If customer service is the most important factor in a customer’s buying decision, then why doesn’t everyone have a chatbot in 2020? One reason: technical knowledge (or lack thereof).
Every eCommerce business wants to provide better customer service software but there is a common misconception that the only option for the average non-tech-savvy store owner is to outsource development and bear the costs.
Except that’s not true at all.
It’s 100% viable to build your own eCommerce chatbot without writing a single line of code or even knowing how to program. In fact, building a code-free chatbot is a great way of testing customer response, albeit with limited functionality.
If You Build it, Will They Come?
“Do people actually use chatbots? What’s the response rate and ROI like? Is it a wise investment?”
These are all questions that you’ll likely have before diving into the world of conversational tech and while “DIYing” your eCommerce chatbot will certainly help bring costs down – there are still some expenses to bear. So is it worth it for an eCommerce store like yours?
In a word, yes. Chatbots have become immensely advanced thanks to AI and machine learning and are capable of handling complex conversations and messages – but that’s not why you need a chatbot.
Chatbots ensure that your customers always have the support and that’s incredibly valuable. Take a look at some of these numbers:
- 71% of people use chatbots to solve their problems fast.
- 83% of online shoppers need support during shopping.
- 38% of people surveyed felt positive about their chatbots experiences, while only 11% felt negative.
The goal of chatbots isn’t to mimic human customer support – it’s to provide customer support quickly and 24/7. Even if your chatbot is very limited in what it can do – it’s going to be worth it. But with so much technology available, chatbots today are anything but limited.
How to Build an eCommerce Chatbot Without Coding
The most common method of building codeless chatbots is to use third-party services many of whom provide a drag-and-drop solution to building chatbots.
Fortunately, there are quite a few options when it comes to building chatbots without coding. And to save you the trouble of going through each and everyone, we’ve tried to pick out some of the best tools that can be used by all kinds of online businesses, but especially by eCommerce store owners.
Build a Facebook Messenger Chatbot without Coding
Facebook is home to many unique demographics and is a powerful tool for a lot of businesses. So having a chatbot on Facebook Messenger (used by over 1,300,000,000 people) is a good idea. The following two tools are great for Facebook Messenger Chatbots although they can be used to create chatbots for other platforms as well.
Chatfuel
Chatfuel is one of the most popular chatbot builders, especially for Facebook Messenger. In fact, nearly half of all (46%) chatbots on Facebook Messenger run on Chatfuel. It’s extremely feature-rich and while that can complicate things a little, having these options at your disposal is important.
Chatfuel supports multiple languages and can easily be integrated into Facebook Messenger through native support.
Botsify
Botsify is one of the older and well-established chatbot builders in 2020. It comes with full Facebook Messenger support and can also be integrated into eCommerce stores built upon store builders like Shopify and WooCommerce.
Botsify also uses a drag-and-drop interface and comes with a range of chatbot templates.
Build a WhatsApp Chatbot without Coding
WhatsApp use cases have expanded from being a personal messaging app to becoming an important marketing and customer service tool. With an increasing number of online shoppers using smartphones for online purchases, it’s important to have easy to reach support on a platform like WhatsApp.
MessengerPeople
MessengerPeople is one of the official WhatsApp solution providers and uses a graphical interface to build chatbots. It comes with a free 14-day trial and a lot of additional functionality. However, if you’re only planning on using MessengerPeople as a simple chatbot builder, then it’s relatively expensive.
TARS
TARS is also an extremely popular chatbot builder that comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. It has a more budget-friendly pricing plan than MessengerPeople and you can also integrate it with third-party tools like Zapier.
Build a Chatbot for Your eCommerce Store without Coding
And of course, you need some form of customer support at the point of sale aka your eCommerce store. Like with Facebook Messenger, there’s no shortage of chatbot builders with built-in support for eCommerce websites.
Power Virtual Agents
Power Virtual Agents is built by Microsoft and offers a no-code graphical interface to build powerful chatbots for all kinds of websites. This is a great option if you’ve built a custom online store instead of using platforms like Shopify.
Tidio
A great option for store owners who are using website builders like Wix, WordPress, and Shopify is Tidio. Tidio’s chatbot and live chat services are built with eCommerce integration in mind and is also very budget-friendly (there is also a free option).
So there you have it. 6 of the best chatbot builders that are easy, affordable, and great for eCommerce stores. However, note that many of these services have integrations across websites, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp so you do not need a separate tool for each platform – just the pick the one that suits your business needs best.
