10 WAYS E-COMMERCE COMPANIES CAN LEVERAGE MESSENGER BOTS

Published in

Polymathic.Guru

7 min readSep 28, 2018

Thinking of ways to reach out to the extremely busy customer who never surfs for your site or answer your emails? Well, no sweat- messenger bots are here. Nearly 1,00,000 chatbots are available on FB Messenger to cater to its 1 billion monthly active users.

So what’s so great about messenger bots? Take a look at this.

According to Ubisend

95% of the customers believe that “customer service would be the main beneficiary of chatbots
55% of the customers are keen on using a messaging app to solve a problem
35% of customers want companies to use chatbots
48% of the customers would rather connect with a company using live chat than any other form of contact.
21% of the customers see chatbots as the easiest way to contact a business.
45.8% of the customers would rather communicate with a messaging app than email.
34% of executives say the time they freed up using chatbots allows them to focus on deep thinking and creation.
27% of US adults would buy basic items through a chatbot.
13% of US adults would buy expensive items through a chatbot.
Chatbots could save businesses up to £6 billion per year across industries.

Messenger Bot success stories

By 2020, 80% of the businesses are going to use messenger bots or 4 chatbots. And the ball has already started rolling.

1–800 flowers claimed 70% of its new customers arrived through its messenger bots
Sephora’s Facebook Messenger bot increased its makeover appointments by 11%
Nitro Café’s sales shot up by 20% with their Messenger bot
ASOS reached 35% more people and increased their orders 3x times with their Messenger bot.

Why should e-commerce companies use messenger bots?

1. Creating awareness and reach

Companies can use Messenger bots to create awareness for their product as bots have a subtle way of enlightening the customer without being pushy.

“Call of Duty” effectively used Messenger bot in creating awareness for its new game. They launched the game using “Lt. Reyes” — their bot with an interesting campaign that created hype. The Bot interacted with the users by seeking their help in unlocking a code and if their users did, they got a free preview-trailer of the next game. This clever strategy created a bombastic buzz with 6 million messages pouring in from the bot, within 24 hours of its release!

Now, this is what you call “awareness”!

2. Reviving a brand

Among the dozens of products a company may deal with, some just fade. It then becomes imperative to revive the product at some point in time, to gain the lost audience. Bots, if handled correctly, can help with this.

Starbucks’ product called the Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) had been around for 13 years. This barely recognized product had to be revived at fall to be right in time for Thanksgiving. Starbucks launched a bot called “the Real PSL” to revive interest in this autumnal drink.

3. Enriching the shopping experience

Today, it’s not about the expenses, it is about the experience. customers are willing to pay extra if you have the right shopping experience. Messenger bots are a heaven-sent blessing as they transform the customer’s shopping experience into a melodious song like in the case of H&M.

H & M has created an interactive Messenger bot which enlivens your shopping experience. It first asks you to define your style among the choices like- Classic, casual, Boho, Preppy or Grunge. After asking for the item you seek, it shows you several photographs of the item tailor-made to suit your style. If you like it, it then redirects you to the e-commerce store or saves it for future use. It also helps you to share your style and gain ratings for the trends.

4. Around the clock Customer support

Calling up a customer care number for tracking an order online? Oh no! Most shoppers shudder from doing this. This is because most customer care numbers go on an IVR endlessly.

44% of the customers feel that a chatbot feature is a must for best customer service.
Productivity is high using messenger bots as they can handle multiple chat sessions simultaneously.
Being automated, the messenger bots operate 24×7 and 365 days a year.

Some companies have used bots effectively for customer service like exchanging items or voicing complaints.

Take Chubbies Shorts Messenger bots for instance. This bot guides the customer effortlessly through the exchange process and answers all the basic FAQs.

5. Reducing customer service staff overheads

In the U.S. alone, $79 billion is spent as remuneration for customer service employees. With Messenger bots, you can save 29% of this cost- roughly $23 billion!

A chatbot can be used to answer basic FAQs and customer queries. It can collect customer information like the customer’s email and phone number and note down the nature of the problem. It can generate a service request confirmation with a ticket number for further assistance by the company representatives.

Indonesian mobile commerce start-up Sales Stock launched its Messenger Bot called Soraya. This bot was designed to handle all queries even in Bahasa and other regional dialects.

Using machine learning, Soraya decided on whether to answer the question or transfer to customer assistance. Soraya automated 34% of all Sales stock’s conversations achieving 55% more customer response and 2.3% more conversion when compared to their website or app.

6. More customer retention due to personalization

Gone are the days when customers were satisfied with what they got. Today it is more about what they want. Messenger bots help in personalizing the shopper’s selections and thereby paving the way for customer retention.

Acting as a virtual sales assistant, a bot can quiz the customer a couple of basic questions and then throw up a plethora of choices to suit her unique taste.

Sephora has already done it with its 2 Facebook Messenger bots — the Sephora Reservation Assistant helps customers to book their makeovers in any city while the Sephora Virtual Artist lines up a list of lipstick shades for them to choose from depending on their taste.

With the Sephora’s Reservation Assistant booking makeovers in 3 easy steps at a location close to the customer, it is no wonder Sephora’s bookings increased by 11% with customers being there to stay.

7. Innovation/Experimenting with new ideas

Messenger bots have made it easier for companies to give wings to their marketing ideas.

Take Sephora for instance- it introduced a new “Camera effects” feature in its Messenger bot as an innovation to provide the “try-on” facility to its customers. This innovation just glamorized the shopper’s experience and garnered repeat visits and more sales owing to this unique feature.

8. Automating ordering, tracking and shipping updates

Keep customers updated about order confirmation, shipping and tracking info, etc.

Take a look at Chubbies Shorts Messenger bot — the customer receives each and every order’s shipping information within a few hours. Customers appreciate this quick response through messaging.

9. A live alternative to Email Marketing for Customer Engagement

Yes, Messenger bots are slowly replacing emails as the live alternative for
“Customer Engagement”. Messenger bots offer an 88% open rate and 56% click-through rate, according to Marketing guru Neil Patel.