The Conversational Commerce Funnel: Guiding Shoppers from Awareness to Conversion

How do you make online shopping easier for your customers? How do you position yourself as the best in a highly competitive market? You can do so by imparting a frictionless, quick, and personalized customer experience. 

While every other eCommerce store offers the same products at competitive pricing, the experience you deliver will stay in the minds of your customers. Implementing a conversational commerce funnel is one of the best ways to personalize every customer interaction and experience. 

You would be shocked to know the global spending on conversational commerce channels is expected to hit $290 billion by 2025. But what is a conversational commerce funnel, and what are its channels? How do they differ from traditional funnels? What business benefits do these new-gen funnels offer? Let's explore them together in this blog post.

Conversational Commerce Funnel: What Is It? 

Before moving on to the conversational commerce funnel, let's first understand what “conversational commerce” means. Also known as conversational marketing, it's a modern, customer-centric marketing strategy that focuses on personalized, two-way communication between the leads and businesses. 

Conversational commerce involves advanced conversational AI technologies such as virtual assistants, shopping assistants, AI concierge, and live chat support, which assist the leads in every stage of their buying journey. It emphasizes bringing the convenience of offline shopping to eCommerce stores, thus giving shoppers an online sales assistant available to help and guide them anytime from any corner of the world. 

Moving on to the conversational commerce funnel, which uses a structured approach involving conversational commerce to convert and nurture leads into customers. While it's similar to a sales or marketing funnel, it has predefined settings for guiding the lead or shopper from product discovery to the final checkout page with human-like assistance. 

Let's understand this with an example. Imagine yourself as a shopper landing on an eCommerce store selling healthy foods and alternatives. You must have come here looking for a specific product: healthy chocolate or healthy snacks. Traditionally, you would have to scroll through the entire store to find the product best fit for you & your needs. 

Isn't it frustrating and time-consuming? Imagine a shopping assistant or AI concierge welcoming you to the store and asking about your preferences and choices. It then does all the hard work and comes up with a curated list of suggestions and product recommendations exactly matching your needs & choices. It also assists with further questions on a particular product, helping you choose the best one for yourself while guiding you to the checkout page. 

That's the perfect example of a shopping assistant guiding you through a tailored conversational marketing funnel. Whether it's about finding the right product or making a payment, it solves all your pain points immediately, making the funnel more personalized and less robotic.

Why Are Businesses Shifting From Traditional To Conversational Commerce Funnels? 

Did you know that the global conversational commerce market was valued at $5,345.5 million in 2021 and is expected to hit at least $26,301.8 million by 2032? But why is this shift? Why are eCommerce businesses ditching the traditional sales funnel for a conversational one?

Unlike traditional funnels, which offer a common pathway for all leads, conversational commerce funnels use AI technologies for more personalized engagement. Their conversations and interactions are tailored and structured for the lead or shopper based on their choices, preferences, real-time inputs, and past behaviour. 

The personalized interactions and all-time available support help reduce friction, eliminating the need for customers to scroll through categories. They get exactly what they're looking for within a few clicks. With reduced confusion and frustration, conversion rates also skyrocket. 

Furthermore, conversational commerce funnels are more efficient and help reduce cart abandonment rate and overall costs. Their omnichannel readiness helps shoppers access and shop from multiple platforms, according to their convenience. 

Businesses switching to conversational commerce have noticed a significant 10% revenue boost within the initial six months. Thus, this shift from traditional to conversational marketing funnels is less about automation and more about adopting a strategic response to evolving consumer expectations and technological advancements. By embracing this approach, businesses can offer more engaging, efficient, and personalized shopping experiences, increasing customer satisfaction and revenue growth.

Types of Conversational Commerce Channels 

While discussing the conversational commerce funnel, let's explore the key platforms, tools, and channels businesses use to drive more engagement and conversions.

1. Chatbots 

Whether AI-powered or rule-based, this software simulates human-like conversations across websites and other communication channels. They can easily handle various customer queries, providing accurate information 24/7 within seconds. 

With the capability of handling multiple customers simultaneously, they are best for handling FAQs, product recommendation quizzes & sending reminders like abandoned cart recovery emails. 

2. Live Chat 

It's one of the most popular conversational communication channels that provides customers with one-to-one, real-time messaging facilities. With the capability to humanize every touchpoint, they are ideal for handling complex queries or providing post-sales support. They can even handle high-value and urgent purchase-related queries efficiently.

3. Voice Assistants 

This software is activated mainly by voice commands and interacts with shoppers and users based on it. With the rise of voice commerce from the rising use of intelligent voice assistants like Alexa and Apple Siri, it's known for offering a hands-free, frictionless journey. They are ideal for reordering products, checking order updates, and searching for basic product info. 

4. AI Shopping Assistants 

AI shopping assistants are the most advanced conversational commerce tools, leveraging the power of Machine Learning and Generative AI. They understand the user’s intent and assist them right from the moment they land on the website, like a human sales associate. 

Available 24/7, offering hyper personalized support, they're best for product matching, recommendations, cross-selling & upselling, and guided checkouts based on the shopper's behaviour. 

How to Optimize Each Stage in a Conversational Commerce Funnel? 

While a traditional funnel drives sales, a conversational marketing funnel builds long-lasting relationships. Let's understand the key stages in the funnel and how you can make them more efficient and productive. 

Stage 1: Awareness 

As the name suggests, this stage sparks interest in the shoppers’ minds. It's where they realise their pain point and start looking for related products and solutions. It's also the most critical stage of the funnel, wherein they discover your eCommerce store through ads, social media, or content. 

In this top-of-the-funnel stage, you must attract and pull your target audience towards your brand, understanding their needs and pain points. With brand awareness crucial at this stage, go for omnichannel marketing strategies and tactics to reach a wider audience. 

Click-to-chat ads, chat widgets, and messaging integrations are some of this stage's best conversational commerce tools. Here are some tactics to use these tools to maximize your brand awareness. 

• Go beyond static landing pages and launch engaging and attractive click-to-chat ads across your social media pages, instantly leading to a chatbot conversation window. 
• Once a user has scrolled almost 50-70% of your homepage, trigger welcome messages like, “Want help choosing the right product?” 
• Use a chatbot quiz to offer instant value exchange: “Find your perfect skincare match in 60 seconds!”
• Integrate proactive chat triggers and chat-based lead magnets such as free samples and discount unlockers on high-traffic pages. 

Stage 2: Consideration 

The shoppers at this second stage of the funnel already know your eCommerce store, brand, and products. It's time to engage with them to build trust and credibility. Connect with your shoppers better by understanding their needs and recommending a curated list of personalized product recommendations. 

AI-powered shopping assistants, AI concierge, product-recommendation quizzes, and CRM-integrated bots are some tools you can use for this stage. The key here is to centralize your efforts around hyper-personalizing their journey. Around 80% of customers prefer shopping from brands that offer personalised experiences. Here are some tactics to help you craft a long-lasting curated shopping experience for your shoppers. 

• Integrate intelligent AI shopping assistants on product pages that not just help with product recommendations but also help the shopper decide if it's the right one for them. Let's say one of your products comes in many variants. An intelligent AI shopping assistant acts like a virtual sales associate, helping customers choose the best. 
• Add product recommendations, quizzes, and comparisons to assist shoppers in decision-making. 
• Add chatbots and assistants that can summarise reviews like Amazon Rufus, which help reinforce trust while saving the customers' time. 
• Use high-quality dynamic content like images, videos, FAQs, and product reviews. 
• Whenever shoppers are unsure, offer a seamless switch to live agents - available 24/7, especially for high-ticket items. 

Stage 3: Decision 

When the shopper reaches this stage, they're already convinced that your eCommerce store offers the best product at the best prices. They're ready to purchase; you just have to guide them through the checkout and other final procedures. 

Besides AI shopping assistants, you can also use one-click checkout links, cart recovery bots, and live chats with human agents in this stage. Here are some tactics to optimize this stage of the conversational commerce funnel. 

• With discounts flooded on every website & eCommerce store, assign AI-powered shopping assistants who can suggest relevant discounts with push notifications as reminders. They should also be able to create a sense of urgency. 
• Use AI shopping assistants to guide the shoppers through the checkout process. Offer multiple payment gateways and have a smooth, short & secure checkout process.
• Use AI chatbots to offer real-time discount codes and payment options. 
• While creating urgency tactics, add a “Buy Now” button to reduce decision friction. 
• Offer instant checkout links or cart integration directly in messaging apps.
• For users still hesitant to make the final checkout, enable live agent hand-off. 

Stage 4: Retention 

The shopper’s journey with your business has just started with them taking the first step to trust you & make their first purchase. Now, it's your responsibility as an eCommerce brand to nurture, support, and re-engage them to build a long-lasting relationship based on trust & loyalty. 

Nurturing an existing customer is five times more beneficial than converting a new one. Keep your customers updated with their order details and consider taking their feedback. Help them shop other products from your website, which may be helpful for them. Apart from AI agents & shopping assistants, you can also use automation bots, feedback & review bots, live agents, and human agents for this stage. Here are some tactics to optimize this stage of the funnel. 

• To keep the customers informed, offer automated order updates via chat across multiple platforms. 
• Assist your customers with “how-to” guides or unboxing tips via chat.
• Use AI assistants to collect detailed feedback going beyond reviews. Collect UGC (User-Generated Content) right from their messaging apps. 
• Recommend related products and offer members-only, exclusive discounts promptly. 

Top 5 Benefits of Using Conversational Commerce Funnel To Boost Conversions 

With the rise of conversational commerce funnels amongst businesses, it's essential to understand the business benefits they bring. Here are some key benefits these personalized funnels offer. 

1. Real-Time Personalized Customer Experience & Support 

Conversational commerce funnels offer real-time personalized support at lightning speed. With over 66% of customers looking ahead to customized support, this funnel and its tools adapt to the shopper's behaviour, past activity, and real-time inputs. They offer one-to-one tailored assistance and support from the beginning to the end of the buying journey, thus personalizing the entire shopping experience, including product recommendations.

2. Reduced Cart Abandonments 

With about 70% of carts being abandoned, it's undoubtedly a rising issue affecting the overall sales & revenue. With personalized support & assistance offered by AI shopping assistants, you can understand why the shopper abandons the cart. With their reasons figured out, you can follow up with them, convincing them to make the final purchase. Nevertheless, these funnels also help reduce confusion and friction with automated reminders, instant support in decision-making, etc. 

3. Better Lead Management 

In a conversational commerce funnel, every interaction the shopper has with the AI shopping assistant, chatbot, or any other tool is personalized. These tools capture first-party data beyond preferences to intent, objections, and more. Every lead has its journey through the funnel, which makes lead qualification and segmentation more precise. It helps close potential leads faster while offering direct human agent support for other crucial cases. 

4. Improved Customer Engagement & Loyalty 

While traditional sales funnels are more about transactions, conversational commerce revolves more around building relationships. These funnels help prioritize your brand in customers' minds by constant omnichannel re-engagement. This personalized experience, an instant walkthrough, delivers a lasting impression on the customers and their loyalty towards your business. 

5. Cost Savings & Revenue Growth

Conversational tools like AI chatbots reduce the dependency on large support teams while increasing scalability. You serve more customers with fewer resources—all while boosting conversions through personalized automation.

7 Proven Best Practices To Build a High-Converting Conversational Commerce Funnel 

Building and implementing a successful and high-converting conversational commerce funnel requires an in-depth understanding of customer intent and the strategic use of personalization and automation. Here are some proven best practices to help you boost conversions while using a conversational marketing funnel. 

1. Keep your entry point attractive and compelling with hooks like “Get 10% off in chat.” You can use tools like click-to-chat ads and quizzes to make the journey more about value and assistance and less about sales. 

2. For effective hyper-personalization, use conditional logic with relevant qualifying questions. The conversational commerce tools must be intelligent enough to adapt to the shopper's response and reroute them through a short path towards the checkout page. 

3. Instead of static chatbots, go for AI shopping assistants and AI concierges that act like savvy personal shoppers. They dynamically recommend other items, based on the shopper's input, improving upselling and cross-selling sales. 

4. Implement and integrate your conversational commerce tools at the right pages, such as the landing page, product pages, etc. 

5. Use more visuals, customer reviews, and “bestseller tags” to boost the shoppers' trust. Keep minimal friction points for shoppers on the checkout page and offer direct purchases through chat. 

6. Keep the entire journey short and straightforward. While designing the funnel, keep the buyer's journey in mind, step by step. This can help you uncover each shopper's unique questions and doubts at each funnel stage. 

7. A/B test your welcome message, CTAs, and quiz flows every 2–4 weeks for continuous improvement. Review and analyse the funnel's performance promptly to make necessary adjustments for improved conversions.

Summing Up

Today, customers are expecting real-time, two-way communication around the clock. There's no doubt that conversational commerce funnels deliver this fast and securely. However, with technology evolving rapidly, we can expect greater omnichannel integrations to allow customers to continue conversations on any channel without starting from scratch. 

Nevertheless, it's essential to continuously monitor your funnel tools and channels to ensure that they're safe, secure, updated, and keep user data protected. The shift from traditional to conversational commerce funnels is rising, considering the business benefits it offers. This is expected to grow, making online shopping feel like an offline experience with AI shopping assistants. 

Do you want to build your first AI shopping assistant? Look no further than App0! App0 helps you launch advanced AI-powered shopping assistants that can assist your customers in finding the right product until the purchase is completed. It can understand customers' buying behavior and provide responses that match natural human conversation with customers. The best part is that the assistant is trained on your product portfolio. Moreover, they also have AI-powered FAQs, product experts, and comparisons for a smoother customer journey. Explore more at App0 today and see your website's AI shopping assistant come alive within a few clicks!

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