Due to the increasing smartphone penetration and reduced data charges, e-commerce is rapidly taking its roots in India by offering a more comfortable shopping experience. According to Google, in 2014 there were 35 million online shoppers and a report published in the Times of India has disclosed that every month there are 6 million new entrants in the list of Indian online shoppers. Nasdaq’s report has also revealed that by 2040, 95% of purchases will be made online. However, as compared to China, France or other language-first countries, e-commerce penetration in India is quite low, despite having the second-highest internet user-base. Owing to India’s linguistic diversity, English-illiteracy and unavailability of Indian languages on the internet, the growth of e-commerce is being compromised. Hence, the solution is localization, and not only for the interface, but for communication as well.
Online shops are not just increasing in number, but in volume as well. As the number of customers are going high, communicating with each customer and ensuring their satisfaction has become a challenge. AI-powered chatbots have now solved the problem of attending to each and every customer personally and also brought down the cost of hiring more customer service executives. These chatbots are initiating human-like conversations with customers. Personalized addressing is also a way to engage customers and earn their trust. But when it comes to Indian market, you need to go that little extra mile.
E-commerce in India:
In KPMG Report 2018, it has been shown that the Indian retail market has grown into a $19.5 billion worth of transactions at a gross level before returns and rejections. With reduced data charges and affordable mobile devices, now online shopping has become an essential part of every household in India. From daily groceries to bulky furniture to even properties, everything is now available in just a few clicks. While Indian language internet users are expected to grow up to 536 million, Reverie’s 2018 Digital Indian Language report also shows that 22% of these Indian language internet users own high-end phones costing up to INR 11,000. This new wave of Indian internet users is mostly coming from the tier II and below cities where 90% of people do not know English.
Hence, e-commerce companies felt the need to localize their apps and websites particularly to penetrate Indian market. However, only localizing the interface is not enough. Communication localization is another crucial facet that a business must not overlook. Chatbots have become a popular mode of communication for e-commerce platforms. However, in India language is a big barrier and the only solution is a chatbot who can communicate in all the major Indian languages.
Impact of Indic Chatbots for Ecommerce in India:
While 80% of Indians cannot understand English, communicating with them in that language is a futile exercise that yields hardly any result. The chance of users’ interaction with chatbots increases when they can communicate in their own languages. An Indian-language internet user will rather respond to a “Namaste” more quickly than a “Hello!” as 68% of these users rely on local language content than English. Hence, in order to increase interaction with Indian-language users, it is really important to introduce a chatbot who speaks and understands Indian languages and all the nuances of it. A report published in Business Insider has shown that 80% of businesses will start using chatbots by 2020. But to make optimum use of this technology in India, chatbots must know the regional languages. It is undoubtedly a crucial step an ecommerce platform in India should consider if their aim is to tap into the humongous English-illiterate internet user-base in India. Here are the ways an multilingual chatbot can revolutionize ecommerce in India.
Enhanced communication with non-English speaking customers:
A visitor on your ecommerce website can be easily converted into your customer with effective communication. The more you communicate with your customers, the better you understand their needs, demands and complaints. It helps you in building better products, improving your services and thus increases customer loyalty and retention. To enhance this communication, you can’t always rely on your multilingual customer service executives. These days you can have chatbots that can be active 24/7 and can also interact effectively with your multilingual customer base. These chatbots can also collect purchase and browsing data and help you improve your services by customizing offers and suggestions for individual customers.
Quality of Customer Service and Communication:
Did you know that a Gartner research has revealed that 64% of customers find customer experience more important than price? If you want to ensure 100% customer satisfaction and do not want to face huge loss of revenue due to poor customer service, start investing on chatbots. Guardian says, by 2020 the quality of customer service will be more important than the price or the quality of the product. Higher conversion rate can be achieved if customer service and communication is provided in local languages. An article on Kinsta says, a 22% Increase in conversion rate has been seen on e-commerce websites where information is available in local languages. Reverie Language Technologies Limited has successfully launched an Indic speech suite to make chatbots and IVR solutions more accessible to the language-first Indian consumers. Indian language powered chatbots will help the first-time internet users adopt and engage with online services much faster and easier.
Add a dash of personalization:
Who doesn’t like personalization? Talking to your customers in their mother tongue and addressing them by their names can simply make a great impression on your customers. If you want to increase customer interaction in India, the easiest way is to communicate with your customers is speaking their language. To successfully address India’s multilingual user-base, use the power of regional languages. Indian e-commerce market is ever-growing and according to KPMG report, this organic growth brings in the new shoppers who belong to the 450 million+ new internet users that are coming from the tier II and below cities. To tap into this huge potential customer base and communicate with them in their native languages, there is no better solution than an multilingual chatbot.
Let the emotion play its role:
We Indians are attached to our mother tongues and we feel emotional when we hear it even when we are far away from our homes. The similar emotion is felt when in an English-ruled digital world; someone can find his/her native language. It is not about connecting only with the language-first consumers, this emotion impacts all Indians, including those who are English-literate. Therefore, localization of e-commerce platforms and incorporating a multilingual chatbot will not only make shopping and browsing more convenient for the non-English speaking Indians, but it will also attract more and more Indian shoppers who just love their mother tongue.
