Conversational commerce is revolutionizing customer relations by placing direct, personalized exchange at the heart of the shopping experience. Driven by the rise of conversational AI, it enables brands to significantly boost their performance: more sales, stronger loyalty and the personalization of every discussion on a massive scale.
In an ultra-competitive online marketplace, this AI commerce strategy is now widely among the highly recommended marketing practices in e-commerce. Here’s our complete guide to conversational commerce!
What is conversational commerce? Definition
Conversational commerce is the use of conversations via tools such as AI chatbots, virtual assistants and instant messaging. It is a specific application of conversational marketing that aims primarily to facilitate purchasing and convert conversations into transactions, emphasizing a fluid, personalized buying experience.
Customer interactions are thus direct and personalized between a company and its customers, with conversation via an AI chatbot or virtual assistant becoming a central element of the online shopping experience. It provides users with tailor-made answers, precisely adapted to the context and specifics of each request!
Online conversational commerce is at the heart of many e-commerce platforms. There are many ready-to-use, no-code solutions, such as Botnation AI. These chatbots can be easily integrated into Shopify or WordPress.
Conversational commerce at the heart of the customer experience
Consumers are no longer content to just buy a product or service: they want personalized service, responsive to their requests, especially via a messaging application. Most expect a response to their needs within 5 minutes!
In concrete terms, conversational commerce will create a link with the consumer, who can ask questions, receive personalized recommendations and typically make purchases without leaving the conversation.
The AI chatbot (or virtual assistant) plays the role of an in-store salesperson, simulating the presence of a sales consultant. Thanks to conversational commerce, the customer journey becomes naturally fluid, immediate and often omnichannel!
How can you effectively deploy conversational commerce on your website?
Conversational commerce relies mainly on conversational SMS and conversational chatbots (text or voice).
In concrete terms, you can deploy your strategy via :
- A chatbot and/or virtual voice assistant integrated directly into e-commerce sites, which will guide users in real time, answer frequently asked questions and facilitate the act of purchasing;
- A chatbot and/or virtual voice assistant via instant messaging, such as WhatsApp, Messenger, traditional SMS, etc. (conversational SMS), widely used for direct engagement ;
- A live chat or virtual assistant: often present on websites, mobile applications or social networks (Instagram, LinkedIn);
- A turnkey software platform offered by a chatbot creation agency, such as [SITEDUCLIENT]. These solutions offer ready-to-use interfaces with CRM integration, monitoring and extensive personalization.
Today, the vast majority of French consumers use messaging to contact brands online, making messaging an essential channel for customer engagement.
Most conversational commerce solutions incorporate artificial intelligence, which has radically changed the face of these commercial virtual assistants. They’re no longer simple chatbots based on a system of rules: conversational chatbots, boosted by AI, are now intelligent, conversing fluidly, relevantly and able to accurately anticipate your users’ needs.
Chatbot and conversational commerce: what are the benefits?
An e-commerce site that integrates an AI chatbot specialized in conversational commerce will have broad benefits, such as:
- Increase sales: transactional chatbots guide customers, offer personalized recommendations and facilitate the act of buying.
- Customer loyalty: a rapid, personalized response increases retention and repeat purchases. Today, it is estimated that 2 out of 3 online transactions are influenced by instant messaging!
- Customer targeting and personalization: powered by generative AI, chatbots can analyze conversations to better understand customer needs and adapt marketing strategies, with the sole aim of multiplying sales!
- Reduced abandoned shopping baskets: immediate online assistance removes many obstacles to purchase and improves conversion rates.
Example of AI chatbot integration to improve conversion rate
Leading e-commerce chatbot pioneers have achieved spectacular results by intelligently integrating AI into their customer journeys!
Here are some examples of conversational chatbot integration on online sales sites:
- Décathlon uses a website chatbot that guides users in their choice of sports equipment, taking into account their objectives, level and budget. Since then, the conversion rate has risen by 30%, with a noticeable reduction in cart abandonment;
- In the cosmetics sector, Sephora has integrated a Messenger chatbot that helps customers find the right product according to their skin type, preferences or beauty routine: the bot creates a personalized recommendation, while redirecting to the product sheet. The conversion rate is said to have risen by 11% on mobile, with a significant drop in the bounce rate on product pages;
- On its website and via WhatsApp, H&M offers an e-commerce chatbot that helps customers create complete looks, based on their style or the local weather. Cross-selling has risen by 14% , and conversational engagement by a factor of 3.
Choosing the right conversational chatbot solution
Please note: not all virtual assistants work in the same way. You’ll find very basic solutions that only know how to answer a few simple questions, and others, much more advanced, that truly understand what your customers want.
What really makes the difference is the technology used and the way the virtual assistant has been designed to meet your company’s concrete needs. A good conversational assistant must be able to adapt to your industry and understand your customers’ specific questions!
To choose an effective chatbot on a software platform, a chatbot creation agency solution, a chatbot for Shopify, a WordPress chatbot, you need to analyze what it offers:
- Natural language understanding (LLM): a good bot must interpret customer intentions accurately;
- Seamless integration with your business tools and CRM;
- Easy customization: update content, scenarios, monitoring, and adapt to the specificities of your sector
- Data security (RGPD, encryption, hosting) ;
- Multi-channel management: web, mobile, messaging, social networks ;
- Conversational UX quality: tone, fluidity, empathy ;
- Scalability: opportunities for continuous learning and improvement.
In particular, a high-performance chatbot must demonstrate its impact on your business KPIs: conversion rate, customer satisfaction, reduction in support costs and generation of qualified leads.
A good platform like Botnation AI will give you the means to create natural, engaging conversations that are genuinely useful to your users!
Beyond conversational commerce, other uses for chatbots
Chatbots aren’t just for selling or responding to customers! You can also use a chatbot to automate time-consuming tasks, like a real assistant dedicated to your productivity.
For example, you can turn it into an efficient assistant to help you write product sheets, marketing campaigns, or :
- Sort and classify your emails according to your priorities;
- Create posts for your social networks;
- Adapt your content to different formats (newsletter, article, LinkedIn post);
- Analyze trends in your sector;
- Disseminate important information to your team;
- Gather feedback from your employees.
And the list goes on! However, a few clarifications: a specialized chatbot, designed to meet a precise use or objective, will always perform better than a generalist chatbot. A multitasking bot, trying to manage very different needs, is likely to be less relevant, less clear and less effective in its responses.
Deploying a conversational chatbot for an e-commerce site
Here are the steps for designing and deploying a conversational chatbot on an e-commerce site, Shopify or WordPress.
1. Choose the right channels and tools
- Choose between instant messaging solutions (WhatsApp, Messenger, on-site live chat), chatbots and/or voice assistants according to your customers’ preferences;
- Don’t forget to choose tools that can integrate with your e-commerce site and CRM to centralize data and personalize interactions.
2. Offer a personalized experience
- Leverage AI and data analytics to anticipate needs, recommend appropriate products and tailor the tone of conversation to each customer ;
- Use purchase history and previous interactions to start relevant, tailored conversations.
3. Guarantee 24/7 availability
- Deploy chatbots or virtual assistants to offer immediate assistance around the clock, reduce response times and prevent shopping cart abandonment;
- Plan for escalation to a human advisor for complex or sensitive requests.
4. Streamline the purchasing process
- Allow customers to ask questions, receive advice, book or buy directly in the conversation, without friction;
- Make the purchasing process interactive, fast and intuitive, by eliminating unnecessary steps.
5. Collecting and exploiting conversational data
- Analyze exchanges to better understand your customers’ expectations, behaviors and obstacles;
- Use these insights to improve your products, services and marketing strategies.
6. Continuous measurement and optimization
- Track key indicators: conversion rate, customer satisfaction, response time, engagement rate;
- Adjust your conversational scenarios and enrich your knowledge bases based on customer feedback and observed performance.
