{"id":62,"date":"2018-08-23T08:44:04","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T15:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hengreamaze.wordpress.com\/2018\/08\/23\/the-future-of-ecommerce-revolves-around-this-single-idea\/"},"modified":"2023-09-01T00:06:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T07:06:17","slug":"the-future-of-ecommerce-revolves-around-this-single-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reamaze.com\/blog\/the-future-of-ecommerce-revolves-around-this-single-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future of eCommerce Revolves Around this Single Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Pete Boyle for Re:amaze<\/a>. Pete is the chief copywriter and content manager for jumper.ai. A new tool that helps online marketers sell more products more easily through social media. Check out jumper for yourself with a free account here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A couple of days ago I wandered into the Ted Baker (TB) store on Regent Street in London.<\/p>\n

I was after a new pair of jeans. The pair I\u2019m wearing right now have that annoying phone outline on the right-hand pocket which, if I don\u2019t change them soon, will turn into a series of roughly rectangular holes.<\/p>\n

After 2 minutes in the store a sales assistant offered their help. I outlined the problem and asked if the small selection of jeans on display was all they had available.<\/p>\n


\nSurprisingly, it was.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We spoke about my needs and, when it became clear the trousers on the next rack weren\u2019t suitable, I was advised to check out the sale website for Ted Baker as some of last seasons jeans might be there for a discount.<\/p>\n

The whole experience took no more than 5 minutes. Sure, I didn\u2019t get the product I wanted, but it was a quick and painless experience that led me to the discount site.<\/p>\n

This is what eCommerce has been missing. Online stores have suffered because the communication has been simply too long and drawn out. But not any more.<\/p>\n

The Shortfalls of Digital Shopping Experiences<\/h2>\n

My experience at TB highlights the main needs of shoppers and the shortfalls that are so prevalent in ecommerce.<\/p>\n

If I needed guided assistance on their online store, I\u2019d have to wait for hours before receiving advice or a resolution. Hours in which I could quite easily abandon and seek another pair of jeans on someone like Levi\u2019s site.<\/p>\n

A lost sale on an individual basis isn\u2019t going to destroy your business. But it\u2019s never an individual case. According to MarTech<\/a>, 53% of shoppers will abandon a purchase if the support isn\u2019t swift.<\/p>\n

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And sure, I could focus on the potential lost revenue of 53% abandonment rate, but poor customer service is worse than a simple lost sale.<\/p>\n

Slow support is one of the most frustrating forms of poor customer service, and poor customer service has a domino effect with the overall growth of your brand.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not only going to lose the repeat business of 56% of people who found your slow response frustrating, but 25% of them are going to warn their friends for your products and 2o% will drop a negative review destroying your social proof which costs the eCommerce industry $83 billion a year in the US alone.<\/p>\n

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Customer service is a key component of the success of your store. However, it\u2019s only recently getting the attention it truly deserves.<\/p>\n

The past decade has seen too keen a focus on actions like securing a lead\u2019s contact details, opting images, crafting killer copy, and streamlining the UX for a more direct path to a sale.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not calling these trash that need to be forgotten. Far from it. These are necessary tasks for running a profitable store and they were what we could focus on with technology at the time.<\/p>\n

However, we now have the means to drastically improve customer service and offer swift resolutions to consumer problems. And if you want to continue growing your store, there\u2019s one thing you have to do.<\/p>\n

Take a Note From the Merchants of\u00a0Old<\/h2>\n

In my opening of this piece I mentioned how Ted Baker helped me solve a problem by simply conversing with me.<\/p>\n

It was a swift resolution to the problem I was having at that time, and due to the speed of that assistance, I ended up paying over \u00a3100 on their online store.<\/p>\n

The assistant, knowingly or not, built a rapport with me which prevented me from jumping into the store next door to see what they had.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something that simply couldn\u2019t be done through online means until the very recent rise of conversational commerce and Messenger marketing.<\/p>\n

Conversations are the next stages of ecommerce. They\u2019re not a tactic to persuade people to look in a certain area of your site or a cheap copy gimmick to elicit an emotional response. Conversations have been at the core of commerce for millennia, and we\u2019re now able to leverage them through online means.<\/p>\n

With live chat and Messenger solutions you\u2019re not throwing an optimized sales page out into the world and hoping the right people will see it. You\u2019re discovering your store visitors have and are offering relevant advice to help them overcome those problems.<\/p>\n

Sales aren\u2019t made through manipulation, but through solving a problem for your users. If you can converse with them to understand their problems, then the sale is a logical next step for users who find the solution.<\/p>\n

The question on everyone\u2019s lips is how to best leverage live chat on your store. I\u2019m going to examine a couple of tools and explain the best use cases for them.<\/p>\n

On-Site Live\u00a0Chat<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s dozens of potential live chat services out there for you to choose from, but if you want to make the most out of live chat for your ecommerce store there\u2019s a couple of key elements you need.<\/p>\n

1\u200a\u2014\u200aAsynchronous Messaging<\/h2>\n

This is really just a fancy way to say that you can pick up messages whether you\u2019re on desktop, mobile, or even email. The more places you can handle messages, the quicker you\u2019ll be able to respond to customer queries.<\/p>\n

2\u200a\u2014\u200aSmart Targeting with\u00a0Re:amaze<\/h2>\n

Some of the more sophisticated live chat tools like Re:amaze<\/a> with its Cues capability will allow you to target based on user action or activity, which is a huge conversion opportunity.<\/p>\n

If someone is checking out certain pages, you want to be able to send a targeted message. For example, someone bouncing from one sneaker page to the next might respond well to a sale you have running on a certain sneaker range. It seems simple, but helping a customer save money is a sure fire way for you to make some.<\/p>\n

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Instead of offering a list of things they need to do, you simply direct them to the relevant sales page.<\/p>\n

3\u200a\u2014\u200aBuilt In\u00a0FAQs<\/h2>\n

Even with asynchronous messaging, there will be times when you\u2019re not able to pick up customer queries. If you don\u2019t have a 24-hour support team, overnight is going to be the time when you\u2019re not able to offer the swift responses consumers expect.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there\u2019s a workaround.<\/p>\n

For common questions around delivery times, shipping prices, etc you could save yourself (or support team) countless hours by redirecting users to a pre-built FAQ.<\/p>\n

One where users can find the answer themselves immediately. All you have to do is key in relevant keywords and write automated responses that direct people to the relevant entry.<\/p>\n

Live chat services are the perfect addition to any ecommerce store. They\u2019re the closest imitation to an in store assistant whose sole job it is to help consumers find what they need.<\/p>\n

However, you\u2019re also going to want to leverage methods to bring users from off site back to your store. Generally, we\u2019d turn to email for this, but there\u2019s another higher engagement method to leverage.<\/p>\n

Facebook Messenger<\/h2>\n

Facebook is the juggernaut of the social media world. Even in the face of scandals and adversity, it continues to grow from strength to strength.<\/p>\n

Messenger is their latest growth project, and with over 1.3 billion people<\/a> it\u2019s another great tool to leverage on your site.<\/p>\n

A lot of folk still think Messenger is only to be used by those visiting your page. But it\u2019s not. If you head to your page\u2019s settings you can install a widget on your site to offer direct integration.<\/p>\n

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From a page of mine selling courses for freelance writers<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re in settings, click on the \u201cMessenger Platform\u201d tab, scroll down and you\u2019ll see the below.<\/p>\n

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That will, apparently, allow you to install live chat through Facebook Messenger on your website. I say apparently as I\u2019ve not used this method myself, instead favoring the tools I\u2019m about to explain.<\/p>\n

But before I do I just want to explain the benefits of Facebook Messenger over other live chat software. You might not have the advanced segmentation or ability to also host FAQs and trigger certain messages for particular segments through Messenger, but you are able to re-engage users who have left your site through the platform.<\/p>\n

Say someone looks at your products, opts in to Messenger, then abandons. You don\u2019t have to rely on email to bring them back but can leverage the far more engaging and effective Messenger platform.<\/p>\n

In testing this at Recart, we saw Messenger massively outperforming email for cart abandonment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Messenger allows you to leverage conversational commerce whether or not the user is currently active on your site.<\/p>\n

You can bring them back to your site to buy the product they abandoned or reengage for a follow up purchase.<\/p>\n

However, Facebook\u2019s out of the box solution is somewhat lacking, so here\u2019s a couple of tools you\u2019ll want to explore to help you automate even more of your revenue driving conversations so you can spend time working on your store\u2019s strategy.<\/p>\n

1\u200a\u2014\u200aManyChat<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

Talk about Messenger tools and ManyChat is one of the first most people think of.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not specifically an ecommerce solution, but they have a huge number of features that translate well to ecommerce. Features that allow you to automate much of what\u2019s needed to drive conversions.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a quick example<\/a> of a follow up that\u2019s triggered when someone clicks Get Started on your brand\u2019s FB page.<\/p>\n

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Once the sequence is started, the user clicks on shop now to see the products.<\/p>\n

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2\u200a\u2014\u200aRecart<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

The biggest problem facing ecommerce stores today is that of cart abandonment. Around 80% of consumers who add an item to cart end up never purchasing. That means you\u2019re losing $4 for every $1 you make.<\/p>\n

Emails have long been the tried and true solution to this, however, Recart has taken the sequences that work so well through email and adapted them to the Messenger format.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fully automated giving you the benefit of a traditional abandoned art sequence, however, success is far greater thanks to the insanely high engagement of Messenger.<\/p>\n

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3\u200a\u2014\u200ajumper.ai<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n

Another awesome automated tool which is, by comparison, new on the market.<\/p>\n

Whereas Recart helps you secure people abandoning their cart, jumper helps you secure more add to carts by targeting those at the initial engagement phase.<\/p>\n

jumper focuses on your social media accounts and adds an automated checkout bot to any update you post.<\/p>\n

You post a new product, attach one of jumper\u2019s hashtags, and if a user comments with that hashtag they\u2019re sent an automated message which allows them to buy right from their social media account.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at social selling at work<\/a>.<\/p>\n