Study: Shoppers not shying away from voice, chatbots, other new technologies

When connecting with retailers, consumers are warming up to more complex and emerging technologies.



Retailers are starting to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and voice technology into communications with shoppers — and consumers are increasingly receptive. In fact, 79% of shoppers have used text, messenger apps or voice devices, and 74% indicated they have used live chat when shopping.



This was according to the report “Bots, Texts and Voice: What Cuts Through the Clutter,” from Navar.



Of those who have used these new technologies, 38% could not identify if they were using AI, and only 10% knew it was not human. Among the 65% of shoppers who knew a non-human bot was responding generally liked it, data revealed.



Chatbots are only the beginning of the consumers’ affinity for AI. For example, shoppers indicated they plan on using voice-powered devices more. So far, 12% of shoppers own a voice device, and 29% of voice device owners use it to shop. Meanwhile, 41% of voice device owners plan to use it in the future.



This increased usage of AI tools makes sense as 77% of American adults own a smartphone; and every month, people exchange 2 billion messages with Facebook Messenger’s 100,000 active bots. In addition, 30 million households will have a voice-first, in-home device, such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, by the end of 2017, the report said.



AI technologies are also playing a role in customer service transactions, especially among those using self-service technology. For example, a majority of shoppers will try to resolve problems on their own first. Those under 30 years old are most likely to use the retailer’s website or chat technology to resolve an issue.



Rather than do away with skilled customer support teams in favor of AI tools, savvy retailers are adopting a hybrid model. Technology offers better self-service options, but escalates higher-level issues to humans. Live agents are on hand to fix complex problems and calm down frustrated customers, while bots can help with simple requests, such as answering questions about order status.



This configuration makes sense as 55% of millennials aged 21-29 prefer to talk to a person to resolve a problem, compared with 72% of shoppers aged 60 or older. Meanwhile, 88% of under-30 millennials and 73% of shoppers aged 60 or older will try to find an answer to the problem themselves when they encounter an issue with a retailer.



“People expect a personalized, effortless online shopping experience from discovery to post-purchase. This is only amplified with the introduction of new communications channels,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, a retail industry analyst who collaborated with Narvar on this study.



“Retail brands should seize the opportunity to learn from and optimize consumer communications through both existing and emerging channels,” Mulpuru added. “The first step is to understand how their customers want to communicate based on elements like urgency, type of message and specific channel.”



Despite the rise of AI-powered tools, consumers are not yet giving up more “traditional” digital communications tools. For example, 38% of shoppers said they want to receive information from retailers via multiple channels, and 36% prefer to receive order updates via text message, while 34% like to receive texts about customer service issues.



Among the most important messages are those that contain order tracking information (73%), and customer service messages (46%). Further, 84% said more communication is critical if the purchase is an expensive one, the study said.