4 chatbot marketing tricks for e-commerce

Imagine your sales team interacting with your potential customers, understanding their needs, and guiding them with the necessary material to convert them, all without you, all automatically.
That's exactly what a chatbot does! The e-commerce market will nearly double from $3.53 trillion in 2019 to $6.54 trillion in 2022. That means a lot more sales, customers, and leads.
Since Facebook introduced ads on Messenger, chatbot marketing is becoming a disruptive factor, especially for e-commerce stores.
Today, we'll share four chatbot marketing tricks that will help skyrocket your e-commerce sales. Let's get started.

What is a chatbot and how does it work?

What are bots? How do chatbots work? Why do they offer a great opportunity and what are their main advantages?

What are bots?

A chatbot or bot is an artificial intelligence programme that simulates natural human conversation. Users communicate with a chatbot through a chat interface or by voice, as if they were talking to a real person.
Chatbots interpret and process the user's words or phrases and give an instant, pre-set response. They live on platforms such as FB Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, Slack, Line, Kik, WeChat or even your e-commerce website built with our Cuborio CMS.
Similar to normal apps, chatbots have an application layer, a database, APIs and a conversational user interface (CUI).

How do Cuborio chatbots appear from the user's perspective?

Instead of a normal UX, chatbots have a Conversational User Interface (CUI).
CUI is communication with technology through text or voice conversation.
CUI allows people to interact with machines in understandable human language. By using the right CUI, a company can effortlessly guide its customers towards the desired goal, provide them with assistance and even continue to communicate with the person for future marketing campaigns.
A chatbot can be a friend to customers by providing them with assistance and useful advice when needed. Cuborio's chatbot can be designed however you want: serious and formal, witty and adventurous, or attentive and professional. It's up to you to choose your chatbot's personality, and we'll make it happen.
Thanks to Conversational UI, your customers can communicate with your company in a simple and natural way, leading to the ultimate customer experience.

So why are chatbots such a great opportunity?

People are starting to use messengers to chat with their friends and family, connect with different brands, search for products and look for specific content. Recent studies show that messengers are more popular and have higher rates than apps. Finally, most users are younger, which is a very important demographic for advertisers, publishers and brands.

Statistics on messaging apps vs. social media

Many brands have already realised that by using chatbots, they can successfully engage with customers on social media. As a result, the number of chatbots is constantly growing, with over 300,000 chatbots on Facebook.

What is chatbot marketing? How does it benefit e-commerce stores?

A chatbot is a software package that interacts with users and helps meet their needs. It can be classified as AI (artificial intelligence) or script-based (rule-based), depending on its interaction capabilities. They can also be classified as support bots, skill bots, transactional bots, and personal assistants. Chatbot marketing is the use of chatbots to drive sales.

Today, we will focus on conversational bots, i.e. bots that use neural networks and can have 'bot personalities'. Gone are the days when their application was limited to answering FAQs. Companies can now use chatbots at every stage of their sales funnel and make better use of their traffic.

For an e-commerce site with a conversion rate of 4%, 96% of its traffic, even if willing to learn about the business and its products, leaves the site without making any transactions. That's a lot of money left on the table. This is where chatbot marketing turns the tables.

At Cuborio, we have always maintained that chatbot marketing and e-commerce are a perfect match, which is why we have invested heavily in this application within our CMS.

We expect the chatbot market to grow to £9.4 billion by 2024 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.7%. What is driving this growth?

The short answer is 24/7 availability, 365 days a year, the ability to handle multiple functions simultaneously, and cost-effectiveness.

As a business, Cuborio's chatbot marketing offers a pressure-free and personalised user experience.

It also provides an in-store shopping experience directly from mobile displays (smartphones and tablets). People with disabilities may find it more convenient to interact with non-human assistants, and chatbot marketing can significantly improve their customer journey.

For example, people with Alzheimer's may still be conversational, but conversing with real people can be difficult due to poor memory and changes in topic as a result of short-term memory loss. They can talk to the chatbot, have a conversation depending on what they are talking about at the moment, but even changes in topic are memorised. The chat log can be stored and viewed by others so that they can see the frequency of these changes and could potentially be used to help them better.

Let's now look at how chatbots can be used for e-commerce in addition to normal use cases.