Live Chat for E-commerce: Essential Features

With the total value of online sales expected to reach $27.15 trillion by 2027, the industry of e-commerce is on the rise. Such market size opens many possibilities, despite tight competition from both small and mid-sized stores and marketplace giants, such as Amazon or AliExpress.

Perfecting every aspect of your e-commerce platform, from product selection and delivery options to customer assistance, is necessary to succeed in e-commerce. Integrating a live chat, which lets clients communicate with customer service representatives directly on a website, can significantly improve conversion rates and revenue. The price of a platform and the requirement for additional staff are often the main issues with live chat implementation, but its advantages are unquestionably bigger. Let’s take a look at what functionality you should look for when picking a live chat platform for your business.

Integration with social messaging platforms

Since many people spend a tremendous amount of time communicating with family members, discussing job projects, participating in group chats, and reading news feeds via instant messengers, why not allow them to contact your business using these same platforms? An online live chat integrated with social messaging platforms routes all client queries to a single interface where support staff can interact with them effortlessly.

Customization

A live chat widget must blend in with the rest of the website’s design rather than compete with it. This is where customization helps: by using brand’s colors and typefaces, a live chat can appear a natural addition to an e-store or landing page, improving the perception of a company and driving visitor engagement. Look for a live chat that allows you to alter chat widget’s position, color, background, agent avatars, welcome text, size, and button positioning.

Analytics integration

When choosing a live chat solution, look at what the analytics platform offers. Agent statistics like typical response time, daily ticket resolution rate, and customer satisfaction rate help to assess support team and sales performance. Also, such data as what website pages and actions trigger particular live chat requests gives valuable insights for improving customer journey, page navigation, check-out process, and so on.

Automation and templates

The productivity of support agents interacting with clients via live chat can be significantly increased with automatic welcome messages, responses to typical questions, and follow-up surveys. This frees up time to focus on difficult problems and resolve them more effectively. Template messages and macros can prove extremely helpful but must be used smartly and customized to such a degree that doesn’t leave an impression that a company pays little attention to the problems of its customers.

File sharing

It is important that a live chat comes with media files exchange support — it can make support agents work more convenient and help customers resolve their issues faster. For example, sharing a screenshot is easier than describing a web page issue, and sending additional pictures of an item can be a decisive moment for a client who is unsure about a purchase.

Mobile apps

The ability for sales reps and support agents to carry on conversations with clients while on the go can be a significant competitive advantage in the world where remote working is the new standard. Opt for a live chat provider that offers mobile apps. This way you can lessen the likelihood that an important client request or an urgent issue gets lost because their account manager is out of the office.

When choosing a live chat software, consider the top live chat providers to ensure security and stability. Compare the features, ratings, and reviews of various platforms. Ascertain whether the system can be integrated with other third-party systems in case there are any special features that niche consumers would desire. For example, Umnico Live Chat is a free multifunctional solution that allows you to engage clients on a website and solve their inquiries efficently, thanks to its integration with instant messengers a nd CRM systems, automation features, and mobile apps.