Tag - online business

Bulk Generate Coupons For Your WooCommerce Website

white paper bag surrounded by red balloons

For both WooCommerce store owners and customers, discount coupons are all-time favorites.

Coupons are an effective way to promote your WooCommerce store.

It basically attracts customers to purchase your products and increases sales.

WooCommerce itself offers a coupon generator plugin that allows you to generate coupons for your customers.

However, the inbuilt coupon setup provided in the WooCommerce plugin does not have the provision to create bulk coupons.

This is why you might need to use third-party plugins to provide this functionality.

By using either of the below third-party coupon extensions, you will be able to bulk generate coupons for your Woocommerce website in just a few steps. 

Also read : 5 best WordPress plugins for customer support

1. Smart Coupons for WooCommerce

Smart Coupons is a powerful coupon management plugin that helps you to bulk generate coupons for your Woocommerce website.

It shows coupons on the product & cart page, and share coupons via emails to customers.

Here’s how to set up the bulk generator:

1: Go to ‘Marketing’ which will open the ‘Coupon’ tab.

2: Next, tap on the ‘Bulk Generate’ tab which you will find next to the Coupons tab.

3: Enter the number of coupons you want to generate in bulk.

4: Next, choose to generate options, i.e., whether to:

  • Add generated coupons to the database/store.
  • Export the generated coupons to CSV.
  • Email the generated coupons to the recipients.

Step 5: Set the other coupon details as required.

Step 6: Finally, click on Apply.

As such, all the coupons generated will have the same configuration but with different & unique coupon codes.

2. Coupon Generator for WooCommerce

Coupon generator is another plugin that you can go for to bulk generate coupons for your Woocommerce website.

It helps you generate unlimited coupons and vouchers at the same time.

There are three steps for this coupon generation process:

Step 1: Introduction

First, you will be on the introduction page explaining the process to generate bulk coupons.

If you are doing it for the first time, then read through the instructions carefully, and when you are ready, click on ‘Continue to the next step.’

Step 2: Coupon Options

In this step, it allows you to set up the coupon options and you can configure the coupons as per your requirement

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If you require multiple coupons with different values, then you will have to run the coupon generator numerous times with different settings.

Step 3: Generator options

In this step, you have to select the number of coupons you want to generate for your Woocommerce website and click on continue to generate coupons.

Step 4: Generating coupons

Here your coupon generation process begins.

By default, this plugin will generate a maximum of 500 coupons on each step.

And if you want to generate 10,000 coupons at a time, the generator will process through 20 steps to complete the bulk coupon generation.

The time taken to generate 500 coupons per batch may differ based on the site’s server.

Also, the coupon generation process has been so optimized that the smart thing to bulk generate coupons for your WooCommerce website will be to run it when your website has low traffic.

Conclusion

Usually, customers are more inclined to purchase when eCommerce stores provide discount coupons and attractive deals.

If you run an online store with WooCommerce and want to create a group of coupons that you can give to customers or need 1000 coupons to give to a deals site like Groupon, this plugin will save you a lot of time!

If you want to eliminate manual work, save time and avoid the hassle of coupon codes, switch to bulk generating coupons.

How to create a successful Instagram ad campaign?

person using smartphone

Today, 70% of internet buyers use Instagram to find new products.

Imagine if even 10% of them are able to discover your products through Instagram!

A good Instagram marketing strategy will help you do this. Additionally, it provides a slew of benefits like higher engagement, followers, and more!

A robust Instagram ad campaign plan is required to turn your ‘gram into a revenue-generating machine.

This article will teach you 5 ways to help you get started in creating a successful Instagram ad campaign

Also read : 5 tips to create a successful Instagram e-commerce marketing strategy

Tip 1-Have a look at your competitors.

Have you ever wondered what your Instagram competition is doing right?

If not, put on your detective hats and go to work.

Understanding what your competitors are up to could help you plan your content strategy!

If your competitors are producing more user-generated material, it could indicate their engagement rate is high.

You’ll know how to improve your Instagram Ads game if you spend time analyzing your competitors’ accounts.

Tip 2-Keep your eyes on the prize.

Do you want to broaden your audience? Is it your goal to increase lead generation?

The first step toward creating a successful e-commerce campaign is putting it down and planning your strategy.

create successful Instagram Ad Campaign
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Tip 3-Use demography and targeting to your advantage.

Now that you have planned your strategy, if you don’t know who you’re selling to, you can’t promote your products or brand.

Complete your homework.

Determine who your target consumer is and what their interests are by conducting market research.

You can figure out who you’re posting for by establishing your target audience.

  • You can target people who have already interacted with your brand. Like, people who have visited your website.
  • Target users who are similar to your current clients with lookalike audiences.
  • Or, Retarget users who previously clicked on your ads but did not purchase.
use demography to target to Instagram target audience- Instagram ad campaign
Image by Elf-Moondance from Pixabay
Tip 4- Create material that draws people in.

Instagram is, all about content.

Once you have defined your audience, you must know how to engage them. Captivate your audience’s interest with engaging content.

If you want to get noticed, you must produce unique material.

Have a look at how the Indian D2C brand, MamaEarth has cracked its content.

With a compelling cause in mind: Mamaearth is known for its cruelty-free products.

This advertisement supports their belief by promoting the planting of more trees.

This appeals to the viewer’s emotional side, causing them to click on the CTA without hesitation.

The two sets of hashtags: one on the image that’s relevant to the campaign, and another set of hashtags in the caption aid in both finding and reaching their target audience.

Tip 5- It’s all about optimization.

Just creating content for your audience is not enough.

It is essential to track how your ads perform. And adjust them for better performance.

You can improve the efficacy of your Instagram ads by experimenting with different images, ad copy, and CTAs to see what works best for you.

Consider the latest ad by a D2C brand BoAt. An Indian consumer electronics company that sells earphones, headphones, and portable chargers.

BoAt has become the go-to place for electronics lovers, with over 697k Instagram followers.

This is their ad, which we adore!

As you see, they have used numbers on the image which guarantees the crucial metrics.

Numbers ensure more eyeballs on an advertisement, whether it’s a ‘10 minute‘ or ‘20 percent off.’

Closing Thoughts!

Advertising on Instagram has become a piece of cake, since Facebook and Instagram merged. Therefore, your Instagram ad campaign strategy should be fluid at all times.

Keeping things flexible and trying new ideas is the best approach to enhance your eCommerce sales.

Therefore, if you haven’t implemented the above, you’re missing out on giving your competitors an advantage.

With tools like Mezchip you can engage more with your customers on Instagram dm’s and posts.

Instagram’s shopping features are constantly changing.

To make sure you’re up to date on the latest news and tools follow Mezchip Blog.

5 Best WooCommerce Customer Service Plugin

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If you have an excellent online store with a plethora of products that are never out of stock, you have won half the battle. However, to win the other half, you need to have robust customer service in place.

Good customer service will ensure a high degree of customer satisfaction, and it can help attract and retain customers consistently. But for that, you will require a WooCommerce Customer Service Plugin to help simplify the complex process of customer service.

To help you out, we have discussed the five best WooCommerce Customer Service Plugins. These plugins can help drive your business, whether you are just starting out or already have an established online presence. Read on to find out more.

Also read: 5 best CRM for WooCommerce in 2022

1. Mezchip

mezchip dashboard

Mezchip is one of the easiest and best WooCommerce Customer Service Plugins available today. The plugin seamlessly integrates with the online store and empowers businesses to serve their customers most effectively and efficiently.

The plugin packs a variety of powerful features like customer order tracking, responding to customer queries, creating custom tickets, team collaboration, and much more. 

This plugin also enables businesses to prioritize conversations and provide a personalized experience across various platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, to create a seamless customer experience.

Moreover, Mezchip is also available at a highly affordable price. The basic plan is free to use, while even the most expensive Enterprise plan costs just INR 8999 (around $120) per month.

If you would like to give Mezchip a try, you can book a demo here.

2. ThriveDesk

Thrivedesk dashboard

ThriveDesk is a WooCommerce Customer Service Plugin designed specifically to cater to startups and small businesses. The plugin is simple and easy to set up, letting you connect with your customers instantly.

Some powerful features of ThriveDesk include a shared inbox that enables streamlining tickets and customer conversations, data-driven reporting that helps make better-informed decisions, and a customer knowledge base that serves as a data repository.

With the help of ThriveDesk, agents can track customers, view transaction history, refund payments, chat with customers in real-time, and much more. This helps elevate the customer experience, helping with business growth.

ThriveDesk offers a simple and affordable pricing plan. It is available at just $15 per user per month. You can also opt for a 14-day trial without entering any card details.

If you would like to give ThriveDesk a try, you can book a demo here.

3. Zendesk

Zendesk dashboard

Zendesk plugin enables you to provide sophisticated and seamless customer service across multiple channels.

It has been used by more than 150,000 companies across various sectors for their customer service needs.

The features of Zendesk include pre-defined ticket responses, messaging and live chat, and answer bot, web widgets, customer service search history, and more.

The only downside of Zendesk that we can think of is its price point.

The entry-level suite team costs $ 150 per agent per month, while the suite Enterprise can go up to $150 per agent per month.

If you want to test Zendesk, you can watch a demo or start a free trial.

4. Help Scout Desk

HelpScout desk dashboard

Help Scout Desk is a simple plugin that empowers businesses to provide customers with an easy way to create support tickets.

This WooCommerce Customer service plugin is best for new businesses using customer support plugins.

The features of the Help Scout Desk include thread tagging, attachment support, conversation embed, and WooCommerce, WP eCommerce, & Easy Digital Downloads integrations.

There are certain downsides to the plugin as well. For example, certain features like live chat aren’t available yet.

Moreover, certain features like teams and custom fields are available only in the plus plan. Help Scout Desk is available for $49.99.

To know more about the Help Scout Desk, you can contact them here.

5. Awesome Support

Awesome support dashboard

Awesome Support plugin provides everything that a business needs for customer service. The plugin setup is simple and can be completed in only five minutes.

The features that make Awesome Support one of the best customer service plugins include automatic agent assignment, complete ticket history, unlimited file attachments, and several others.

The main USP of Awesome Support, however, is its pricing. It starts from as low as $149 per year, while the costliest plan is just $409 per year. 

Final Words

These were our top five picks for the best WooCommerce Customer Service plugins

Depending upon your business needs, the plugin’s features and functionalities, budget, pros and cons of each and other factors, you can decide on a plugin best suited for your business.

Eventually, irrespective of whichever plugin you choose, providing the ultimate customer service should be your aim and priority.

This will help attract customers, build strong customer relationships, and create a base of loyal, trustworthy customers, eventually leading you to rapid, exponential business growth. 

How to Measure Customer Satisfaction Without Surveys?

person marking check on opened book

Customer satisfaction is the ultimate metric to measure how your D2C brand or your e-commerce business is doing in recent times.

It is a way to know whether consumers are satisfied with the product or the services.

However, this is not an easy job to do.

The old technique of executing surveys to know about customer satisfaction is becoming irrelevant day by day.

There are several other techniques to do the job in a simpler way and with more conviction.

The survey’s main constraints are that many do not participate in it, do not respond, and are time-consuming.

This article will talk about how to measure customer satisfaction without going through any kinds of surveys.

Following are some of the alternative techniques that you can apply in your online business to avoid the hassles of a survey.

Studying Customer Correspondences

The first thing to do is ensure that you are open to receiving feedback directly from your customers.

Direct relations must be garnered between your business and the customers via email, chat, text, phone, social media platforms, and messenger applications.

Implementing an omnichannel customer support helpdesk like Mezchip that unifies all your communication channels is one of the most effective ways to handle customer communications and feedback across channels.

person holding white samsung android smartphone
Photo by Solen Feyissa on Pexels.com

Your support agents and/or representatives can collect and study reviews of the customers to initiate future improvements.

Collecting all the info from the customers is extremely crucial.

It helps the business to collect data to predict their report card showcasing both the good and the bad aspects according to the customers. This opens the door to making all the vital improvements that can further enhance your customer service.

Collecting and studying customer correspondences also helps you track your quality of service, pricing of your products, speed of services, trust, difficulties or objections, customer emotions, and services required.

Customer Loyalty Metrics

person holding pen pointing at graph
Photo by Lukas on Pexels.com

Another data point that reflects customer satisfaction is how many times customers repeat their purchases.

The high volume of Repeat customers shows that they are satisfied with your services or product.

It also ensures that satisfied customers are likely to suggest your services or products to others. And this will ensure that your business grows fruitfully.

You can track your metrics for customer satisfaction by tracking your repeat customers, their frequency, regular cost per order, and your customer’s lifetime value.

Examining Reactions to Promotions

It is vital to assess how customers react to promotions, bonuses, and coupons. If customers show positive responses to your promotions, they have developed a liking or satisfaction for your product.

And the best part is that you know it without even doing a survey.

red product tag
Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Pexels.com

Some promotions that you can try out to measure consumer satisfaction are –

Personalized Deals

Social media is a good platform to create engagement with your consumers.

You can provide exclusive discounts on your social media base so that they become more connected and engaged with your product.

You can do the same for your email base also.

Promotions on References

Give away exciting promotions to your present customers if they recommend your product to their network. This is the best way to grow your business beyond your current base.

Regulating Social Media Remarks

Social media has become the platform where customers convey their experiences with a product. They also share their frustration and disappointment regarding a company’s product on social media.

Customers’ feedback regarding your product or services on social media is vital to know customer satisfaction and customer concerns.

Final Words

These were some of the ways in which you can assess customer satisfaction for your business without collecting age-old surveys.

Gather all the references and results to satisfy the consumers better.

Maintain monthly and yearly overall data to know about customer satisfaction and make vital improvements.

After all, if the customer satisfaction graph goes higher, it will be directly entwined with the success of your business.

5 best CRM for WooCommerce in 2022

gray and blue stainless steel shopping cart

A WooCommerce CRM is one of the essential tools for small to large-sized online merchants using WordPress. The best CRM for WooCommerce can help manage customers and enhance their overall experience, ultimately leading to an increase in the conversion rate, site traffic, and sales.

With a plethora of options available, choosing the best CRM for WooCommerce can get a bit tricky. To help you out, we have shared the five best CRM for WooCommerce in 2022.

Mezchip

Mezchip is an omnichannel CRM platform developed for WooCommerce to provide a personalized customer experience. The tool makes use of advanced technology, big data, and data science, and automation to analyze customer behavior. Based on the analysis, the tool predicts customer issues and helps take a proactive approach to solve them.

Mezchip also integrates with your existing support channels like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to provide the ultimate customer experience, all from a single place.

There are four pricing plans available. There is a free plan, while the paid plans start at INR 1999 per month and go up to INR 8999 a month.

If you would like to try Mezchip, you can book a demo here. You will be given a ten-minute walkthrough of the product. There will also be an additional five minutes reserved for answering any queries or questions you might have.

Also read How to engage your customers in 2022: Trends to watch out for

Metrilo

The CRM platform helps increase compatibility and improve analytical solutions that help businesses scale their operations easily. Metrilo also enables businesses to send emails and check product performance, total revenue, and customer interaction, all from a single dashboard.

The pricing plans for Metrilo start at $119 per month, while the top-tier premium plan starts from $299 per month. Businesses can also opt for a 14-day trial, after which they can decide on a plan that best suits them.

Jetpack CRM

The Jetpack CRM provides all the tools needed to manage customer relationships and grow business. It is one of the simplest and fastest tools available, which makes it one of the best CRM for WooCommerce.

Jetpack CRM is also highly customisable. Businesses can turn off parts of the CRM that are not needed, ensuring that businesses can focus only on the important things.

Users can get the basic features with the free version of the tool. The advanced versions are available via paid plans that start at $11 per month.

HubSpot for WooCommerce

The HubSpot for WooCommerce plugin lets businesses connect the CRM to the WooCommerce store. This enables auto-syncing of customers, products, orders, and other data with HubSpot in real-time.

There is also seamless integration for Facebook, Instagram, and other online platforms that further simplifies customer management and helps with business growth.

The CRM and the WooCommerce plugin are available for free. There are paid plans too that provide access to advanced features. The Bundle suite proves to be the best option and starts at just $45 per month.

Agile CRM

Last but not least, on the list of best CRM for WooCommerce is Agile CRM. The tool helps businesses identify customers, segregate them, add tasks, deliver customer support, and much more.

The CRM also has unique features that empower businesses to generate and capture leads, develop landing pages, automate marketing workflows, and more.

Agile CRM offers free as well as paid plans. The starter plan starts at $8.99 a month, while the Enterprise plan costs $47.99 a month.

These were our top five picks of the best CRM for WooCommerce in 2022. Each of these tools provides the best customer relationship management features. The decision, ultimately, is yours. Choose a tool that best aligns with your budget and business needs. You will definitely see a high rate of customer satisfaction and experience exponential business growth.

5 habits of a customer service oriented company

Customer service should not be a department. It should be the entire company.

Tony Hsieh

Regardless of whether it talks directly to customers or not, every department in an organization provides customer care in some way.

If something goes wrong with a customer’s order, customer support staff goes straight to the processing department to fix the problem so that the consumer is satisfied.

It would significantly take a longer time to resolve queries if the processing department was not as motivated as the customer care team.

Disgruntled and angry customers aren’t favorable for an organization’s growth.

It takes time to build a company’s reputation in customer service.

To make it a reality, you need the right people, tools, and processes.

Investing in an affordable omnichannel tool like mezchip right from your early days that enables a customer service-oriented culture, pays off.

According to Forbes, customer-centric businesses are 60% more lucrative as compared to non-customer-centric businesses

As the bar continues to rise, more businesses are attempting to define what it means to be a customer service-oriented organization. Obvious questions to be sought to be answered are:

  • Is your company actually focused on providing excellent customer service?
  • How can you improve your customer service experience?
  • What does it mean to run an organisation that prioritises customer service?

Simply said, customer service-oriented organizations:

  • prioritise their customers
  • recognise and consider the influence of every action they take on their customers,
  • design teams and processes to deliver unique experiences for their customers

In other words, customers’ wants and desired experiences are accommodated by customer-oriented enterprises. Customers are cherished, listened to, and respected when they work with them.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

In this post, we will take a look at what it means to be a customer service-oriented company and offer five tips for turning your business into one.

There are six phases in developing a customer service-oriented business.

Develop a customer-centric service culture within the company

The first step in establishing a customer-focused business is to prioritize customers.

Create a set of values across support and product teams that will motivate you to always put customers first.

By continually keeping the consumer in mind, you’ll be able to spot problems early on and enhance the product and customer experience.

Photo by kikashi on freeimages

Many companies miss the mark here. They make judgments focused on what will benefit their company rather than what would benefit the customer.

Of course, there are occasions when this is the proper thing to do, but customer-focused businesses recognize the trade-offs and strive to make decisions that benefit their customers.

They recognize that putting the customer first benefits the company as well.

Value Points:

  • Create a set of customer service values and promote them throughout the organization.
  • Invite other departments to shadow the support team or perform all-hands support.
  • Customer satisfaction should be measured and shared with the entire organization regularly.

Look after your staff

Taking care of your clients begins with treating your personnel well. That’s right:

Satisfied Staff Lead To Satisfied Customers.

Allowing your staff to do their best work will keep them motivated to create a customer-centric culture.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The interview and onboarding procedure are the foundations of a positive employment experience. It’s just as important to onboard a new employee as it is to onboard a new consumer.

Create a plan for their first four weeks, then revise and enhance it as you discover what works and what doesn’t.

Next, work to eliminate points of friction and annoyance in the employee experience. Giving your employees freedom to act will enable them to deliver creative solutions in critical situations.

Value Points:

  • Create a transparent and safe working atmosphere in which your staff are motivated to collaborate and produce their best job.
  • Request input from employees regularly, and use the information to improve the employee experience.
  • When it comes to onboarding new employees, be thorough and deliberate. Make a plan to demonstrate to each new hire that you care about their happiness.
  • Create an internal knowledge base or an agent help bot to provide new employees with the materials they need.
  • Give employees freedom to act and ability to enjoy their work

Offer help on all customer-favored channels

Omni-channel support empowers your customers to connect with you using their favored channel.

While for some that could be mail, and for others that may be social media DMS or Whatsapp.

Ask your customers what their ideal experience is with regards to drawing in with your organization.

At that point, work to oblige them and live up to those assumptions.

Use an omnichannel customer support tool like mezchip to connect and engage with your customers in their preferred mode of communication channel.

Whether or not you choose to go omnichannel, you can unquestionably guarantee you’re focusing on the right channels that are best for your customers.

Value Points

  • Ask your customers how they like to contact you for help.
  • Make it simple to contact your support group. Eliminate any grinding or obstacles with regard to contacting your group.
  • Use an omnichannel support tool like mezchip to make better and faster communications

Photo by: clipart max

Be open with your customers

Transparency fosters trust, which in turn fosters customer loyalty.

Whenever possible, use a transparent communication style.

If you manage a software company and are experiencing a service outage, interact with your customers in real-time. Let your customers know if your developers accidentally introduced an issue with a product update.

Instead of leaving customers in the dark about service and feature demands, keep them informed.

Notify the customer as soon as possible if you are going to miss a deadline.

Transparency and proactively addressing faults will aid in the improvement of internal processes and the establishment of customer trust.

Photo by:subpng.com

Value Points:

  • Provide easy access to information.
  • Make an environment where it’s acceptable to be open and honest.
  • Recognize and correct your errors.

Invest in technology to improve customer service

Technology can make jobs easier and, ultimately, improve customer service. This is true whether you’re a technology company or not. Today, every business relies on technology.

Technology can improve the customer experience, regardless of whether you’re a technology company or not. In the 21st century, all businesses rely on technology to help them do their jobs.

Investing in technology can help businesses offer better customer service. This is true regardless of whether your company is in the technology industry.

Photo by: www.consultancy.eu

 Value Points:

  • Implement the right helpdesk tool like mezchip, to get a 360-degree perspective on your customers, their buy history, earlier discussions, shipment history, and updates.
  • Collaborate with team members of sales and support to provide up-to-date customer support and experience.
  • Enable your customers to help themselves through help docs, faqs, and other self-improvement assets.

Conclusion

A customer-centric culture is driven when employees, support staff, and processing staff all work in collaboration as well as independently.

Businesses that focus on customer service have a great support staff. Customer service excellence is ingrained in the company’s DNA. Customer centricity is injected into every aspect of a customer service-focused business, from engineering to marketing to design.

While there is no one size fits all solution to develop a customer-centric culture for all businesses. Any business that consistently attempts to develop by adhering to these five cultural habits, will notice a significant difference in its employees and customer experience.

What is social commerce & how to use it effectively?

girls on a cart

With the advent of digitalization, e-commerce has over the years flourished and given rise to social commerce.

In this blog, we will try to understand the concept of social commerce, the emergence of social commerce & how it can effectively boost online business.

What is social commerce

working macbook computer keyboard
Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com

Social commerce is simply making use of social media platforms to facilitate e-commerce transactions.

A person on average spends about two hours on social media every day. It is easier for customers to buy products while scrolling through their favorite entertainment apps.

Businesses have started using social media platforms to not only advertise products/ services but also enable customers to make instant purchases without having customers leave the social media platforms.

This has been made possible with social media shoppable ads, Facebook marketplace, and Instagram shops which enables a customer to shop online from their preferred sellers’ social media handles.

The emergence of social commerce

The word social commerce was actually coined in the year November 2005 by Yahoo.

Shoposhere by Yahoo was the first-ever platform to conceptualize the idea of social commerce.

The ‘pick list’ feature in Shoposhere allowed users to review the products & comment on the same. Since then social commerce has emerged as a global activity.

The pandemic gave significance to the phenomenon of social commerce.

User activity and dependence on social media increased to such an extent that users were more likely to abandon carts if they had to leave the app.

In order to turn User engagement into purchases, social commerce emerged as a viable solution which was first tapped into by Facebook in 2007 with shoppable ads.

Instagram followed suit and has now become one of the leading customer acquisition strategies in e-commerce.

Benefits of social commerce

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Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com

Mass Reach — 

Social media platforms are getting more & more users every day. With more than 1 billion active Facebook users, the right tools and methods help businesses reach the maximum number of people in a minimum amount of time.

Therefore there remains no doubt that social commerce will prove to be an effective strategy in the coming years to grow sales.

Cost-effective — 

The most substantial feature of social commerce is that you can grow your sales by spending just a minimum amount of money.

This is a sure shot method than creating a large banner or sending cold emails or using the redundant method of distributing pamphlets, which may or may not be able to attract the attention of the targeted audience.

Saves Time — 

Social commerce saves the time of the sellers as well the buyers.

While sellers can list their products and create a single effective advertisement, users can buy their favorite products while scrolling through their favorite social media apps.

It saves much more time than reaching customers door to door or sending cold emails.

Though social commerce seems very easy, to begin with, the story can be quite different sometimes.

Not using the resources and the tools effectively might lead you to lose customers instead of gaining them.

Effective strategies in social commerce

House vector created by stories — www.freepik.com

Active seller and buyer interaction —

Social media platforms provide a way to interact between sellers and buyers thus making their bond more permanent.

Earlier e-commerce websites did not have such facilities but now it is possible with just a few clicks.

The sellers can easily address the queries of the customers on social media posts/ messenger and DM’s.

If you are a seller on Instamojo/Woo-Commerce you can use mezchip’s omnichannel customer support platform for effective customer engagement across channels.

For more efficient interaction, an automated chatbot can be of great assistance.

The automated chatbot will help address the initial query of the users thus saving a lot of time and repeated queries. Customers can also receive additional information about the products they are willing to buy.

The linking game — 

New features added on Instagram and Facebook are meant for promoting social commerce. Instagram Shop allows users to create a single advertisement and share it on Facebook as well. These added features are affordable and save time for the users as well.

Community Shopping — 

Social media encourages community shopping or group buying. In this method customers tag, share, and add their friends, family & acquaintances to buy products from the websites they have shopped from previously and have liked.

In order to promote community shopping sellers can give occasional discounts on products and can also reward the customers for bringing more customers for social shopping.

This method is used by multiple e-commerce websites and is one of the most effective methods to attract a larger audience.

Building brand awareness — 

Creating awareness about the brand is a very important aspect as it creates a connection between the buyers and the sellers.

Brand awareness may include factors like stating the uniqueness of the particular brand, how the brand is different from the others in the market.

Creating a positive image about the brand invites more customers and ones who are likely to stay loyal.

Honest reviews — 

It is often suggested to cut out the negative reviews on social media platforms and put only the positive reviews.

This method often backfires as it can mislead the customers.

Honest reviews, therefore, become an important factor.

Genuine reviews about the products guide the customers and create a positive impact. Customers are likely to buy products that are suitable for them.

The customers have assurance about the products they are buying and it also builds trust in the brand. This method helps in building relationships with potential customers.

Summing Up

Social commerce in India is now valued at $1.5 to $2 billion and in a couple of years, it is expected to grow from $16 to $20 billion. It is to have a significant impact on the economy in the upcoming years. Thus large-scale and small-scale businesses can expect a boost in sales and revenue through social commerce.

How do chatbots improve customers’ shopping experience?

chatbot

The experience that a brand creates is what a customer remembers.

Gartner in its Customer 360 Summit, showed that a consumer’s purchase pleasure is a game-changer for sellers.

In fact, “81% of firms anticipated competing, on the basis of consumer delight in 2019”. This direct competition is pushing brands to improve their customer experience initiatives.

So what can your brand bring to your current approach that can help you win?

“It’s a chatbot.”

While there are numerous things that can be done, chatbots are a must-have for your shopping experience strategy.

In this post, we will be discussing how can chatbots improve a customer’s shopping experience. And how implementing chatbots will bring about a positive impact on your customer’s shopping journey.

Also read : How to use Direct Messages to drive customer engagement

But Before We Dive Further, Let’s First Understand What Exactly Is a Chatbot, and Why Should You Use One?

What is a ChatBot

A chatbot, by definition, is a synthetic intelligence (AI) software program that can mimic a discussion (or chat) with a user.

With the passage of time, traditional methods of attracting customers have evolved. Chatbots are increasingly being adopted by all industries including fashion, finance, entertainment, healthcare, and news.

Gartner in its report in 2011 observed that 85 % of all customer transactions will be performed without the use of humans by 2020.

Everyone is moving closer to using chatbots as a form of communication.

A chatbot has become one of the primary differentiators between brands that provide a suitable shopping experience and the rest.

How To Use Chatbots to Improve Shopping Experience:

pink background with speech bubble
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Agents can use “ChatBots” as Assistants to help them out

According to a PwC survey, nearly 80% of American buyers believe that speed, convenience, knowledgeable guidance, and pleasant service are the most important aspects of a good purchasing experience.

Chatbots make it simple for customers to acquire answers on the move. With chatbots, they no longer have to:

  • Use an automated telephone system to get answers to basic questions.
  • Communicate via email
  • Raise issues on social media

They can seek help right away.

Chatbots not only help to reduce the primary response time, but they also help to reduce the decision time, which is an important measure in customer support.

While resolving a customer’s problem:

With chatbots, your brand can grow to provide round-the-clock assistance without having agents who must be available day and night.

Chatbots are a godsend for businesses with a global purchasing base.

Buyers from all around the world can have their assistance needs met, regardless of time zone.

Pro tip: There are some complex questions that a chatbot will not be able to answer. Allow for a smooth failover to a help agent in such cases.”

Lend a Hand in Getting There Milestones

Purchasing experience comes down to optimizing the interaction on various touchpoints in a consumer’s journey.

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Given that the majority of contacts these days occur in a virtual environment, “it is critical to establish virtual touchpoints to assist clients throughout their online experience with the brand.”

Let’s look at some of the contact touchpoints where chatbots can have the most impact:

During awareness: 

A customer visiting a website for the first time may find it difficult to navigate around. Chatbots function similarly to site-specific seek bars, providing educational statistics, and relevant knowledge base articles. Enabling a chatbot on your website for your visitors will not only help answer their simple queries but can also provide bits of data that can stimulate the customer’s interest in your brand.

During evaluation: 

Brands can capture the hearts of their customers by anticipating their needs before they express them. When a customer is browsing your website or product, they may encounter a few challenges. Setting triggers, such as rage-clicking, your chatbot can come up and reach out to the customer to assist them in such situations.

Customer service: 

Implementing chatbots for customer service is highly important. Customer service is a constant source of contention for businesses. In general, customers wait too long for a response or do not receive one. This often results in poor ratings and dissatisfied customers.

Companies like Adidas, Nike, and Burberry have displayed exemplary customer service just by implementing chatbots. After one month of use,(Nike’s)chatbot had an 80% completion rate, fewer inquiries to customer service, and more than 1500 people had requested assistance from the chatbot. (Adidas’) Chatbot received almost 10,000 messages, a thousand of which were “Thank You” greetings.

Gather feedback and customer information

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Gathering feedback is an essential task for any organization. Records are critical for determining how your clients feel about your product and the assistance provided. Almost every consumer conversation can be used as an opportunity to provide a better experience.

With chatbots, you can collect feedback through a message even while the user is still on the page. While the experience is new, the feedback gathered is more accurate. When the purpose of collecting comments is clearly understood, the survey questions requested can be tailored accordingly.

Here are a few examples of when you can use chatbots to collect customer feedback for your brand:

  • Enhancing a service or product: When new features are being deployed, initiate a chatbot communication and ask customers to rate their experience with the product. You can also add open-ended questions to determine where the service or product failed.
  • Improving the database: Once you identify common questions and have created solution articles for chatbots to suggest, you can further improve your database by enabling the chatbot to ask the customers if the object helped them solve their problem.
  • Improving chatbot enjoyment: To measure how well your chatbot is functioning, provide the option to rate the experience at the end of conversational exchange with the chatbot.

Utilize your chatbots on social media

Social Chatbots are chatbots that are employed on social media. (Facebook and Twitter chatbots) generate messages for your brand and aid in customer support, advertising, and purchasing. As a brand, it is ideal that you use social media and its tools to save your business time and filter out unimportant messages and fake users.

person holding iphone showing social networks folder
Photo by Tracy Le Blanc on Pexels.com

Chatbots on Facebook

Businesses have repurposed Facebook chatbots for modern purposes. Apart from providing quick fixes and round-the-clock service, brands are using Facebook chatbots to help them with other activities such as web hosting and managing e-commerce store.

You can also use a Facebook chatbot to send timely and personalized messages to customers based on their previous interactions. For example, TechCrunch curates articles for their readers based entirely on what they want to read.

Chatbots on Twitter

When you have your brand presence on Twitter, it is generally expected of you to meet certain expectations, such as providing quick responses and demonstrating that you genuinely care about your customers.

As such, Twitter Chatbots come in very handy.

The Twitter chatbot communicates with users via direct messaging. Clients are given quick responses to make it easier for them to communicate with their brand chatbot.

A lot of brands like Airbnb, Evernote, and Spotify have been using Twitter chatbots to provide customer care 24 hours a day/ seven days a week.

Our two cents

Using chatbots is one of the most recent trends in virtual marketing and CRM. It is intended to automate tedious tasks while also creating a perfect imitation of a human conversation.

Implementing chatbots for your business can be a huge benefit because they can save expenses, time, improve customer experience, increase conversions, and, most importantly, keep your customers happy.

Chatbots are more than just the “wave of the future” in customer support. They are in the “now and now,” giving providers more opportunities to communicate with clients in new and remarkable ways — and, more significantly, to fulfill their aspirations more effectively.

When a chatbot is “desirable at what it does,” the user has a better experience as a result of using it.