Chatbots have gained ground to a great extent due to recent advancements in Generative Artificial Intelligence. While some individuals use ChatGPT to complete their homework or get captions for their social media posts, online businesses use eCommerce chatbot to offer excellent customer service in real-time. Even Gartner has predicted that chatbots will become a key customer service channel for a quarter of companies by 2027 owing to their cost-effectiveness and the potential to generate positive customer emotion.
However, you must know that the deployment of eCommerce AI chatbots isn’t always perfect. A few bots have limited conversational abilities and can’t manage complex queries. They also lack contextual understanding even though they are programmed to fetch data from a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. This system provides information about the purchase history of customers and their past interactions with the bot. Apart from that, these bots don’t offer a human touch in the conversation which leads to consumer disinterest and lower engagement. That’s where AI-powered chatbots come into the picture.
With the integration of Artificial Intelligence, these bots are empowered to do well, including providing basic customer support, product recommendations, and dealing with cart abandonment. In this article, we will take a closer look at eCommerce AI chatbot, its types, benefits, best practices, and examples. So, let’s initiate the discussion right away:
What is an eCommerce Chatbot?
An eCommerce chatbot is a digital tool developed to help buyers with their purchase decisions, ranging from product recommendations to payment. Nowadays, most eCommerce bots are driven by AI technology, replacing simple Q&A bots with AI agents that can handle complicated workflows. Conversational AI has gained too much popularity across the globe because of its ability to enhance the customer experience with round the clock support and personalized recommendations.
Above all, using chatbots powered by eCommerce personalization is an easy method to ensure top-notch customer interactions and acquire data-driven insights about what shoppers expect from an online store experience. As per a survey published in 2024, almost 33% of interactions with AI-powered eCommerce chatbots were associated with product information, 20% were related to order and shipping, and 4% were focused on how to schedule a product return.
Top 5 eCommerce AI Chatbots for Businesses
There are a myriad of AI-driven chatbot platforms out there. They differ in capabilities, integration, cost, LLMs (Large Language Models) they support, and a wide range of other factors. The best eCommerce chatbot will depend on your unique requirements. However, to help you make the right selection, we want to make you familiar with five excellent AI chatbot platforms for developing eCommerce chatbots:
1: Botpress
Botpress is a feature-rich AI chatbot platform that can be customized and extended endlessly. It operates using the most recent LLM engines, ensuring its AI agents and eCommerce chatbot examples are always driven by cutting-edge technologies. This platform provides an easy-to-use drag-and-drop canvas for developers, infinite customizability, and automatic translations for 100+ languages. It also comes with pre-built integrations for leading software and channels and enables developers to connect their bot to their preferred knowledge base or internal systems. This limitless extensibility makes Botpress an exceptional chatbot platform for enterprise-level AI assistants.
Primary Benefits:
- Advanced analytics
- Military-grade security
- Ready-made, omnichannel integrations
- Highly customizable and extensible
- Automatic translation to more than 100 languages
2: BotStar
BotStar is a great chatbot platform developed to support organizations of all sizes with high consumer engagement. It is a no-code solution implemented by eCommerce brands to optimize customer service, generate leads, and offer customized experiences. This chatbot platform renders omnichannel support, with bots deployed across websites, Meta Messenger, and the rest of the messaging applications. These bots can manage common buyer queries, handle orders, and offer real-time support.
Primary Benefits:
- Intuitive drag-and-drop interface for easy eCommerce chatbot development
- Smooth integration with CRMs and eCommerce applications
- Omnichannel support for websites, Meta Messenger, and more
3: Octane AI
Octane AI is a conversational AI as a service platform built to smoothly incorporate with Shopify. It offers vendors a wide variety of tools to develop personalized, AI-backed chatbots and quizzes that foster engagement and sales. The best part of this chatbot platform is that it enables its users to offer personalized product recommendations, automate abandoned cart completion, and engage patrons across various channels, such as Meta Messenger and SMS. Octane AI is specially designed for ease of use, allowing non-technical persons to create and implement custom chatbots that are tailored to their brand’s voice and consumer needs.
Primary Benefits:
- Flawless Shopify integration for eCommerce
- Automated abandoned cart completion
- Personalized product recommendations
- Multichannel engagement (Meta Messenger, SMS)
- User-friendly quiz builder for buyer information gathering
4: ManyChat
ManyChat is a no-code solution on this list which allows companies to develop robust eCommerce AI chatbots without having any coding experience. It helps businesses engage with their patrons through social media and messaging applications, especially Meta Messenger. This chatbot platform is great at responding to frequently asked questions, managing product inquiries, and processing customers’ orders. What else? Integrating ManyChat with eCommerce platforms such as Shopify helps with the synchronization of product catalogs, order updates, and consumer data.
Primary Benefits:
- User-centric drag-and-drop chatbot builder
- Integration with Meta Messenger and Shopify
- Sizeable educational resources
- Multichannel engagement
5: LivePerson
LivePerson is a top-tier AI platform for businesses to create an AI-driven eCommerce chatbot and live messaging application. It provides tools for developing, handling, and improving customer communication across a multitude of channels, such as mobile apps, websites, and social media platforms. LivePerson’s conversational AI is famous for its capability to answer complicated customer queries, offering real-time assistance that optimizes the overall buyer experience. One of the main strengths of this chatbot platform is its potential to incorporate with major eCommerce platforms, CRMs, and various business systems, which ensures that shopper interactions remain data-driven and consistent.
Primary Benefits:
- Real-time consumer engagement across various channels
- AI-backed insights for personalized conversation
- Smooth integration with e-stores and CRMs
- Advanced analytics and reporting tools
Say goodbye to missed opportunities and hello to seamless customer interactions-transform your online store into a 24/7 customer service powerhouse.
Types of eCommerce Chatbot
The eCommerce chatbot is of three types depending on their AI capabilities. ML algorithms allow chatbots to learn from every interaction, while others are manually programmed to provide rule-based responses.
1. Rule-based Chatbots
A rule-based bot functions according to a bunch of predefined rules, where these rules are backed by “if…then” statements or decision trees. Take, for instance, an AI chatbot for customer service. If a visitor questions about order tracking, the bot will create an answer by following a predetermined path. Its response generally follows a particular template with placeholders for customer-centric data like “Hi [first name], We are processing your order at the moment. Your estimated delivery time is [add date].”
The response is static and does not change based on user responses or feedback. Rule-based bots count on the keyword-matching approach or pattern recognition to understand user inputs. And this is the reason the capabilities of such bots are limited big time.
2. AI-driven Chatbots
The AI algorithms introduced in eCommerce AI chatbots have the ability to analyze the content, intent, and sentiment of consumer queries. Not just that! They can also give contextual responses by making the most of NLP (Natural Language Processing) technology. These bots provide personalized experiences based on user segmentation.
Besides that, conversational AI can come up with human-like responses instead of pre-written phrases, which helps deliver an extremely positive experience. ML algorithms have a tendency to learn from each interaction to improve the accuracy of their final result.
3. Hybrid Chatbots
Hybrid chatbots merge the abilities of AI-driven bots and rule-based algorithms to deliver a more engaging conversational experience. The hybrid chatbot has emerged as the best eCommerce chatbot so far because it ships with the benefits of rule-based systems, like control and predictability along with the flexibility and relevant understanding of AI-backed systems. This method allows the bot to manage structured queries while handling intricate requests, like technical troubleshooting.
Benefits of Using eCommerce AI Chatbots
If someone is an existing customer of your eCommerce store, they would want to go to your website and track their orders, request returns, make a purchase again, and clarify any other doubts they may have with your customer service team. Unfortunately, among all eCommerce chatbot examples, only a few bots can be configured to achieve most use cases, like tracking orders, returning orders, replacing orders, canceling orders, and getting in touch with customer support. Let’s see other benefits of using eCommerce bots:
- Garners Prospect Information: eCommerce chatbot comes in handy to gather prospect’s information and what they are searching for. Such information can be used to create and run future campaigns for online shopping businesses.
- Shares Personalized Offers: Based on the pages customers visit and their interaction with the eCommerce website, brands can configure eCommerce AI chatbots to share personalized offers and discounts that would bring more conversions.
- Promotes Upsell/Cross-sell: Companies can also configure chatbots to upsell or cross-sell their products to customers when they come for assistance. Apart from that, they can also make bots inform buyers about the special offers provided by the brand.
- Connects to a Human Agent: One of the best eCommerce chatbot use cases is that if a user still wants to have a conversation with the agent about a problem that is still not solved, the bots can connect them to the next available person.
- Simplifies Self-service: Next, integrating an AI assistant into your eCommerce website will help patrons find relevant responses to their questions about your product or service. These bots can also recommend products from your catalog based on the riddles consumers put forward.
- Collects Payments: Once a shopper decides what to buy, an AI customer service agent can take payment then and there rather than taking them to another page to complete the payment. Doing this drives down the chances of cart abandonment to a huge extent.
- Helps Prospects Initiate Conversation: Not every visitor of your eCommerce site will start a conversation to know more about your products or services, even if they are interested. To motivate them to talk, chatbots can be programmed to pop up with a personalized message based on the visitor’s activity.
- Builds Trust: In a customer-centric world, especially when it comes to eCommerce, instant engagement and resolution are required at each touchpoint. Businesses can fulfill this requirement with eCommerce AI chatbots. This will help them offer the best possible experience, which will enable buyers to develop trust in their online business.
- Facilitates Retention: Once the trust is established, a consumer will become your brand advocate, which will help you tap into the Total Addressable Market (TAM) with minimal marketing expense and maximum sales and revenue impact. This will significantly help in retaining your patrons, shooting up Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) in the long run.
Are your online sales stagnating? It’s time to supercharge your store with an eCommerce developer who knows how to captivate and convert!
Best Practices for Using AI Chatbot for Customer Service
A chatbot based on an eCommerce architecture is aimed at eliminating the obstacles between you and your consumers by enabling uninterrupted and proactive conversations. But to leverage them in the best possible way, you should:
- Identify the Goals You Want to Achieve: Before you wonder “how to implement AI eCommerce chatbot,” make sure to identify, define, and document your goals and use cases clearly as part of a solid strategy.
- Determine Your Most-used Channels: Next, take an in-depth look at your analytics to become aware of top traffic sources and then plan your chatbot implementation accordingly. Start by deploying them at the most important places like crucial touchpoints.
- Keep Your FAQs Ready: Most customers who get in touch with businesses ask common and repetitive queries. Make a list of those questions and create a massive FAQ library which you can add to your eCommerce chatbot to facilitate information sharing.
- Make Your Chatbot Flow Simple & Intuitive: Refrain from unnecessarily complicating the process of communication with your brand. Proceed with a consumer-first approach when implementing the chatbot flow. And if you are not able to do that on your own, hire eCommerce developer to build a chatbot with a simple and natural flow.
- Leverage the Chatbot Across a Buyer’s Journey: Explore how eCommerce AI chatbots can be used in other ways. For instance, you can focus on how to use every conversation in order to enhance a consumer’s journey before, after, and during a purchase.
- Integrate Your eCommerce Chatbot with Your CRM: The best AI chatbot example gathers a huge amount of data about buyers during the conversation. Since personalization is extremely required these days, ensure you are recording all the data systematically. That’s where integration with your CRM can turn out to be useful.
- Ensure Handover at the Right Time: There could be instances when a bot might fail to resolve a shopper’s query on its own. In such cases, it is a wise decision to inform an agent and transfer the conversation within a specific timeline.
- Monitor and Optimize: Once you set up chatbots on your eCommerce website, you can’t simply sit and relax. You need to continuously learn how users engage with it and what you can do to take customer experience to the next level. If you successfully implement a chatbot with the help of an AI development services provider, it can help boost conversion and drive sales.
On a Closing Note!
These days users prioritize convenience over cost, which is why eCommerce AI chatbots have emerged as an inevitable device for online businesses. By adding these bots to your online store, you can improve customer engagement, offer personalized products and services, and increase revenue generation to a large extent. Also, you can leverage their ability to offer instantaneous responses to various customers’ queries simultaneously to provide a seamless buying experience every time people visit your website.
Just to let you know, integrating an eCommerce chatbot into your cloud-based platform won’t just boost your sales but also place your brand at the forefront of cutting-edge technology in the industry. So, if you want to deliver an engaging yet intuitive shopping experience to your consumers that motivates them to keep coming to your site down the line, do get in touch with a leading mobile app development services provider to build a buyer-centric AI chatbot.
