Live chat use is on the rise

58% of U.S. consumers say they’ve interacted with an e-retailer using live chat, up from 54% last year, according to a new E-tailing Group study sponsored by Bold Software LLC, a live chat vendor. Additionally, 20% of consumers say live chat is their preferred way to interact with a merchant, over phone or e-mail.

Live chat is a communication method in which a consumer and an agent type questions and answers into an instant message-type box that appears in the consumer’s web browser.
 
"Adoption is on the rise generally, and there is a significant population of web site visitors who prefer live chat as a contact method,” says Lauren Freedman, president of The E-tailing Group. “It’s only been a short time that consumers have truly been able to take advantage of live chat, and to see that it is almost equal in preference to the telephone is exciting and transformative.” E-mail (58%) remains the preferred communication method, followed by phone (22%).

The E-tailing Group conducted an online survey with 1,005 adults in the United States and United Kingdom who said they shopped several times a year online and spent in excess of $250 with web merchants annually. 75% of respondents lived in the United States and the remainder in the United Kingdom.

Profile of the live chat user
Across the entire sample, 18% of respondents say they prefer to use live chat over phone or e-mail to communicate with a merchant. A demographic profile of those consumers shows they are more likely to be male, fall in the age range of 31-50, have a higher-than-average household income, be college educated and spend more money online annually than shoppers who prefer other communication methods.

Advantages Live chat
Respondents who say they prefer live chat most frequently cite: - getting questions answered immediately (77%) - the efficiency of live chat as a communication method (52%)

Chat function increases purchase chance
The survey also revealed that merely having live chat as an option on a web site made 29% of consumers more likely to make a purchase, regardless of whether they used it. 63% say it has no effect on their likelihood to buy and 7% say it made them less likely to purchase.

Source: Internet Retailer