E-commerce and video chat continue to grow in popularity. As a result, live video shopping will be the most significant eCommerce investment in the upcoming years. By 2023, live video shopping will account for 22% of all retail purchases. In addition, several tech giants, including Amazon and Facebook, have invested an astounding $380 million in video commerce.
And I’m confident that it is not slowing down soon. I’ve shared the best tips to help you and your team prepare for live video shopping success.
What is Customer Engagement?
Today’s online shoppers are spoiled for choice. As a retailer and eCommerce owner, you must work harder to stand out if you want to make a sale. But of course, bringing a potential customer to your eCommerce website is only the first step.
At its core, customer engagement is the emotional relationship built between a brand and its customers by delivering a superior shopping experience.
It is estimated that customer experience will overtake price and product as a brand differentiator within two years. This statistic is more meaningful for online store retailers, who rarely interact with customers face-to-face.
Why is customer engagement important for an eCommerce business?
To stand out in the market, online sellers need a well-planned customer retention strategy to retain customers. Give your customers a great experience; they’ll buy more, increase loyalty, and share the experience with their friends. Every business aspires to it.
Companies advertise the latest technology and sleek designs. But they fail to focus and invest in the most critical aspects of the customer experience. So, consider shoppable video chat options if you plan to run a successful eCommerce business shortly.
Online sellers must invest more than ever in customer engagement because retaining clients is one of their biggest challenges.
What tactics can online sellers use to increase client engagement? Here are a few ideas.
1. Invest in your people, and the customer will invest in you
Customers can interact with a real person through live video shopping, avoiding the everyday frustrations of chatbots. However, you must make a good first impression for your customers to return.
Arvia uses in-house professionals to host solution training programs in marketing, sales, and technology integration to ensure your team is ready to offer live video calls.
The onboarding process promotes a mutual understanding that can improve the Arvia products and maximize your calls and sales.
Motivating virtual teams has its challenges. Arvia has established live video shopping KPIs to overcome them and catch up during weekly meetings. That will ensure that your new video commerce channel is successful.
2. Use a video chat platform that’s connected
Brands are still finding success with one-on-one shoppable video calls. As of June 2022, more than half of investigated buyers watched videos to shop online. In addition, almost 55% of participants said they had watched a live or pre-recorded live video shopping event, while 38% said they had not.
It implies that live video is on a definite upward trend in attracting potential consumer demand. Therefore, it is critical to facilitate one-on-one shoppable video calls to increase customer engagement in your e-commerce.
Arvia’s platform scales its video chat technology by leveraging headless commerce. Furthermore, it eliminates technical complications and provides a flexible integration framework. That allows us to enhance and extend it to any open platform significantly.
3. Video chat for on-site engagement
Online sellers who don’t offer live chat service on their websites see a decline in sales. Live chat allows customers to ignore the waiting line when requesting customer service. It also enables your customer service team to provide personalized service to customers.
Most people who visit online stores are either exploring products or comparing them. However, interacting with them at that time or when they need assistance can significantly increase your chances of turning them into customers.
Additionally, you may combine a live video chat with a Chabot to respond immediately to customer inquiries. So, you can expand your customer care by handling as much as 80% of common client inquiries.
4. Raise the rate of customer satisfaction through video chat
Businesses are increasingly using video chat to improve their customer service standards. Unlike other response mechanisms, engaging clients with video chat helps customers through pretty tricky situations in real-time.
According to customer service statistics in Forrester Report:
- 50% of customers believe that having a live person respond to questions in the middle of a buying decision is the key feature a brand can provide.
- Live chat features are already available on 54% of retailers’ websites.
Video chat helps you identify concerns way more quickly and provide efficient options. It also reduces the number of encounters significantly by providing contextual approaches. You can also personalize communications with clients to build trust.
Therefore, users can use a shoppable video chat widget to seek immediate assistance for problems that require quick solutions. Moreover, it helps users resolve complicated issues requiring expert knowledge, such as transactional inquiries and software problems. Customer satisfaction is higher when responses are rapid and effective.
5. Video chat boosts real-time client interaction
Customer interaction has a significant impact on the growth of a business. Co-browsing, video, and voice chat speed up live customer interaction. As a result, these features have a dramatic impact on increasing the number of both new and loyal customers.
Through video chat, a customer and an agent can have a deeper grasp of the product by learning about it firsthand. Establishing an emotional connection between the agent and the consumer also lessens frustrating and unpleasant situations. Metrics related to customer service will generally improve.
With co-browsing, you can share and take control of your customers’ browsers and guide them through complex form fill-up and application processes. In addition, product demonstrations and technical support via video chat are highly effective in terms of customer onboarding and sales conversion.
6. Inspire customers to complete the purchase process
Customers who abandon their carts are valuable to you because they genuinely desire to purchase your product.
People leave for various reasons.
- The most common reason is that shipping is more expensive than they expected.
- They may need help creating an account to complete their purchase.
- Or they have a concern that needs to be addressed before proceeding.
If your online customers require assistance, you can offer them shoppable video chat widgets. Customers want an immediate resolution to their complaints or questions. Video chat lets them have their question answered quickly, alleviating any concerns that might prevent them from making a purchase.
7. Every video chat platform requires CTAs
Arvia works hard to provide a fully customized widget that will increase walk-in calls and appointment bookings when you go live.
Although, as the adage goes, “actions speak louder than words,” the right words convey the right actions. You can customize Arvia’s shoppable video chat widget to match your brand guidelines.
A purposeful landing page for virtual appointments dramatically enhances its potential.
While live video shopping is becoming more popular, customers may have never had such an interaction. Therefore, focus on preparing calls with your customers to guarantee that every opportunity leads to a conversion.
8. Easily setup virtual appointments on the video chat widget
When you use virtual appointments, your brand’s average order value will rise by more than 30%. In addition, due to changes in online shopping behavior, customers expect customization throughout the entire process, from awareness to sales.
To prepare for high-ticket sales calls, use virtual appointments to provide excellent customer service.
Arvia’s shoppable video chat with appointment scheduling gives you complete customer journey control. It is simple to manage the appointment journey from start to finish, from awareness to conversion.
9. Train your staff for video chat to prevent any offset
Make sure your customer service representatives are well-versed in the art of positive body language, particularly eye contact. Look directly into the camera rather than at the customer, and sit up straight. Good lighting and plain backdrops are also beneficial.
These simple clues help the agent stay focused on the call while assuring the customer on the other end that they are understood.
10. Invest in the excellent quality equipment
Ensure your video calling is up to date to provide the best sound quality. Customers will be turned off by poor audio quality, so a good business computer or mobile phone, headset, microphone, and consistent broadband are required.
It’s not enough to generate traffic; you also need effective ways to attract customers if you want to increase sales significantly. Retaining customers in your online store is paramount to your success and should always be a priority for your business.
Conclusion
Excellent customer service and engagement will almost certainly result in lead generation and an increased return on investment over time.
Acknowledging when the perfect situation calls for a customer video chat is critical to effectively using this channel. Other communication methods available to your company, such as live web chat, phone, text, and email, may be more appropriate in certain situations.
However, shoppable video chat is probably the best way to upsell or explain your company’s products offer. It is common for customers to watch product review videos to learn about new products, which is why video chat on eCommerce is getting so popular.
