NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LivePerson
(Nasdaq: LPSN), a global leader in conversational AI, today
announced the findings of its new survey, Holiday 2020: The
Impact of COVID on Consumer Preferences, examining behavior and
sentiment around online shopping experiences for the upcoming
holiday rush in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The September 2020 survey included
more than 2,650 U.S., U.K., and Australian respondents and showed
that the vast majority of consumers trusted messaging experiences
and chatbots to help them with online shopping. With the COVID-19
pandemic closing thousands of physical stores, e-commerce has
reached new heights: online spending in May
2020 alone was greater than the entire 2019 holiday shopping
season.
Survey Highlights
How consumers view online vs. in-store shopping this holiday
season
According to LivePerson's survey results, two out of three
consumers (67%) are planning to do most of their 2020 holiday
shopping online due to the ongoing pandemic, meaning brands that
excel at online shopping experiences will be best positioned to
capitalize on the incoming digital stampede.
When it comes to attitudes toward shopping in physical stores,
39% of consumers say they are not comfortable doing so at
all this holiday season.
When asked how COVID-19 has influenced their likelihood to shop
in person, 58% of consumers say they are less likely to shop in
person, and 32% say their opinion hasn't changed one way or the
other.
LivePerson's survey also sheds light on the issues consumers
struggle most with when shopping online. The top three issues,
representing 68% of consumers, all center on getting information
about products, services, and promotions:
- Asking questions about products or services (28%)
- Finding products and services (21%)
- Finding relevant promotions (19%)
- Navigating the website (12%)
- Checking out (12%)
- Using the cart (8%)
How consumers view messaging experiences on brand websites,
apps, and more
Brands that deploy conversational commerce experiences — which
enable customers to message with brands on their websites, apps,
and platforms like SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Apple
Business Chat — will likely outperform their competitors this
holiday season.
According to the survey, 68% of consumers say they would trust a
retailer more if associates were readily available via messaging to
give advice, answer questions, and help with purchases.
77% report that they would purchase more from a website that
allowed them to message with an associate.
"This year, Black Friday and Small Business Saturday are going
to look a lot more like Cyber Monday than ever before," said
Mariam Reza, senior vice president,
enterprise solutions at LivePerson. "With foot traffic at an
all-time low, digital traffic has already skyrocketed. Still, most
brands aren't attending well enough to website visitors, who shop
around when they can't find answers quickly and effortlessly. Those
that act now to implement messaging channels, which consumers
clearly state are trusted and increase their willingness to
purchase, will win the holidays."
How consumers view messaging with chatbots in retail
experiences
In preparation for increased online traffic as many consumers
choose to shop from home, many retailers are accelerating plans to
deploy Conversational AI on their websites, like chatbot concierges
and virtual assistants that respond to customer messages.
LivePerson's survey results indicate that consumers not only trust
chatbot concierges to help them with online shopping tasks, they
also say they'd purchase more from websites that offer them.
According to the survey, 60% of consumers report they would
purchase more from a website that offered a chatbot concierge.
Consumers overwhelmingly reported trusting Conversational AI
with a variety of online shopping tasks, especially when informed —
in line with industry best practices — that they could be
transferred to a brand's associates as needed. When online
shopping, consumers report the following:
- 77% trust chatbots to take down their name and address
- 65% trust chatbots to handle their credit card information
- 76% trust chatbots to help them choose a product
- 82% trust chatbots to schedule an appointment
- 86% trust chatbots to answer FAQs
- 71% trust chatbots to renew their contracts
- 76% trust chatbots to remind them to order presents
- 81% trust chatbots to help them reorder products they regularly
buy
- 86% trust chatbots to provide shipping and delivery
updates
"Conversational AI has made all the difference for us in staying
connected to customers during the pandemic, and as December is the
month with the highest number of engagements, we're anticipating
more AI-powered messaging conversations than ever," said
Holly Carroll, vice president,
Customer Service and Contact Center Operations at David's Bridal.
"From our Zoey bot concierge to video chats with our expert
stylists, we can't overstate how critical conversational
experiences have become to the immersive shopping experiences our
brides expect from David's Bridal."
"As many brands learned the hard way when the pandemic shut down
call centers all across the world, the best way to scale customer
contact today is through AI-powered messaging," said Robert LoCascio, founder and CEO of LivePerson.
"Conversational AI will be critical to meet the staggering demand
for online shopping this holiday season. The great news for
retailers is that supermajorities of consumers say they trust
chatbots to help them shop, and three out of five consumers
actually say access to chatbots makes them purchase more."
LivePerson's Holiday 2020: The Impact of COVID on Consumer
Preferences survey was conducted in September 2020 via an online survey of 2,666
consumers aged 18 and older in the United
States, United Kingdom, and
Australia. Respondents were asked
a series of questions related to holiday shopping and customer care
topics.
Click here to view an infographic summarizing the
survey.
About LivePerson, Inc.
LivePerson makes life easier for people and brands everywhere
through trusted conversational AI. Our 18,000 customers, including
leading brands like HSBC, Orange, GM Financial, and The Home Depot,
use our conversational solutions to orchestrate humans and AI, at
scale, and create a convenient, deeply personal relationship — a
conversational relationship — with their millions of consumers.
LivePerson was named to Fast Company's World's Most
Innovative Companies list in 2020. For more information about
LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN), please
visit www.liveperson.com.
CONTACT: Mike Tague,
mtague@liveperson.com
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SOURCE LivePerson, Inc.