Chatbots are making online shopping and payments a breeze – see why retailers are jumping on this growing trend

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Traditional retailers with large in-store presences are struggling to keep up with customer satisfaction now that customers have the option to shop via online and mobile phones.

Customers can, and do, ask for support, take advantage of deals, and browse various stores within chat apps. As a result, retailers are turning to chatbots to give customer more accessibility to merchants. These retail chatbots offer consumers a variety of options, generally in a question-and-answer format with the ability to complete tasks without ever leaving their messaging application.

However, without a buying functionality within the chat app, there is a partition in the customer experience that opens up opportunity for payment firms and card networks or processors to break through.

What is “Conversational Commerce”?

The integration of messaging apps and online shopping allows businesses to utilize applications such as Facebook Messenger, WeChat, WhatsApp, or even voice technology like the Amazon Echo. Customers can chat with an AI robot and ask questions, receive customer commands and personalized recommendations, or purchase products all within one channel. With conversational commerce, customers are able to interact with human representatives, chatbots, or both.

Conversational commerce is not exclusive to only messenger chatbots, but also company representatives. For businesses, these e-commerce chatbots can be used to automate customer service messages and send information regarding their orders (such as shipping and delivery notifications) resolve any issues and interact with customers in real-time. Already, companies are partnering up with chat applications to create a simpler environment for customers to utilize their business.

Examples of E-Commerce Chatbots

eBay ShopBot, which launched in October 2016, was an attempt to battle the ongoing decline in eBay’s gross merchandise volume and to increase marketplace awareness. RJ Pittman, the Chief Product Officer of eBay, said in an interview with Forbes that Shopbot had created an opportunity for eBay to reach a new group of shoppers through Facebook Messenger, one of the top messaging applications.

ShopBot uses personalized shopping techniques that can save shoppers time and money by searching for deals through simple conversation or a photo, and can even create a size profile so that their curated collections and searchable inventory can give users the right size. When customers are prepared to purchase items, Facebook Messenger allows users to enter their credit card number and place an order within Messenger.

BI IntelligenceSubway and MasterCard, the second-largest US card network, partnered together to allow customers to purchase Subway food ahead of time. Using Facebook Messenger, the bot allows customers to choose nearby Subway locations and customize a sandwich. Subway found this as an alternative to customers calling in and keeping employees away from customers in store.

The bot also gives caloric information regarding the menu and quick, easy-to-use response buttons when choosing ingredients in your order. When customers place their order, they can choose to use Facebook’s payment system or Masterpass, a digital payment service from MasterCard, without leaving the application.

Alongside Subway, Mastercard also partnered with FreshDirect, an online grocer that allows users to order groceries in a Messenger chat window individually or as a group with the ability to split payments.

In 2016, Staples brought to life their signature “Easy Button” that takes the form of a two-way speaker that allows users to order and purchase supplies using voice commands as well as via Facebook Messenger, Slack, text, email and the Staples app. Powered by IBM’s Watson, an AI platform targeted to businesses, Staples aims to help businesses save time and have a better overall management of their organization by being available on not only messaging applications, but multiple communication tools for whatever offices prefer.

Chatbots in Online Shopping More Widely Used

FacebookA number of retailers are partnering with payments players in order to reap the benefits of making chat apps a single retail channel. Because chatbots are still in the preliminary stages of adoption, players already invested might not receive the immediate pay off; however, the growth of chatbots is undeniable.

According to a recent BI Intelligence report, more than 200 million users in China have added payments information into WeChat, a popular messaging application, and WeChat’s parent company now holds 37% market share of the Chinese mobile payment market.

Facebook Messenger has released a number of updates that let brands improve on their customer service and make their platform more attractive to businesses as well as users. Their built-in natural language processing detects message contexts. Messenger’s built-in natural learning processes (NLP), a core algorithm concept in artificial intelligence, enables businesses to scale and make user’s experiences seamless on Messenger. It prompts users and businesses to adopt chatbot retail and chatbot payments.

More to Learn

Shopping chatbots will continue to improve in the coming years. Chatbot architecture and design will evolve to the point that shopping bots will become standard for retail. But there are numerous applications for chatbots across a variety of sectors.

That’s why BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has put together a bundle of detailed reports on chatbots:

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