need it. The real-time interactions offered by automated live chat support results in several benefits:

Clients can resolve common questions within seconds
Live chat for sales will reduce cart abandonment rates
Chatbots can also redirect the shopper to a live agent if additional assistance is needed, further reinforcing how the company places the needs of its prospects first

Personalized Customer Engagement

It's impossible to overstate the role that personalization now plays throughout the e-commerce industry. One of the best ways to convert website browsers into buyers is to provide an authentic experience that previous chatbot iterations were unable to offer. In other words, there's a massive difference between a question-and-answer session, and an intelligent conversation.

The presence of generative AI technology now offers personalization at scale, resulting in unprecedented levels of always-on availability and accuracy that would've been impossible to conceive only a few years ago.

Addressing Questions and Concerns Instantly

Accuracy and speed go hand-in-hand in e-commerce, so canned responses no longer fit the bill. Were you aware that a staggering 50% of all online purchases fail due to incomplete product information? The latest live chat for sales platforms combine accuracy and razor-sharp responses with immediacy.

Not only does this allow them to resolve everyday issues quickly, but they are even able to overcome common buyer objections that might otherwise impede the sales process. For example, the sports and outdoors brand, INTERSPORT, was able to boost conversion rates by up to seven times thanks to live generative AI shopping assistance.

Capturing First-Party Data

The proactive nature of live chat for sales is also a powerful means to collect first-party data. This type of information is associated with insights directly gathered from real-time interactions. Some examples include:

Feedback
Historical purchases
Buying habits
Website interactions
Preferred products
Previous queries and how they were resolved

Engaging with buyers at the right times is crucial when obtaining this information, and thanks to the personalized nature of the latest chatbots, shoppers will also be more likely to actively engage with the services being offered. After all, it makes little sense to turn down a (digital) helping hand if it can resolve your issues quickly.

Tips to Use Live Chat for Sales in Your Business

Implement Live Chat Tools Effectively

Although live chatbots for sales are extremely intelligent, they aren't one-size-fits-all solutions. Each is associated with its own strengths and weaknesses. It is important to choose a customizable platform that can be shaped around the unique needs of your business, and the online buying journey. Other features such as a user-friendly interface, built-in analytical tools, and available existing CRM integrations are important to factor in to your decision on a provider of choice.

Train Your Sales Team

It would be a mistake to assume that even the most advanced live chat for sales software will fully automate the online shopping experience. There are inevitable times when questions will still need to be resolved by a human agent.

Businesses must ensure agents are trained continuously, kept up to date with trending customer queries and similar topics that generative AI might not be able to address.

Analyze Chat Performance

Every sales strategy represents a work in progress, and this is just as true when discussing chatbots. It is just as important to optimize its performance regularly. Important KPIs include turnover, the percentage of automated conversions, customer satisfaction rates, and trending keywords.

The main purpose here is to provide agents with an intuitive edge so that they can make the most out of what the software has to offer. This also ensures that shoppers are satisfied with their own experiences; increasing the chances that they will make future purchases.

Case Studies: Examples of Successful Live Chat Implementations

A sizable portion of this article has discussed the importance of live chat for sales in terms of its main benefits and unique features. Let's now look at it through the lens of some real-word examples.

Vertbaudet

Vertbaudet is an online provider of products for children. Their main challenge involved the ability to offer targeted solutions to specific customer inquiries, and the ability to integrate a tool that worked with their brand DNA. After adopting the latest generative AI live chatbot, Vertbaudet was able to automate 76% of customer interactions.

Payne Glasses

Payne Glasses, a leading online eyeglass retailer, has relatively small sales team that was burdened with a large volume of inbound inquiries and found it difficult to keep up. They were rightfully concerned about how this would have an impact on end-user satisfaction and sales.

Their team chose to deploy a generative AI chatbot in conjunction with their existing CRM software. As a result, Payne Glasses reduced the number of requests handled by human agents by 50%, and increased their conversion rates by ten times.

Sideshow

Sideshow is a specialty manufacturer and distributor of the most highly sought-after licensed and original collectible pop culture products, and they were looking for a way to connect with their niche demographic.

Another challenge involved implementing a smart chatbot capable of answering unique product-related questions. Once they integrated the latest live chat for sales software, Sideshow saw a five-fold increase in conversion rates.

Each example shows the true business impact of implementing live chat for sales in the ecommerce shopping journey, and how generative AI continues to redefine the online shopping experience. However, it would be a mistake to assume that modern chatbots will replace human agents, as this isn't the intention.

But rather, they're meant to streamline in-house operations, automate many processes that were previously manual, and provide shoppers with personalized support at scale. As this technology continues to break new ground, it's clear that businesses of all sizes will need to adapt to this evolving ecommerce landscape.