Chatbots take e-commerce to the next level in UAE

Chatbots help reduce communication errors by up to 90 per cent.

We are going through a phenomenal technology change - people are growing tired of mobile apps. It's no more about having a website or a mobile app. Users have to be connected to the channels they are most active with.

Messaging applications such as Facebook messenger (over 2 billion monthly users) and WhatsApp (over 1.3 billion monthly users) etc. have surpassed social media applications. Users spend up to 85 per cent of their time on various communication apps. It is, therefore, important that businesses shift their presence to channels which consumers use to engage.

Chatbots bridge the gap of how users want to communicate and how organisations are communicating via non-messaging channels. More importantly, they reduce by 90 per cent communication errors of limited or poorly trained customer-service and the difficulty of handling millions of conversations in parallel.

According to Gartner, "By 2019, 40 per cent of enterprises will be actively using chatbots to facilitate business processes and natural language interactions. By 2020, customers will manage 85 per cent of their relationship with a company without interacting with a single human."

Chat commerce or conversational commerce - as it is now referred to - combines messaging apps, chatbots and shopping, ensuring that businesses are readily available to their customers 24x7.

With competition in the e-commerce space on the rise, Whoopey.com is redefining the way the consumers shop in the region by launching the first e-commerce chatbot in the UAE.

Whoopey.com aims to enhance the customer's shopping experience, making itself accessible across mediums where the customers are. Instead of logging in to the site or downloading an app, users can now buy their favourite products on Whoopey using the Whoopey Bot on Facebook messenger. It's as simple as chatting with a friend!

With one comprehensive platform and operated through artificial intelligence (AI), the product creates simplicity and brings about cost savings in any organisation. Chatbots offer up to 10 per cent higher conversion rates on messaging apps, 65 per cent longer conversations and up to 30 per cent more efficient employees. Built with AI, Big Data and Machine Learning, chatbots also offer rich transaction data analytics dashboards so you can grow wiser and aware about how your customers purchase and how employees work.

Pointing at the changing trends and the rapid growth of messaging applications over social media, Saad Khan, founder of Whoopey.com, stresses the importance of e-commerce adapting to change. "Artifical Intelligence is growing by leaps and bounds. We have seen the recent initiatives taken by the UAE and Dubai Government in appointing a minister for Artificial Intelligence and its 'day without service centres'. We, as humans, need to use our Adaptive Intelligence to keep pace with future technologies such as chatbots which form an integral part of the digital transformation of any organisation."

The Whoopey chatbot was built by SmartBotHub, a product of Smartek21, one of the leading technology solution companies in the US since 2006 . And a recent entrant in the UAE market

Al Karim Lalji, founder of SmartBotHub and Smartek21, says, "The market has spoken. Messaging and conversation are the preferred user interface and SmartBotHub has been working to enhance the user experience on the chat. We have seen overwhelming response and interest from organisations across various sectors."

SmartBotHub has released bots in banking, telecom and retail industry in the US, Chile and London.

Andy Wells, CEO of SmartBotHub, says, "Our goal is to bring innovative chatbot experiences to our customers that increase their engagement, add to revenues and create more efficient operational environments in the enterprise."

• KT Engage