Online window shoppers. You know the visitors we mean. You’ve got them to your website, you’ve got them to click around, and you might even have persuaded them to add items to their cart.
But more often than not, these visitors abandon site without buying anything. (In fact, the average conversion rate of online shoppers is just 2.95%.)
This can be frustrating — you’ve done the hard part and got prospects through your website doors, but the effort just isn’t paying off.
There is, however, a way to help convert those online window shoppers. After all, you have their attention. You just need to optimise it.
Here, we look at the ways in which live chat software can help turn online window shoppers into converted customers.
If I'm in your store I'm 1000 times more valuable than someone in the street, even if I have no intention of buying today. Why? Because you have my attention.
- Brett Welch, businesscatalyst.com
Types of window shopper
In a way, having a visitor online is better than in a physical store. It’s not as likely that they’re only there to kill time.
They’ll be there because they’re interested in what you have to offer, regardless of whether it’s just a general interest in your area of business, or a pointed interest in a specific item or service.
BUT, and here’s the crux of it, you still need to provide customer support to convert those online window shoppers, with the same level of service they’d expect in-store.
In a physical store, you’d have employees on hand to offer help at every step of the buying process. Your products are organised into categories on the shop floor and easy to find, and customers aren’t worried about getting their credit cards out to pay you.
Online, this can be difficult to recreate, but it is possible.
A large part of successful ecommerce is understanding the motivations of your visitors: why they are visiting, what they expect from your website, and how to help them as effectively as possible.
Enter live chat software.
Get organised
You wouldn’t want your shop floor disorganised and messy, littered with dropped products. It’s the same with your online shop.
Customers need to be able to understand what you offer within seconds of landing on your home page, and find what they’re looking for onsite without rummaging through a mountain of links and text.
Remember: online attention spans are short. If shoppers can’t get what they want from your site quickly and easily, they’ll simply click elsewhere.
There are two ways to help with this visitor retention problem. The first is to organise your categories so online window shoppers can find what they’re looking for efficiently. You organise a shop floor by category, do the same for your site.
The second is the implementation of live chat software.
On a shop floor, if a customer can’t find something, they find someone to ask. Online, live chat software enables the same level of service.
An agent can guide a customer through the site all the way through to purchase, offering support as and when it is needed.
Trust and credibility
Clarity is part of your credibility. In store, a customer can be safe in the knowledge that the product or service fits their needs and wants. Online, they need more convincing.
A large part of that comes down to how your website looks, reads and runs. But on a more interpersonal level, you also need to build trust within each online window shopper by being there to help.
Live chat software can help by re-introducing the human element to online shopping. Visitors can connect with agents and address any concerns, receiving real-time answers in a friendly chat format.
The human connection a live chat channel gives your website will translate to trust within your customers when it comes to buying.
Supporting presence
In store, customers can ask employees about returns policies, how to find a product, and so on. The same can rarely be said online.
Customers looking for information are often left alone to navigate static FAQ pages or wade through a wall of dense terms and conditions.
With a live chat channel, support becomes instant and accessible. It provides you with the means to offer service to each website visitor, so they’re never left stuck or stranded onsite.
Knowing you are only a click away from chatting to them, live, helps customers feel more at ease about buying from you.
This supportive presence is also invaluable for cart abandonment prevention. The inbuilt tracking that comes with live chat solutions allows you to follow the activity of your online window shoppers in real-time.
You can then reach out at crucial points in the journey, like the checkout, to make sure they don’t have any concerns or doubts going forward with their purchase.
Be memorable
Online window shoppers won’t always buy on the day of their first visit – but that doesn’t mean they will never buy from you in the future.
Converting the online window shopper is a game of time. You just need to optimise your play strategy, and lay the foundations for them to come back and complete a purchase next time. In short, you need to give online window shoppers reasons to come back to your site.
Optimising your site for conversion means optimising your user experience. Unfortunately, a bad user experience will be remembered. You need to make sure that your site is memorable for the right reasons.
A clear user interface and live chat software-enabled support is a step in the right direction to making sure that online window shoppers have a good experience. So is great content and fast, error-free site performance.
Every online window shopper that clicks away happy with your site and customer support is another potential conversion later down the line.
The silver service bell
With a live chat channel available on your website, you can provide the same (or a higher) level of support than you would find in a physical store and convert online window shoppers into customers.
Think of it this way: your website is the window that showcases the goods. Live chat software is the ringing bell that beckons instant, friendly service to what would otherwise be an empty storefront.
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Useful links
- - Preventing cart abandonment with live chat software
- - Online engagement: you must do better than "contact us"
- - 10 ideas for live chat triggers
- - The customer service battle: digitalisation vs the human touch
- - Customer contact: cat got your website’s tongue?
- - How to improve live chat usability: a quick-start guide