Ecommerce Live Chat: Why You Need It, How to Use It & Recommendations

Nobody likes waiting, especially when it comes to customer support. However, many ecommerce businesses struggle with meeting customer service demands. It can be difficult to monitor multiple channels, respond to a high volume of customer inquiries, and provide customers with a fast and positive experience, all while maintaining a human touch. Although marketing automation tools and customer communication solutions continue to evolve, 60 per cent of customers still prefer talking to a human, even if they have to wait in a queue. Thankfully, online businesses can have the best of both worlds with an ecommerce live chat tool.

Ecommerce live chat support software allows customers to chat to your support team right away from their browser. These live chat solutions offer numerous benefits for both your customers and your business. In this blog, we’ll discuss how live chat for ecommerce stores can help improve customer satisfaction, gain valuable insights into customer behaviour and give your business a competitive advantage.

How does live chat help with customer service in ecommerce?

Ecommerce live chat tools are real-time messaging systems that integrate with your online store, typically appearing as a customisable chat widget or a pop-up window. Customers can click on the chat and start a conversation with a live chat agent, who can respond in real time and quickly answer any customer queries. 

Your customer’s time is valuable. Around 67 per cent of customers report feeling negatively about waiting, with emotions ranging from impatience to frustration. Customer patience is at an all-time low in the wake of COVID-19, while their expectation for fast service is climbing. 52 per cent of customers expect a quick resolution to their problems, which is quite challenging for ecommerce businesses monitoring multiple service channels.

This is where ecommerce live chat shines the most: it provides customers with an instant response, saving them time and stress throughout the buying process. The convenience and accessibility of live chat tools help support agents provide proactive support when customers need it the most. But the benefits of live chat don't stop there. Your sales team can use live chat software to make personalised recommendations for upselling or cross-selling, collect customer feedback and streamline the checkout process. These techniques will lead to higher conversions, improved customer satisfaction and more revenue for your ecommerce store.

Benefits of live chat

Real-time assistance

Ecommerce live chat supports real-time assistance by providing customers with immediate access to support agents or representatives while browsing your website. Customers can immediately initiate a live chat session with support agents by clicking on the appropriate window, eliminating the need to wait in a queue for phone support or an email response. When a new chat begins, support agents receive notifications in real-time and can respond promptly to address the customer's inquiries, questions, or concerns. This immediate response ensures that customers receive assistance when they need it most, improving customer satisfaction.

Increased conversions

Live chat can also serve as a powerful sales tool by facilitating conversations with potential customers and guiding them through the purchasing process. By addressing questions or concerns in real time, live chat agents can help alleviate any hesitations or uncertainties that may be preventing customers from completing a purchase, ultimately leading to increased sales and conversions.

Overall customer satisfaction

With live chat, customers can easily initiate conversations without the need for phone calls, emails or queues, significantly reducing response times and ensuring timely assistance. This cuts down on the biggest pain point for customers - feeling that their time is being wasted. With the help of a dedicated customer relationship management system (CRM), customer service staff can offer tailored solutions, troubleshooting techniques, or product information based on the customer’s history. This personalised interaction fosters a sense of trust and rapport between the customer and the business, leading to higher satisfaction levels and increased customer loyalty. Additionally, live chat allows businesses to engage with customers proactively, offering assistance at critical points in the purchasing process and addressing concerns before they escalate, ultimately improving the overall customer experience and driving positive outcomes for the brand.

Factors to consider when selecting software

When selecting ecommerce live chat software, several factors need to be considered to ensure your live chat solutions align with the needs and goals of your dropshipping business. Here are some key considerations when choosing a live chat software partner for your ecommerce website.

Key features

What do you want your live chat feature to do? There are many different features live chat software can offer, such as real-time messaging, chat routing and queuing, pre-written responses (also known as canned responses), file sharing, chat history transcripts, and integration with other tools and platforms. The right features for your business will depend on the needs of your customers, your budget restraints, and your support team’s resources.

Cloud-based vs self-hosted

With cloud-based live chat, your live chat software and data are hosted on a remote cloud server that is owned and managed by a third party. Because of this, these solutions require minimal set-up or technical knowledge to use, making them affordable, accessible and convenient for you and your customers. Self-hosted live chat software is installed and managed on your own infrastructure, giving you full control over the software and the data. This gives your business more flexibility in terms of customisation and integrations, as well as increased data security. However, self-hosted solutions require users to have technical expertise and resources for server management, maintenance, and security updates. They may also require upfront investments in hardware and infrastructure.

Ease of use

For a streamlined customer experience, choose a live chat solution that is intuitive and user-friendly for both customers and support agents. The software should be easy to install, configure, and use, with a clean and intuitive interface that facilitates seamless communication.

Customisation options

Look for live chat software that offers customisation options to match the branding and design of the ecommerce website. This includes customisable chat widgets, colour schemes, logos, and chat window layouts, which will help maintain a consistent brand identity.

Mobile compatibility

Ensure that your live chat software is compatible with mobile devices. Research from Statista shows that mobile devices are the primary drivers of retail website traffic and ecommerce sales worldwide, accounting for nearly 80 per cent of visits and 66 per cent of purchases in 2023. M-commerce is expected to reach approximately two trillion USD in revenue by 2024. Your live chat solutions should offer responsive design and mobile apps for both customers and support staff, enabling seamless integration across devices.

Scalability

Choose a live chat solution that can scale with the growth of your dropshipping business. The software should be able to handle increasing chat volumes, support multiple agents or departments, and accommodate additional features or customisation as needed.

Security and compliance

As an ecommerce business, you’ll need to protect your customer’s data. Look for features such as end-to-end encryption, data retention policies, and compliance certifications to protect customer data and sensitive information. Additionally, protect your ecommerce business by ensuring your live chat support is compliant with the relevant standards, laws and regulations. 

Analytics and reporting

Live chat software can provide valuable insights into customer behaviour, measure customer satisfaction and identify common pain points. Select a live chat solution that offers robust analytics and reporting capabilities to track key metrics such as chat volume, response times, customer satisfaction scores, and conversion rates. Some tools even help you collect feedback using a post-chat survey. These insights will help your business optimise its chat operations and improve customer service over time.

Cost

Pricing plans should be competitive and flexible, allowing you to pay based on your needs and change plans as required. Your budget should take into account the volume of queries you expect to manage, how many domains you need to install the live chat on, whether you need integrations for other ecommerce platforms, and the type of reporting you need. Review the seller’s terms and conditions closely. What additional charges are there? Is there a termination fee? Are there any discounts available?

Best practices for managing live chat

Training staff

Provide comprehensive training to live chat agents on product knowledge, company policies, software usage and effective communication skills. Training helps agents deliver consistent and accurate information, provide personalised assistance, and resolve issues efficiently.

Setting response times

Setting clear response times helps manage customer expectations and ensures that they receive timely assistance. Clearly communicate the availability of live chat support on the website, including operating hours and response times. On the staff side, make sure your chosen software alerts support staff immediately of any new customer conversations and continually monitors response times to ensure you’re meeting customer expectations. Although customers often expect a response within 4 hours, the average response time for many businesses is 12 hours.

Creating chatbots

Chatbots for customer service are AI interfaces designed to simulate human customer support. They are programmed to understand and respond to a wide range of customer queries in a conversational manner, ranging from simple rule-based systems with predefined scripts to complex algorithms that generate dynamic responses. Chatbots can be used in conjunction with live chat to handle simple queries and redirect more complex issues to the correct live customer service agent. This can improve the customer service experience by streamlining the customer service experience for customers and leaving your live customer service agents free to focus on other tasks. 

Analysing live chat data to improve customer experience

Live chat data can provide valuable insights that businesses can leverage to improve their customer experience. Unlike standard feedback, which occurs after the incident and may lack detail or contain irrelevant information, live chat transcripts and interactions keep an accurate record of problems being solved. Businesses can map out the customer journey based on live chat interactions to understand how customers engage with the business at different touchpoints. The data can also be used to track key performance indicators such as chat volume, resolution rates, customer satisfaction scores, agent productivity and response times. Finally, integrating the data from live chat software with CRM systems can consolidate customer interactions and data across multiple channels, allowing businesses to track customer interactions, preferences, and purchase history. This provides a comprehensive view of each customer and enables more personalised engagement to improve customer relationships.

Live chat software recommendations

Zendesk

Zendesk is a SaaS CRM software that offers sales and customer service solutions for businesses big and small. They help businesses manage customer interactions across various channels, including email, phone, chat, social media, and self-service portals. Their live chat function, Zendesk Messaging provides seamless messaging across multiple platforms, so customers don’t have to repeat their information. With proactive messaging features, you can create outbound notifications that drive customer engagement and prevent escalations. They also offer comprehensive third-party integrations and group messaging, connecting all relevant parties (such as couriers) to the chat for more effective problem-solving. To access live chat, you’ll need to subscribe to one of their Suite plans, which start from $55USD per agent, per month.

Pros of Zendesk

• Group messaging.

• Proactive outbound notifications.

• Comprehensive integrations.

• Great for larger businesses.

Cons of Zendesk

• Steep learning curve.

• May be expensive at scale or for smaller businesses.

• Limited customer support.

Hubspot live chat

HubSpot is a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, sales, and customer service software. They offer a suite of integrated tools and solutions for businesses, including a live chat function. Hubspot’s live chatbot offers customisation to match your support system to your branding and create targeted welcome messages for different web pages or customer segments. No matter where your support staff is, integrations will help your support staff contact customers, or you can set office hours and email capture to follow-up on missed chat requests. HubSpot offers a free plan for their live chat and chatbot builder. However, you’ll need to sign up for one of their plans to access more advanced features and remove the HubSpot branding. Plans start at $22AUD per seat, per month (billed annually).

Pros of HubSpot live chat

• Free software option.

• Chatbot builder.

• Seamless integration with other HubSpot tools.

• Plenty of other integrations available.

Cons of HubSpot live chat

• Limited tools on the free plan.

• Paid plans can become expensive.

• No flexible contracts.

• Limited features compared to other live chat tools.

• No analytics.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a comprehensive help desk software and customer support platform that offers a wide range of live chat solutions. Their live chat interface features customisable widgets, 24/7 customer service, comprehensive chat analytics and tracking and access to unlimited chat and ticket history. It also features chat button animations, customisable chat invitations, real-time typing view, website visitor tracking and an internal chat for your customer service staff to keep things running smoothly. Best of all, plans are quite affordable starting at $9USD per agent, per month (billed annually). However, if you want your live chat to include basic social integrations such as Facebook Messenger, you’ll be looking at $39USD per month.

Pros of LiveAgent

• Internal messaging system.

• Eye-catching graphics and animations.

• Real-time typing view.

• Unlimited chat and ticket history access.

Cons of LiveAgent

• Not as user-friendly as other tools.

• Social integration comes with a hefty price tag.

• Limited and slow customer support.

LiveChat

LiveChat is a cloud-based live chat software with plenty of features for ecommerce websites. The platform's visitor monitoring capabilities allow businesses to gain insights into visitor behaviour, browsing history, and referral sources, facilitating personalised interactions and tailored responses. LiveChat supports file sharing between agents and customers, enabling the exchange of documents, images, and other files during chat conversations. Deep analytics are available to track not only customer service resolutions but also sales data to help you generate leads and improve sales. Additionally, they have a dedicated set of security features to protect customer data, including encrypted connections, credit card masking, access restrictions and visitor banning for disruptive customers. Combined with their chatbot functionality, LiveChat offers a comprehensive tool used by some of the biggest businesses in ecommerce and beyond. Pricing starts at $20USD per month (billed annually), while AI features will cost an additional $52USD per month (billed annually).

Pros of LiveChat

• Contextual tags.

• Plenty of integrations.

• Strong social proof.

• Simple to use.

• Offers a free trial.

Cons of LiveChat

• Users report that the program can sometimes run slowly or conversations disappear.

• Limited functionality on their mobile app.

• Many useful features locked behind higher-paid plans.

• Focused mainly on chat, compared to other tools with an all-in-one approach.

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a cloud-based help desk software solution that allows users to offer live chat support at various touchpoints without coding. For out-of-hours help, guided conversations provide self-service options that are automated, but also personalised using custom flows, flexible templates and expedited responses to specific questions. Zoho Desk also includes collaboration tools that enable support teams to communicate internally, share knowledge, and collaborate on ticket resolution. Apart from robust security features, they include consent banners that alert visitors to data regulations and keep them informed of their data usage. While instant messaging is available on their standard plan at $22AUD per month (billed annually), you’ll need to sign up for their Enterprise plan for live chat and guided conversations, which comes to $60.50AUD per month (billed annually).

Pros of Zoho Desk

• Manages multiple conversations across multiple channels simultaneously.

• Credit card masking in chats and archives.

• Easy feedback collection.

• Easy to set up.

Cons of Zoho Desk

• Limited free plan features.

• Limited customer support.

• Live chat plans can be expensive.

Freshchat

Freshwork’s cloud-based live chat software, Freshchat offers businesses a seamless cross-channel customer service experience for both self-service and agent-assisted messaging. With a unified agent workspace and team inbox, your customer support team can set up custom APIs, create distribution lists, access your business’s knowledge base and integrate with your CRM to offer fast, highly contextual help to each customer. With ready-to-use, customisable templates, you can proactively offer personalised interactions across the entire customer journey, and analyse key metrics to revise your journeys based on customer experiences. These analytics can also help you grow and scale your business by identifying gaps in efficiency and monitoring team performance. Freshchat offers a free plan for up to 10 agents, however you will have to pay per session to use their chatbot. Paid plans start at $29AUD per month (billed annually) and include up to 500 free bot sessions, after which you will have to pay per session. 

Pros of Freshchat

• Native mobile messaging.

• Both REST APIs and pre-built integrations available.

• Easy to create automated conversations.

• Customisable applications.

Cons of Freshchat

• Reviews indicated customer service needs improvement.

• Response times can be slow.

• Many key features locked behind premium plans.

• Limited integrations.

Tidio

Tidio’s live chat platform offers convenience and flexibility for both your customers and your business. It simplifies communications across all platforms by condensing communications to a single dashboard, which is accessible across desktop, mobile and browser apps. Tidio’s live typing view allows you to see what customers are saying before they hit send, and canned responses let you answer common questions within seconds, reducing your response times. A live visitor list also lets you see how many visitors are on your website and offer custom advice based on their activities. Start a video call with the click of a button, no installation required, and demonstrate your products with ease. You can also collect customer data and streamline your lead generation with pre-chat surveys. With multi-language support, customers can contact your business from around the globe with convenience. Tidio offers a free plan that includes live chat, ticketing and social media integrations, but this plan will only handle up to 50 conversations at once and not include analytics. To access their other useful features, paid plans start from $29USD per month. 

Pros of Tidio

• Comes with a free plan and a 7-day free trial for paid plans.

• Easy to set up.

• Real-time visitor view.

• Customisable interface.

Cons of Tidio

• Chat moderators don’t have complete control over their chat.

• Difficult to manage multiple chats at the same time.

• Minimal analytics.

• The multichannel feature is not as responsive as other multichannel CRMS.

Summary

Ecommerce live chat helps businesses provide quick and effective customer service from anywhere in the world, at any time. Live chat software benefits businesses through automation, data collection and extensive analytics, while customers benefit from accessible support messaging, fast response times, and all the benefits of talking to a real person from the comfort of home. It can also provide more opportunities for your sales team to upsell, cross-sell and convert, increasing revenue alongside customer satisfaction. For the best customer experience your ecommerce business has to offer, consider implementing live chat for your ecommerce site today.