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16 Of The Best eCommerce Chatbots For Your Business
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Editor's Note: This post was originally published on September 8, 2019 and has been updated to reflect the growing array of chatbots for retail and ecommerce.
Conversational commerce has become a formidable channel to recon with. Sales made via conversational commerce channels such as chatbots, digital voice assistants, and messaging will grow from $41 billion this year to $290 billion by 2025, according to Juniper Research.
With this type of growth, any company with digital sales, regardless of industry or ecommerce business model, will need to consider weaving conversational commerce tactics into their strategy, especially chatbots. Consumers today prefer to chat with company representatives or support over chat as opposed to calling. It’s faster than email, with less of the pressure of a phone call.
While not every business will have the need to enable cart and checkout functionality within chat, there are a number of other benefits to using bots, either automated or live, including reduced support time and costs, providing personalized experiences, or enabling faster sales conversations. Consumers today want quick, seamless, and frictionless experiences and chatbots are yet another channel to facilitate these needs and meet their demands.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of chat, you can learn more about what an ecommerce chatbot is and how they work in our blog here. If you’re already in search of one, keep on reading. We’ll cover 20 of the best chatbots for ecommerce businesses. Keep in mind that these aren't ranked. Which chatbot you choose will depend on your needs.
Top Ecommerce ChatBot Platforms
Chatfuel
About: Chatfuel provides one of the most popular chatbots today. Founded in 2016, they have focused on and exceled at developing conversational bots for social media, specifically Facebook messenger and more recently, Instagram. It is a no-code, non-developer friendly tool with an easy to use drag-and-drop UI and has inbuilt NLP (via Facebook), analytics and supports automated sequencing. They currently handle over 1 billion messages a month. And can boast a number of industry leading customers, including Netflix, Lego, Levi’s and British Airways.
Chatfuel pricing: They offer tiered pricing, starting with a free version for up to 50 users, full access to base-features, and Facebook Messenger and Instagram bots. After that, their Pro version is $15 a month for unlimited users, and additional features such as a Facebook ads integration, AI support for the bot, and an integration with Shopify stores or Facebook shops. They also offer agency and enterprise-style pricing.
Key features:
Facebook Messenger & Instagram
Ready-to-use templates
Images, video and audio support
In-app payments via Facebook (US users only) or Stripe (international)
Analytics integrate with Dashbot.io, Botanalytics and Yandex Metrica
Collect Facebook user data through forms (e.g. email addresses)
Integrations with 3rd party tools like Calendly, Zapier and more
Build and manage retargeting campaigns
Leverages Facebook profile data for retargeting
MobileMonkey
About: MobileMonkey positions itself as an “OmniChat” platform and offers bot solutions for text (SMS), Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and native web. One of the key benefits of MobileMonkey is that it allows teams to build conversations for multiple bots from one location (i.e., the core of their ‘OmniChat’ technology).
They offer a drag-and-drop dialog builder, premade dialog templates, support for live chat handoff through its Zapier integration, and are currently used by brands like Toyota and VMware. MobileMonkey also has an agency partner network that can build and manage your ads and bots for you if you prefer to outsource.
Pricing: MobileMonkey pricing will vary based on your business goals (agency or in-house) and offers both startup and growth editions for the latter. The growth edition promises additional integrations via their API (versus through Zapier).
Supports:
Natural language processing
Ready-to-use dialog templates
Images, video, GIFs
Audience segmentation and targeting
“Chat blasts” and drip campaigns
Live chat takeover
Zapier integrations (e.g. Slack, Salesforce, MailChimp, Hubspot, Klaviyo, Freshdesk)
Looking to commerce enable your chatbot?
Join the many brands leveraging conversational commerce today. Chat with an Elastic Path expert to see how our headless solutions will help.
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Octane.ai
About: Octane.ai specializes in chat for Shopify and is really catered to merchants in need of conversation support for their Shopify stores. Leveraged by popular Shopify customers like GoPro, Octaine.AI has a unique ‘Shop Quiz’ feature that allows companies to personalize products and recommendations. It supports unique third-party integrations such as Yotpo and Klavio to add review context to product recommendations and targeted offers (including direct link to read reviews).
Octane.ai pricing: They offer starter pricing for smaller companies that is $29 a month, with an added on cost of $0.06 for every additional engagement (bot interactions) that go above that. After that pricing gets custom. Anyone that wants to explore, has the option of starting a free trial.
Supports:
Natural language processing
Ready-to-use dialog templates
Images, video and audio
Pop-up windows to build a Messenger marketing list
Automated sequencing including back-in-stock alerts and cart recovery
Integrates with Yotpo and Klaviyo to surface reviews in chat
Integrates with JustUno to collect and sync email addresses
Integrates with Yext to sync store locator data
Flow XO
About: Flow XO is another business-friendly chatbot tool. They offer a multi-channel conversational ai chatbot solution for ecommerce companies that can be implemented across Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, Slack, Telegram, and on your own website. You can facilitate both automated and live conversations and accept payments through chat. Their UI is clean, easy-to-use, and offers the ability to build from scratch, as well a number of pre-built templates for a variety of use cases across a number of industries including banking, entertainment, and hospitality. They also integrate with over 100 platforms, making it easy to build and customize your bot to your requirements.
Flow XO pricing: Flow XO offers a fairly comprehensive starter option that is free. You get 500 interactions, 5 active bots or flows, 2 weeks of logs for tracking, and email support. The next level up is their standard plan at $19 a month, which incorporates all features, 5,000 interactions, 15 bots, 3 months of logs, 5 seats for your team, and the ability to download your user data and remove messenger branding. After that, a key pricing differentiator between Flow XO and their competitors is that that you can add on extra bots and interactions for an additional $10 or $25 a month. This is great as you can scale as you need to and not get stuck with a higher tier and additional bots you don't need.
Supports:
Facebook, Messenger, SMS, Slack, Telegram, or your own site
Natural language processing
Image, video, and audio
100+ integrations
Accepting payments
Ready-to-use dialog templates
Live chat takeover
Lead capture capabilities
ManyChat
About: ManyChat is another Facebook-oriented chatbot tool and supports Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct Messages, and SMS bots. It provides similar capabilities to its competitors, but supports file attachments, allows you to preview recipients’ names in a group blast, and provides analytics for subscribes and unsubscribes. ManyChat also integrates with Google’s Dialogflow framework (reviewed below) for AI and voice capabilities.
ManyChat Pricing: Manychat also offers a free version that gives users access to all basic features, 1 seat, and the ability to engage with up to 1,000 contacts a month. At $15 / month per seat for their Pro version, you get access to engage with an unlimited number of customers, SMS bots, and unlimited users.
Supports:
Facebook Messenger
Natural language processing
Machine learning
Ready-made templates
Visual build/edit capabilities
Images, image galleries, video, audio and file attachments
Bot cloning
Live chat takeover
Analytics
Collect Facebook user data through forms (e.g. email addresses)
Push this data to CRM, email marketing + more through Zapier integration
Automated sequencing and retargeting campaigns
Analytics
Botsify
About: Botsify is a multi-channel chatbot solution that lets you build dialog for Facebook, your own chatbot, WhatsApp, Telegram, or SMS. Its voice features differentiate it from competitors, however Botsify lacks Facebook remarketing and campaign tools, and appears to focus more on customer service dialogs than commerce.
Botsify supports team collaboration and workflows, enterprise Single Sign On and prototype preview across devices. They enable a seamless transition between AI-based bots and live chat for a better customer experience, and offer over 100 different integrations including Zapier, slack, Wordpress, and stripe for in-chat payments.
A key differentiator of Botsify is their multi-lingual chatbot feature, that allows customers to translate their bots for native conversations in multiple languages.
Botsify Pricing: Bostify also offers tiered pricing, but no free version. Their lowest tier starts at $40 a month and allows for 2 bots, 5,000 bot users a month, and access to all integrations, among their base features (Facebook, SMS, Website bots). Their professional tier starts at $125 a month, includes up to 5 bots / 15k users a month, and additional support including bi-weekly trainings and a personal onboarding session. After that, you need to reach out to go custom.
Supports:
Facebook Messenger, Slack, Alexa and your own chatbots
Natural language processing
Bot Translation
Ready-to-use dialog templates (via Bot Store)
Drag-and-drop capabilities
Images, image galleries, video, audio and file attachments
Team collaboration tools
Live chat takeover
In-chat payments via Stripe integration
Analytics
Unlimited user testing
Integrates with Slack for internal testing
Botsociety
About: Botsociety is a business-friendly design tool that lets teams build live prototypes for Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Assistant and more with drag-and-drop and collaborative tools. They also give teams the ability hand their bots off to developers to customize code. It's a phenomenal tool for anyone looking to build custom bots from scratch, but they do offer pre-built templates for a variety of uses cases such as banking, or curbside pickup. Their collaborative experience, user management (the ability to assign different permissions by person), and private cloud and SSO integration makes it a great enterprise chatbot for ecommerce businesses.
Botsociety pricing: Botsociety offers a starter package at no cost with access to unlimited designs and up to 20 messages per design. Their professional package can be billed monthly or annually, starting at $71 a month, and offers unlimited designs, messages, and up to 5 editors. For anything above that, you will need to contact them for enterprise pricing, which includes additional benefits such as custom integrations, SSO & custom domains, and a private cloud option.
Supports:
Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Alexa, Google Assistant, your own bots
Voice capabilities
Drag-and-drop capabilities
Images, image galleries, video and audio
Team collaboration tools
Interactive previews
Multi-lingual support
Integration with backend APIs
Analytics
Ada
About: Ada is unique among ecommere chatbots in that it’s both a “no-IT-required chatbot” builder, but is also friendly for developers. It’s also not focused on Facebook Messenger. Ada’s sweet spot is supporting use cases that require collection of personal information within chat, such as secure customer data (with PCI, GDPR and PIPEDA compliance), and can provide replies based on customers’ orders, bookings, accounts, passwords and more. You can also segment and target visitors with proactive chat based on visitor attributes or on-site behavior. Ada also supports multi-geography brands, enabling them to deliver personalized conversations and experiences in over 100 languages.
Ada pricing: For ada pricing you will need to reach out to them directly.
Supports:
Building your own chatbot without coding skills
Publish to Facebook Messenger, WeChat/WhatsApp coming soon
Multiple-language support
Natural language processing
Machine learning and training
Drag-and-drop capabilities
Images, video, GIFs
Secure customer data
Live chat takeover through Zendesk, LivePerson and FreshDesk integrations
Analytics
Proactive chat
integrates with your existing APIs to push unique products, services, bookings and more
Automat
About: Automat offers an enterprise chatbot for ecommerce businesses looking to facilitate conversations on their website. Their bot specializes in conversational AI, and enables teams to provide personalized product recommendations through chat.
Automat pricing: You will need to reach out to Automat directly for pricing.
Supports:
Building a bot for your website
Analytics
Conversational ads and landing pages
Live chat handover
Ecommerce capabilities
Conversational AI
Bot Frameworks
Dialogflow
About: Dialogflow (formerly API.ai) is a Google product that leverages its speech-to-text, natural language processing and machine learning technologies. Running on Google’s Cloud Platform, Dialogflow projects can scale to hundreds of millions of users, and integrate with Google Assistant, Alexa, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Telegram, KiK, Viber, Skype, Slack and more. It also supports integration with Internet of Things such as wearables, car speakers and other smart devices. While users say publishing to Facebook is difficult with Dialogflow (you have to build this yourself), integrations with ManyChat and Botsociety (below) bridge this gap. Dialogflow lacks pre-built integrations with live help, email, reviews and other third party services, but can be custom built.
Developers can use Dialogflow by making direct REST over HTTP requests, and use client libraries in C#, Go, Java, Node.js, Ruby, Python and PHP.
Supports:
Multi-platform publishing
Voice capabilities
SDKs for Internet of Things
Natural language processing
AI / machine learning and training
Over 20 languages
Analytics (Chatbase)
Amazon Lex
About: Lex, the AI/conversational technology behind Alexa, is now open to developers to build Facebook, KiK, Slack or Twillo chatbots (or integrate with Alexa Skills Kit). Naturally, Lex includes speech capabilities and automatic speech recognition (ASR) for speech-to-text. Lex also has pre-built connectors to Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Zendesk and Quickbooks.
Thanks to Amazon’s ecommerce context, Lex has one of the most robust libraries of product-related subjects and entities, meaning less manual setup. It also have a few ready-to-use bots and supports AI training. For projects that go beyond website chatbots such as in-store kiosks and Internet of Things, you can leverage Amazon Web Services and third-party APIs, SDKs and services. Pay-as-you-go pricing makes it easy to experiment, and you’re only charged per text or speech request.
Supports:
Facebook, KiK, Slack, Twillo, Alexa, your own bot
Voice capabilities and speech-to-text
Natural language processing
AI / machine learning and training
Ready-to-use dialogs and ecommerce-focused entities
Integration with third party tools (e.g. HubSpot, Salesforce)
SDKs for Internet of Things
Microsoft Bot Framework
About: Microsoft Bot Framework works with Azure Cognitive Services to support complex, AI-driven use cases including adaptive cards (display real-time, contextual information on orders, bookings, etc), image and voice recognition. If you want chat that listens and speaks (even in a “branded voice”) and can identify speakers’ voices and faces, this bot’s for you. Despite these advanced capabilities you can try it for free, and pay only for what you need.
Microsoft’s own LUIS (Language Understanding Intelligence Service) is used to configure your own business logic with advanced NLP and AI training capabilities. The Framework allows you to use multiple data sources (yes, Big Data!) and integrate with any channel and touchpoint.
However, Microsoft’s solution is developer-heavy. Business users have no tooling to customize dialog, meaning IT must be committed to not just the initial build, but to the entire lifecycle of the bot.
Supports:
Pre-built dialog “blocks”
Natural language processing
Voice capabilities and voice recognition
Branded voice
Image and face recognition
Adaptive cards
AI / machine learning and training
Big Data integration
SDKs for Internet of Things
Deployment to Azure
Integration with Microsoft Cortana devices
Analytics
Pandorabots
About: Pandorabots is a hosted framework to build rules-based chatbots. An AI “OG,” Pandorabots has been around since 2008, with over 1M community users worldwide. It’s based on Artificial Intelligence Markup Language (AIML) which it claims is “easy for anyone to learn, even if you aren’t a programmer.” It also offers its own professional services. For developers, SDKs are available for Java, Rube, Go, Node.js, Python and PHP.
Pandorabots lacks a major feature of other frameworks -- machine learning. However, it positions this as a benefit, as machine learning tools tend to experience performance lag the more intents it keeps.
Supports:
Access to open source chatbot libraries
Voice capabilities
Big Data integration
SDKs for popular programming languages
IBM Watson
About: Built on a neural network of 1 Billion Wikipedia words, Watson’s AI powers 1-800-Flowers’ GWYN (Gifts When You Need) concierge and the North Face’s voice search. Watson features an “empathy analyzer” to predict personality through text (aka sentiment analysis).
While it’s an enterprise framework, it ships with a visual dialog editor for non-techies to build simple flows. SDKs are available for Java, Node.js, .NET, Python, Ruby and other popular languages, as well as Android and Salesforce. While there are a few pre-built dialog templates, expect to build most bots from scratch.
Supports:
One-click deployment to any platform
Pre-built dialog templates
10 languages and translation
Voice capabilities
Speech-to-text, text-to-speech
Natural language processing
Machine learning and training
Sentiment analysis
Visual dialog editor
Collaboration tools
Live chat takeover
Big Data integration
Analytics
Pypestream
About: Pypstream is a build framework that serves as a conversational commerce microservice. It’s API-driven, and integrates with any web service using REST, SOAP, or legacy APIs.
While Pypestream isn’t primarily focused on retail, it has some very appealing features for travel, insurance and finance that can apply to B2C and B2B commerce scenarios. Its main differentiator is encryption and privacy that supports entry and retrieval of passwords, orders and other sensitive information, and file upload which can be used for advanced support and AI-driven onboarding and verification of new accounts.
For travel companies such as cruise lines, Pypestream can support in-chat bookings, activities, concierge services, loyalty points and rewards, dining vouchers, discount codes, personalized guest experiences and travel insurance. Hotels can integrate guest services, late checkout, room service, upgrades, extended stays, loyalty points and rewards, amenities, bookings, locations, concierge services and other discounts. Travelers can also spend points within chat.
Pypestream’s AI maintains context throughout a chat history, which is useful for personalized experiences. It can also trigger outbound SMS notifications via event-based broadcasts.
Based on the selected use cases for automation, Pypestream will extract relevant data from APIs to authenticate users, and can even trigger outbound SMS notifications via event-based broadcasts.
Supports:
Natural language processing
Voice capabilities
Design studio
AI / machine learning and training
Rich media and file upload
Scheduling
GPS / send location
Data encryption
In-chat payment
Surveys
Integration with Big Data, booking systems and more
Live chat takeover
SMS notifications and event-based triggers
Extension to any device / Internet of Things
Conversation logs
Analytics
What to ask yourself before choosing your ecommerce chatbot
Still not sure which solution to choose? As with most tech decisions in this day, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all option so you’ll need to think carefully about your business requirements. Your chatbot solution will depend on your needs and how well their features satisfy them.
If you’re still not sure about which one to pick, ask yourself a couple of the following questions:
Do you need ultimate flexibility and the ability to code? Or is a drag and drop option fine?
Do you have basic use cases, or do you need a complex AI to handle your customer support questions?
Do you need SMS or voice-enabled commerce?
Does your team need the ability to intervene with live chat?
Is your business international and in need of multi-lingual support?
Do you need a native website bot, or do you primarily need to focus on platforms like Messenger and Instagram?
Do you need to enable a cart and checkout process in your bot?
How much support will you need to onboard and implement your bot?
What data will the bot collect, what do you need, and how do you plan to use it?
Does the bot meet your privacy needs?
What is the base cost of the platform and are there any additional fees that you need to consider?
What integrations do you need and will the platform support you?
Ask yourself what it is that you need and go from there. Elastic Path does not provide chatbot solutions, but if you have questions about how to commerce enable your chatbot, we can help. We provide a headless, API-first microservices solution for businesses looking to build custom, unique commerce experience. We can help enable cart & check out within your bot and enable a faster, more seamless customer experience.
Topics: build, business, facebook, need, ecommerce, chat, data, pricing, bots, chatbot, messenger, best, chatbots, language. -
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Ecommerce Chatbots 101: What Are They And Do You Need one?
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There are any number of ways consumers today can connect with a brand and purchase products online – whether that’s on a website, in a mobile app, over email, on the phone, through social media, or in-store.
While the number of options can at first seem disorienting, the majority of modern customers are using more than one channel to engage with brands and could have anywhere up to 20 touch points before buying. They demand convenience and speed and are more than willing to find an alternative when they have negative experiences, or their expectations aren’t met.
When only 9% of consumers today say they’re brand loyal, it’s vital that companies make it as simple and frictionless as possible for customers to connect with their business. Whether they’re purchasing a product for the first time, a returning customer looking to connect with support or return products, businesses need to provide positive, seamless experiences.
This is why chatbots have become such a hot commodity for ecommerce companies. According to drift, they are the fastest growing brand communication channel. Gartner even predicted that chatbots would power 85% of customer service interactions by 2020 and Nielsen found that 56% of online shoppers said they preferred to resolve issues through messaging apps than call customer service. Chatbots can even act as another purchasing pathway. In fact, ecommerce chatbot transactions are projected to amount to $112 billion by 2023.
In this post we will dive a little deeper into chatbots and answer some of the top questions you might have, including:
What are ecommerce chatbots?
Why you should be considering them
How chatbots work
How to determine your chatbot strategy
Examples of killer chatbots in action today
What is a chatbot?
So what is a chatbot? A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate human conversation, either as voice or text communication. They allow consumers to quickly and digitally interact with companies, without having to talk to a real person.
In many cases, chatbots are artificial intelligence (AI)-based programs designed to provide answers or support for consumers based on pre-defined programs or specific keywords. They can also however, help facilitate live conversations between businesses and customers, speeding up response times to support inquires and improving the overarching consumer experience.
What are the benefits of chatbots in ecommerce?
According to HubSpot, 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response as essential or very important when they have a customer service question. 60% of customers define “immediate” as 10 minutes or less. Having the ability to answer questions 24/7, either automatically or via live chat, is the number one benefit of chatbots according to consumers (source: Drift).
However, there are several other advantages, especially for ecommerce businesses:
Boosted revenue through conversational commerce. This includes enabling a full cart & checkout process through chatbots, whether that’s in Facebook messenger or other social media pages, in messaging apps or event over text.
Reduced abandoned shopping carts. You can trigger your bot to send a private message to consumers that never finished checking out a reminder and request to complete their purchase. According to chatbot magazine, Using abandoned cart chatbots alongside Messenger boosts eCommerce revenue by 7-25%.
Prevent returns. Ecommerce chatbots can preemptively intervene in a shopping process that might go wrong based on certain behaviors.
Save on customer support costs and give your team time back. According to IBM, chatbots can save businesses as much as 30% on customer support costs. Setting up chatbots to cover the basic support questions that you get over and over again will help you avoid having to consistently answer them live, meaning your team can focus on the more difficult inquiries, and you don’t have to hire more staff.
Personalize shopping. Personalized recommendations are one of the most important features a business can leverage, and chatbots are one way to deliver them. According to Accenture, 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them. Depending on the complexity of your bot, you can use it to understanding a customer’s preferences and cater product recommendations accordingly.
Chatbots will ultimately help alleviate some of the most frustrating experiences online shoppers face, including hard to navigate sites, poor search experiences, the inability to find answers quickly, and poorly designed mobile experiences.
How Chatbots work
A key differentiator between chatbot tools is whether they’re rules-based scripting or leverage learning algorithms and natural language processing.
Chatbots are programmed with conversation trees, a mapping of “bot says / user says” dialogs. Responses can be closed (predetermined) or open (type a question/response), or a mix of both.
Image: Chatteron.io Demo
Scripted scenarios are great for common customer support inquiries that can easily be served by quick answers or links to shipping and return policies, or similar content. Of course, this limitation may leave customers unsatisfied. Some rules-based chatbot tools allow you to transfer a user to a live agent if their questions can’t be resolved by the bot.
More nuanced chat requires natural language processing to infer intent and to map open responses to bot replies. A chatbot using NLP (natural language processing) looks at a user’s utterance, parse out entities to infer intent. It then matches intent to predetermined intents you create, such as “showGifts.”
Utterance is what the user says. For example, “I’m looking for a gift for my 3-year old son.”
Intent is what it sounds! It’s what your user most likely wants to know or do.
Entities are data buckets that include keywords and phrases with similar characteristics that modify user intent. For example, “gift ideas,” “gift suggestions,” “gift recommendations,” “gifts,” “best gifts for,” “presents for,” “present recommendations.” And “3 year old son,” “three year old boy” “3 yr old,” “toddler boy,” “son,” et cetera.
Natural language programming can match intent to pre-built responses more flexibly than rules-based bots. But NLP without a machine learning component falls short of truly being “AI-driven.” AI chatbots will recognize patterns and optimize itself based on user interaction and feedback, but often require human training to fine-tune their algorithms.
*Chatbot solutions that use NLP but don’t include training capabilities are not considered AI chatbots in this guide.
Whether you choose a rules-based, NLP-enabled or full-on AI chatbot solution, be prepared to invest time in mapping out and scripting conversation trees, building sets of entities and defining intents. Many chatbots offer pre-built templates to guide your conversation, but still require contextual input from you.
Also, keep in mind good AI requires more training before release than people think. Natural language processing doesn’t just “know everything” out of the box.
Looking to commerce enable your chatbot?
Join the many brands leveraging conversational commerce today. Chat with an Elastic Path expert to see how our headless solutions will help.
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Determining your chatbot strategy
There are a few types of chatbots to consider, and which route you choose will depend entirely on your business strategy. You may want to enable support, personalized shopping, or even transactions from within your bot. You may also decide at the end of the day that you want your bot to be purely informational, helping users find resources and answer questions themselves.
Minimum viable chatbot
If your goal is simply to make live help available 24/7, relieve chat agents of the 70% of questions that can be handled by a chatbot, or configure light product recommendation dialogs, you’ll be covered by any business-user friendly, self-service tool. Most support Facebook Messenger and/or your own site widget, and many use natural language processing to match responses to intent.
Facebook Messenger Marketing
If chat is one part of a larger Facebook marketing strategy, including cart recovery, automated sequencing (remarketing) and ads, look for platforms that include these tools.
Advanced chatbots
If you see conversational commerce as a key initiative, you want more flexibility to train your AI, deploy to multiple messaging platforms, devices and touchpoints, and own your code. Look for a build framework that jives with your platform, cloud services and IT’s preferred programming languages.
Choose your Channel(s)
You may opt to host your own chatbot, or leverage third-party messenger applications such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram, KiK or Skype. You may also want to jump into voice commerce, integrating with Alexa or Google Assistant.
Why use Facebook Messenger Chatbots
First-movers like 1-800-Flowers, ASOS, Sephora and Nike have all embraced Facebook Messenger, thanks to its high user adoption rates and in-chat purchase capabilities (63% of shoppers are willing to buy through SMS). Messenger chatbots support natvie payment through Facebook Pay (US only) or Stripe.
Image: ChatbotGuide.org
An added benefit -- whether a visitor engages with your Facebook chatbot or not, they can be retargeted through Messenger with offer codes, cart recovery messages, back-in-stock alerts and other notifications (with up to 80% open rate). Some Facebook chatbot vendors described below allow you to build and manage segmented “automated sequencing” campaigns in addition to building chatbot scripts.
Why use your own chatbot To ensure all-inclusivity, consider using your own chatbot. You can use multiple bots, but keep in mind the impact on performance when running multiple scripts. You may choose to leverage Facebook Pixels for Messenger retargeting without using a Messenger bot as your on-site concierge.
Why explore voice commerce
While only 2% of Alexa owners made a voice purchase in 2018, voice-enabled commerce has since become a touchpoint within a broader shopping journey. Just over ten percent (10.8%) of digital shoppers used Alexa for shopping in 2020. 47% of smart speaker owners (around 25 million in the US) use voice assistants for product search and research, and 43% use them to make shopping lists. If you want to get in early on this action (like Walmart’s Voice Order), consider building Alexa Skills or Google Assistant applications.
Identify Your Must-have Ecommerce Chatbot Features
Regardless of whether or choose to build or buy your bot, you should know your must-have features before you get started. Make note of any of the following that apply to your project:
Team collaboration
Voice capabilities
In-chat payments
Live chat takeover
Integration with email, CRM, accounting, analytics, etc
Ability to train your AI
Extensibility to devices, systems and third party platforms
Multi-language support
Tagging and user segmentation
Remarketing and SMS notifications
Built-in user and A/B testing Many bot options offer features that can address the above list
Drag & drop UI
Developer support
3 Examples of Chatbots in Action
With the general growing acceptance of chatbots from customers, they have quickly become a staple channel for brands across a wide array of industries. 34% of online retail store customers accept AI chatbots, more so than in any other industry. While retail businesses and their consumers might have been some of the earliest adopters, we are seeing companies in a wide array of industries including travel, leisure, banking, and finance, implement chatbots as a part of their overarching business strategy.
Lulus
Popular online clothing retailer Lulus leverages their website chatbot to help customers understand more about what size will fit them, answer questions about tracking & orders, give stylist advice, and even offer specific bridal support.
Bank of America
Bank of America, one of the leading banking brands today, offers a personal financial assistant, called Erica, that can be access via their online portal or through their mobile App.
With Erica, users can quicky look up their bank account information, recent activity, pay bills, schedule appointments, report fraudulent activity, or request budgeting support. Users can also set up bill reminders, monitor recurring payments, or even credit score changes with FICO Score Insights.
Erica reached 7 million users by 2019, one year after debut, and completed over 50 million secure client requests.
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Sephora
Beauty giant Sephora is at the top of our list for a number of different ecommerce experiences, including providing one of the world’s leading omnichannel ecommerce experiences, and their chatbot is no exception.
Sephora actually offers three different chat experiences, two on Facebook, and their Kik bot. Between the three, customers can book in-store beauty appointments, leverage the brand’s iconic AI Color Match (an experience allowing customers to find the best shade of makeup for their skin tone), find tips and how-to videos, and read reviews.
In implementing Kik, Sephora noted that once a user engages, they will send on average 10 messages a day.
Conclusion
Chatbots are HOT. They help brands build better customer engagement by enabling them to answer questions or support inquires quicker, provide personalized recommendations, and can improve the bottom line by facilitating in-chat commerce and reducing returns and abandoned shopping carts.
Any business looking to boost brand loyalty and revenue should consider adding a bot to their channel mix.
Topics: need, messenger, shopping, chatbots, bot, chatbot, ecommerce, support, facebook, customers, user. -
Facebook Chatbots for Business: The Definitive Guide
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You’ve set up a visually stunning cover photo for your Facebook business page, chalked a marketing plan, and are almost done setting up your shop on the social network too. But when it comes to a Facebook chatbot for Messenger, you find yourself scratching your head. Should I give it […]
Topics: bot, business, facebook, guide, customer, page, messenger, creating, stepbystep, blocks, chatbot, customers, answer. -
Facebook Messenger Marketing for Ecommerce: How to Write Facebook Messenger Messages that Increase Sales
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Increase the effectiveness of your Facebook Messenger marketing campaign with these tips to help you write better FB Messenger messages so you get better open rates & higher conversions. This Facebook Messenger marketing strategy will get you closer to your traffic & conversion goals.
Topics: write, better, youre, fb, message, facebook, email, users, messages, key, user, messenger, marketing. -
Facebook Messenger Marketing: How Facebook Messenger Can Help Grow Your Online Store
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Make the most out of Facebook Messenger Marketing & grow your traffic and customers with this emerging marketing channel!
Topics: store, marketing, help, ecommerce, replies, grow, customers, online, sales, messenger, facebook. -
Facebook is discontinuing P2P payments in Messenger in the UK and France on June 15
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Facebook is pulling away from its ambitions to provide peer-to-peer money transfers via Messenger in Europe. Today, the company announced that it would be discontinuing the service — which let individuals send money to each other — in the two countries in the region where it had rolled it out, the U.K. and France, on […]
Topics: messenger, company, europe, payments, service, discontinuing, money, p2p, send, uk, france, facebook. -
Facebook taps banks, but for chatbots not purchase data like Google
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Backlash swelled this morning after Facebook’s aspirations in financial services were blown out of proportion by a Wall Street Journal report that neglected how the social network already works with banks. Facebook spokesperson Elisabeth Diana tells TechCrunch it’s not asking for credit card transaction data from banks and it’s not interested in building a dedicated […]
Topics: data, google, facebook, account, privacy, targeting, taps, messenger, chatbots, banks, users, ad, services, purchase. -
How To Grow Your Ecommerce Store With Facebook Messenger Marketing
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Facebook Messenger is the #2 most downloaded iOS and Android app of all time and over 1.3 billion people use Messenger every month to communicate with their friends and family. So if you’ve been on the fence about using Facebook Messenger bots to market your ecommerce store, here are some facts that might tip you […]
Topics: click, email, marketing, subscriber, ecommerce, facebook, free, customer, send, customers, order, messenger, grow, store. -
How to Actually Monetize Facebook Traffic with Messenger
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For years, Facebook has been one of the best places to build and reach your audience. Over that same period of time, though, it's become much more of a pay-to-play channel.
Topics: reach, facebook, traffic, users, youre, actually, monetize, quiz, seo, ebook, way, audience, messenger. -
How to Unblock Someone on Facebook and Messenger [FAQ]
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When you block someone on Facebook, they won't be able to see anything you post on your profile, tag you in any form of content, invite you to any events or groups, message you, or add you as a friend.
Topics: messenger, unblocking, unblock, faq, text, facebook, block, person, friend, click, wait, button. -
How to choose an ecommerce chatbot (14 solutions reviewed)
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Gartner predicts chatbots will power 85% of customer service interactions by next year, and 31% of marketers believe that virtual personal assistants will have more impact than any other AI technology.
Thinking of adding a chatbot to your ecommerce site? We've reviewed 14 options from chatbot builders to developer frameworks. Read on to learn which is right for you.
Topics: language, chatbots, ecommerce, messenger, chatbot, solutions, data, user, choose, reviewed, build, facebook, chat, dialog. -
Increase Sales by Adding Chat to Your Website
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People are shopping online more than ever, but they still want a personal touch. Deliver great service on the platform over a billion people use each month.
Topics: website, plugin, messenger, increase, adding, add, sales, customer, facebook, facebooks, chat, online, customers. -
Looking for a Chatbot? Check Out This Octane AI Review
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Unless you've been living under a boulder with no wi-fi and human contact for the last few years, you can't fail to notice the rise in chatbot popularity. So if you're running your own online store, you'll want to jump…
Continue reading Looking for a Chatbot? Check Out This Octane AI Review
Topics: ai, facebook, looking, check, campaigns, customer, ais, messenger, messages, customers, review, chatbot, send, octane. -
Messenger tools can help you recover millions in lost revenue
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There are few better ways to bridge that gap than a thoughtful implementation of messenger tools, those chat bubbles many big brands use to offer real-time customer support.
Topics: recover, brands, millions, revenue, deploy, works, customer, tools, visitors, visitor, messenger, techcrunch, help, lost, website, service. -
News Cart for November 21st
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Hello ECFriends, Nike made waves recently by pulling its products from Amazon, triggering speculation on whether other brands will follow suit. Facebook unveiled a system to simplify payments across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. TikTok is testing shoppable links, and beware the self-deleting JavaScript payment skimmer. Check out these stories and more in this week’s [...]
Topics: singles, job, wholesale, 21st, facebook, cart, payment, shoppable, store, users, instagram, messenger. -
Recart Review: A Customer Journey Solution (March 2019)
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Cart abandonment is a universal nightmare for eCommerce brands. Recart focuses on reducing the holes in your bottom-of-the-funnel strategy so that you can eliminate the headaches associated with lost revenue. When you do all the hard work to get your…
Continue reading Recart Review: A Customer Journey Solution (March 2019)
Topics: way, cart, messenger, review, journey, youre, recart, customers, email, abandonment, need, messages, solution, customer. -
The Beginner’s Guide to Facebook Messenger Ads
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With two billion messages on Facebook Messenger sent between people and businesses each month and 53% of people willing to buy from a company they can directly message Facebook Messenger, Facebook Messenger ads are one of the best ways to leverage the popularity and convenience of the app to generate more brand awareness and revenue.
Topics: guide, facebook, send, brand, message, ads, beginners, screen, messenger, ad, sponsored, messages. -
Unriddled: Amazon Officially Selects HQ2, an Unsend Feature Coming to Messenger, and More Tech News You Need
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"Unriddled" is HubSpot's weekly digest of the tech headlines you need to know. We give you the top tech stories in a quick, scannable way and break it all down. It's tech news: explained.
Topics: read, ai, feature, users, messenger, coming, technology, tech, unsend, week, selects, need, amazon, city, officially, voice, google, hq2, unriddled. -
Unriddled: Messenger's New Look, Apple's Latest Products, and More Tech News You Need
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"Unriddled" is HubSpot's weekly digest of the tech headlines you need to know. We give you the top tech stories in a quick, scannable way and break it all down. It's tech news: explained.
Topics: read, pages, pro, stores, week, look, products, cashierless, messengers, messenger, tech, need, unriddled, users, line, apples, latest. -
Using Facebook Messenger Chatbots to Support Live Chat
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Chatbots can help bridge the gap between live chat and self-help support pages. While highly customized automatic chatbots require a large financial investment, there are many ways to affordably integrate more personal conversations.
Topics: users, chat, chatbot, products, facebook, live, shoppers, using, support, messenger, chatbots. -
Wicked Quick: Facebook chatbot remarketing tips with Larry Kim
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For this week’s Wicked Quick, we caught up with Larry Kim, founder of Wordstream and Facebook Messenger marketing platform MobileMonkey on how to optimize chatbots for ecommerce. Larry will be speaking on The Top 7 Chatbot Marketing Hacks of All Time at Unbounce’s Call to Action Conference this month.
Topics: messenger, quick, strategy, kim, messaging, users, based, remarketing, unsubscribe, tips, chatbots, way, facebook, chatbot, larry, wicked.