Page 8 - index

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Customers want promptness, expert

advice, and simple operation in real-time

The growth of the eCommerce market is and remains Click-to-chat offer can reduce dropout rates by half
unbroken, which is the reason why online retailers have
to offer more than just attractive prices to differentiate Recent developments show that more and more online
themselves from competitors. retailers integrate the ‘click-to-chat button’ in their
online stores, increasingly aware that traffic generation
At least we know by now that customers mainly buy alone does not lead to sales. If the customers have
where they feel well advised. Therefore, for a large pro- made their way to the online store, it is important to
portion of consumers, a high availability of service staff guide them through the buying process and to keep the
is of great relevance. Besides, guidance is continuing to probability of a purchase dropout as low as possible.
score, especially when conducted in real-time, simply This illustrates the need to assist the customer during
due to the sharp increase in degrees of cross-linking the order process in real time when having questions,
and the digital penetration of the common sense world. because not every online shopper wants to resort to the
Today’s consumers not only buy differently, but also phone, or go through the FAQs, when there are ambi-
have increased expectations in terms of service. The guities. In the future, it is expected that click-to-chat will
networked customer of today has high demands and continue to increase in importance. The majority of con-
wants fast service in real-time and without media disrup- sumers want that more online stores integrate such
tion. In particular, experienced, intensive shoppers ex- services at least partially.
pect good service. In fact, customers usually do not
want to do without the service they are used to get in In recent years, a change in online trading quite obvi-
the brick and mortar stores when buying online. Even ously took place. Today, no longer just the price is the
online, they want to be advised quickly, comfortably, decisive factor for whether consumers order in an
competently and personally. Precisely here real-time online shop, but the consulting expertise is increasingly
services join in, accompanying and taking care of cus- becoming important, whereby the boundaries between
tomers along the customer journey, while guiding online and offline steadily blur. Customers nowadays
through the buying process, whereby the preferred ser- demand a wide range of services when shopping online
vice is the click-to-call button. and getting the feeling that their whole purchase experi-
ence is complete. Therefore, elaborate product presen-
tations, as well as consultancy in real-time, will contin-
ue to gain in importance (e.g. in the form of videos and
3D views)
8 Asian eMarketing July 2015: Real (Right)-Time Marketing
8