You're Missing Out on After-Hours Sales

We’ve all been there -  a few items in our shopping carts late at night, on the cusp of making a purchase, only to realize you have a few questions about the items you’re buying - especially if you’re buying something like skis, backpacking gear, climbing equipment, or a bike. Every brand has unique features, so as a consumer, you’ll want to double-check that what you’re buying will be the right fit. So there you are, with a bike or skis in your cart at 10 PM, but you’ve got questions, and there’s no live agent to help you. Maybe you try the AI chatbot to ask about dimensions or sizing, or perhaps you want to compare two bikes with similar features, but the chatbot is less than helpful. You can’t contact customer service directly, so you email a few questions, but it will take another 24-48 hours for a response. You abandon your cart and go to a retail store the next day after work to get your questions answered in person, or you head over to a competitor's site with a live agent to answer your questions. Or there’s the third option: you buy what you were interested in and hope for the best - but you’ll probably end up returning it, which no one wants to deal with, including you as the retailer. 

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The scenario just described is all too common. If you’re the online retailer in this hypothetical situation, you lost out on a sale, provided a lackluster experience for your customer, and perhaps you’re stuck processing a return.

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You Don’t Have to Miss Out on After-Hours Sales

You may not know it, but 61.59% of web conversations and chats occur after business hours and on weekends. Suppose your support staff doesn’t work weekends, holidays, or before and after business hours, and your chatbot can’t handle customer requests adequately. In that case, you’re missing out on significant sales, essential customer interactions, and a chance at collecting valuable data (i.e., emails and contact info). That’s bad news. The good news is that there is a simple solution. 

Remark brings in-store expertise to your web store with US-based category experts to field your customer’s questions during the day and during those essential after-work hours. Remark Experts are available 24/7, plus they’re product-obsessed and can provide your customers with the answers they need right when they need them to make informed purchasing decisions. 

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Why use Remark?

We already know most shoppers aren’t super active during business hours, so being unable to answer their questions off-hours puts you at a serious disadvantage. Having a live Expert 24/7 helps drive conversations and engagement, and it’s the easiest way to answer their questions and make sure they make it through the checkout process - it’s also an opportunity to upsell them. Shoppers want to feel heard, and every online visitor is unique, so having a live agent there to overcome any hurdles will increase sales and customer satisfaction. 

Don’t just take our word for it. Let’s briefly examine a few real-world use cases and some data to support our claims - everyone likes data.  

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In one use case, our client, Liberty Skis, started using Remark experts and quickly reported that 15% of their online revenue was coming from Remark expert guidance. That’s a huge number!

• “Our customers crave expert advice when they’re shopping for gear. Remark's pros are unbiased and really know their stuff, and they’ve 100% effectively informed potential customers and helped guide them through the purchasing process.” - Dan Chalfant (CEO, Liberty Skis)

Another example of Remark's impact comes from partners like Pearl Izumi, Diamondback, and Alchemy Bikes in the Cycling industry. In 2023, our cycling partners reported a 35% average chat-to-sale rate during Black Friday and Cyber Monday  BF/CM week, highlighting the importance of guiding shoppers over the finish line in light of intense competition and widespread promotions by other vendors.

• Our sales Experts were able to close sales gaps outside of traditional business hours, with 65% of chats occurring at night and on the weekends during the period of November 23rd-28th, and our Experts were able to capture emails in those cases 74% of the time, which increases your outreach efforts in the future. Historically, clients using Remark’s agents have seen a 12% increase in site-wide conversion rates. It’s also worth mentioning that customer satisfaction was much higher with Remark - the more positive customer experience interacting with your brand, the more likely they are to give you repeat business and share your story with others.

Remark Experts have made a huge and verifiable impact on brands that previously didn’t have 24/7 customer service, and we’re excited to see how we can help your brand grow. Contact us today and discover for yourself how the power of our product experts can help your brand, increase sales, and facilitate better customer experiences. Our Experts are the core of Remark, and they’re ready to help your shoppers find the right products and give them a positive experience that will have them coming back time and time again.