As they believe that conversations are the heart of building strong customer relationships, on Aug 14, 2019, Shopify introduced Shopify Chat. It is the Shopify’s first native live chat function that allows you to have real-time conversations with customers visiting your Shopify store. In this article, we will break down this new feature.
About Shopify Chat
Shopify Chat is a significant extension to the messaging capabilities, which gives your visitors a seamless way to contact you. It is already available within Shopify Ping without any fee. Plus, it is effortlessly set up and once enabled, Shopify Chat will appear on all pages of your online store.
With Ping and Shopify Chat you can:
- Add and customize a Chat button on your online store
- Respond to inquiries in real-time using Shopify Ping
- Send products, discounts, and new orders in chat
- Track Shopify sales using your sales channel overview and Analytics pages
Eligibility requirements:
- To use Shopify Chat you must have an online store
- Shopify Ping must be installed on an iOS device to receive and respond to messages
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The Importance of Real Conversations
Live chat increases conversions by reducing customer uncertainty
According to the research of Forrester, it shows that customers who chat with a brand convert three times more often and have a 10-15% higher average cart value. The reason is that when customers have real-time conversations with brands, which makes them feel confident about purchase information. Then, it will more likely that they will buy the items, which helps you boost your sales.
Customers may ask you some questions that are very personal and specific to the shopper, for example:
- “Can this arrive in time for our holiday party?”
- “Will your shoes in size 13 fit me? I wear a size 13 Vans.”
- “Do you think my father-in-law will like this as a gift?”
- “Will this coffee table match my living room furniture?”
- “Is this mountain bike a good purchase for a beginner?”
Answering these questions brings a higher purchasing possibility from customers. Plus, time is also an essential factor. Research reports that 57% of customers abandon their purchase if they can’t get their questions answered quickly. With chat, you can mimic the personalized sales approach of in-person retail, then removing customer certainty and make them more likely to stick around and make a purchase.
Real conversations add a whole new dimension of customer insight
Typically, most brands use analytics tools to collect data about how visitors behave on their store and how people respond to your marketing. But. there is a more simple and direct way to glean insight about your customers, which is live chat.
Live chat provides businesses with a deeper understanding of a customer’s intent, motivations, and expectations. Then, businesses can offer customers a better online shopping experience. Why do we say that? Because when you directly chat with your customers, they can give you some candid, qualitative feedback, which points you toward opportunities you wouldn’t have otherwise noticed.
Feedback helps you optimize your store for more sales
You should understand that when a customer asks a question or tells you about a frustrating experience, maybe there are also other people having the same experience. But most upset customers will choose to brood in silence, just some of them will tell their feeling about your store to you. Therefore, in some cases, negative feedback is a gift.
Live chat offers a low-barrier way to receive feedback from any page on your store so you can solve questions in-context and in real-time. Live chat also helps you to find out the root cause of a problem you hear about more than once. Then, you can have a general solution to all the same problems. For example, if two or three people interrupt their purchase to ask about sizing details for one of your products, you can update that product’s description with more detailed sizing information for future shoppers.
As can be seen that live chat is a powerful way to foster stronger connections between businesses and customers and ultimately increase sales. And Shopify Chat helps you to blend the best aspects of personal, one-on-one conversations. Plus, it is also convenient for you to manage all of your chats through Shopify Ping. Let’s try this new Shopify function for free.
