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Every ecommerce entrepreneur will have heard of BigCommerce, even if they don’t use the platform for their own operations.
BigCommerce is a very well-regarded platform where users can build websites, manage payments, shipping, and fulfillment, and list their products on Amazon. It’s extremely popular in US ecommerce, with over 66.4% of BigCommerce’s digital stores based in the US.
Despite its popularity, there is one area where BigCommerce falls short. While companies can easily list their contact information on a BigCommerce website, there’s no convenient way to communicate with site visitors in real time. This might seem like a small detail, but customer experience is a make-or-break factor for ecommerce success, especially in the digital age.
Adding a live chat feature to your BigCommerce website will boost customer satisfaction, differentiate your store from the competition, and add value to your business in terms of efficiency and profits.
If you are unsure how to offer your customers live chat for BigCommerce, read on to discover the best options on the market and what to look for in your choice of software.
Why your business needs live chat for BigCommerce
The rise of ecommerce has made the lives of shoppers much easier. They can browse through thousands of products and complete purchases at the click of a button.
Yet, some elements of the physical shopping experience haven’t carried over to digital spaces. Finding ways to integrate them can help increase sales and make customers happier. Live chat is one such service.
Think of a live chat feature as a store assistant for your ecommerce site. It treats every website visitor as a potential customer, greeting them as they come in and answering their queries. Live chat for BigCommerce involves chatbots that handle multiple conversations simultaneously with no trouble at all.
Just like an attendant in a physical store, live chat for BigCommerce guides visitors through the products, answers their questions about them, and helps make sales through recommendations.
In 2023, ecommerce revenue in the US reached $740 billion. This figure is set to grow as more businesses start using live chat to drive up their customer engagement rates.
BigCommerce live chat benefits customers and businesses
As an added customer touch point, live chat allows brands to craft a memorable experience. What seems like a simple conversation between buyer and seller has ramifications for all their future interactions.
Let’s look at how live chat adds value to ecommerce businesses.
Benefits for customers
Customer satisfaction with live chat has averaged over 80% in the last ten years. This is thanks to the many characteristics of live chat that make online shopping more convenient for customers:
- Ease of use: Interacting with a chat box is a simple enough task for any website visitor. With this feature, customers know they can easily raise issues and seek answers from the seller.
- Fast responses: Online shoppers have a need for speed. Live chat software also comes with automated reply features, drastically reducing the response time, so customers don’t have to wait to get the responses they need.
- Smooth resolution: Live chat is exceptional at resolving customer issues. In many cases, emerging problems can be solved within just one live chat interaction. The average response time for live chat is under two minutes, and the average issue resolution time is even shorter, clocking in at 42 seconds.
- Personalized customer service: Live chat software lets brands view customers’ past orders and previous complaints before responding to ensure a customized conversation.
- Elevated purchasing experience: Live chat adds character to a brand’s ecommerce store. Customers can learn more about the brand by having an organic conversation in real time, which helps them make better-informed shopping decisions.
Benefits for businesses
Out of the businesses that offer live chat features, 79% of them said that it had a positive impact on sales, revenue, and customer loyalty.
This is because live chat software has the following effects:
- Drives conversions: Live chat is one of the best ways to convert BigCommerce website visitors from casual browsers to buyers. A simple, easy-to-access source of information makes potential leads more confident in making a purchase.
- Raises customer satisfaction: Positive live chat experiences encourage customers to return to your store and make even more purchases. Satisfied customers are loyal, which is most important for your BigCommerce store in the long run.
- Boosts efficiency: Customer service is a full-time job. However, it’s unreasonable to expect employees to remain available to respond to customers 24/7. Live chat’s unique blend of human agents and automated responses makes customer service operations more efficient at serving customers at all hours.
- Lowers costs: The availability of live chat significantly improves customers’ online shopping experience. Apart from the cost of developing a chatbot or subscribing to a third-party provider, live chat lowers labor expenses for customer service tasks.
- Promotes inter-departmental collaboration: Live chat software can integrate with different systems in your ecommerce store, bringing together departments that impact customer experience for a joint effort.
Features to look for when selecting live chat for BigCommerce
Your business's ideal live chat software is out there; you just need to identify it. When choosing the best live chat for BigCommerce, keep these in mind:
Chatbot usage
Chatbots that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to have natural conversations with customers are a modern-day blessing for customer service teams. Always check if your live chat software has an in-built chatbot feature or its own native chatbot app.
Basic features list
Live chat isn’t just about sending and receiving messages. A suite of features will add value to your business in different ways, so always look at what your live chat software can do beyond messaging.
Some features to watch for are:
- Canned responses
- Robust security protocols
- Visitor monitoring
- Customer forms
Multi-platform integration
Consult your IT team before deciding which live chat software you will use. Some chatbots are compatible with many enterprise platforms, while others are not. If your live chat software doesn’t mesh well with the rest of your tech stack, it will do more harm than good.
Pricing
Live chat software ranges in price from free to subscriptions that cost hundreds of dollars. Your available resources and budgets will determine the best live chat option for your BigCommerce website.
Options to scale and customize
You should always move with the times in a fast-paced field like ecommerce. Your live chat software should be easily customizable to keep up with ever-evolving customer expectations and preferences.
Three popular live chat software for BigCommerce
The live chat market is becoming crowded. It is expected to maintain a compound annual growth rate of 8.8% every year until 2030. With so many new players entering the market, keeping track of the best solutions can be challenging.
Here are some of the most popular live chat software for BigCommerce:
Olark
This popular live chat service recently launched a chatbot feature, making it even more suitable for BigCommerce applications. It’s also very affordable, starting at $29 a month.
Best features:
- Customizable features
- Delivers in-depth reports
- Versatile integrations
Chatra
One of the best sales-focused live chat software, Chatra lets you view customers’ shopping cart contents and see who is browsing your website in real time. Three Chatra plans are available for businesses, starting with a free plan, an essential plan ($17 per agent per month), and a pro plan ($23 per agent per month).
Best features:
- Supports native Android and iOS mobile apps
- Captures detailed visitor information
- Saves customer conversations and replies
Re:amaze
Re:amaze provides fantastic value for money for businesses with a bigger budget. Apart from live chat, it has a customer help desk and a knowledge base. The prices for this software range from $29 to $69 a month.
Best features:
- Uses targeted messages
- Offers previews when customers are typing
- Displays common questions before a chat starts
LiveChat: The best live chat widget for BigCommerce
The most comprehensive and best live chat software for BigCommerce websites is LiveChat. It’s easy to set up and smoothly integrates with most major platforms for enterprise technology.
Several features make LiveChat an obvious choice for ecommerce entrepreneurs:
- Pre-set messaging: Increase sales by using LiveChat’s pre-set messages to engage all site visitors.
- Multi-channel integration: Communicate with customers across channels by integrating with WhatsApp Business, Messenger, Apple Messages for Business, and more.
- In-app recommendations: Wow shoppers with relevant product recommendations based on their browsing history.
- AI-powered automation: Assist your customer service team with powerful AI-powered chatbots.
- In-depth data reports: Make informed decisions based on data gathered through LiveChat customer interactions.
How to add LiveChat to your BigCommerce website
Your business can enjoy all the benefits mentioned once LiveChat is on your BigCommerce website. Luckily, that’s easily done. LiveChat BigCommerce integration is designed for plug-and-play. Simply paste a code snippet into your BigCommerce backend, and LiveChat will be up and running.
For further instructions on how to install LiveChat for BigCommerce, check out this simple online tutorial. It’s time to start chatting!
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