ChatGPT Debunked: How an E-commerce AI Chatbot Will Actually Work for Your Store

As a business owner, you constantly seek ways to improve your customer experience and drive more sales. The rapid rise of artificial intelligence over the last few years has opened up new possibilities for chatbots–and ChatGPT has become the main topic of conversation. However, with the popularity of ChatGPT comes many misconceptions. Sources eager to try out this advanced AI technology often vastly overrate its capabilities, particularly for sectors like e-commerce. In this article, we’ll debunk these claims and show you how a custom e-commerce chatbot specifically designed for your store can benefit your business and enhance your customer experience.

Misconception 1: ChatGPT can replace a custom e-commerce chatbot.

The Truth: One common misconception is that ChatGPT can replace a custom e-commerce chatbot. One of ChatGPT’s pluses is that it is designed for a broad range of applications, including customer service, language translation, and content generation. While that may seem ideal, its broad focus can be a detriment due to the potential for misinformation from its source material: the Internet.

A custom e-commerce AI chatbot is designed for your store’s products and services. It can offer personalized recommendations, product search features, order tracking, knowledge of common FAQs, and more. Additionally, an e-commerce chatbot can integrate with your store’s backend systems, such as inventory management, payment processing, and shipping. In addition, third-party companies, like Ometrics, that design these AI chatbots have a deeper understanding of e-commerce, leading to better support when things go awry.

Misconception 2: ChatGPT can understand every e-commerce-related or customer query.

The Truth: ChatGPT is incapable of accurately answering a wide variety of topics for various reasons. One of those is that the data it was trained on has a cutoff date of September 2021. While it is capable of learning new things thanks to its complex machine learning, it still lacks some knowledge of current events and topics. It may not understand newer regional colloquialisms or industry-specific jargon.

Conversely, while an e-Commerce chatbot might not have ChatGPT’s advanced language capabilities, it’s much easier to control its answers and ensure that it understands the necessary e-Commerce-related questions. 

Additionally, there may be instances where a customer requires a human touch, and ChatGPT may not understand when escalation is necessary, opting to provide wrong answers.

A custom e-Commerce chatbot can handle simple and frequently asked questions, freeing up human customer service representatives to handle more complex queries. Additionally, a custom e-commerce chatbot can assist customers by providing personalized product recommendations based on their preferences and purchase history, which can improve customer satisfaction and increase sales.

Misconception 3: ChatGPT will allow you to get rid of your human support team.

The Truth: As mentioned in the previous misconception, there are many situations where human intervention is needed. From a customer service perspective, the last thing a business needs is a rogue chatbot that answers any and all questions, despite being wrong. This will only lead to frustrated customers who will seek answers from your competitors.

In order to maintain an effective AI chatbot, you will need not only a dedicated support team but also one or multiple people to frequently train and maintain your chatbot to ensure it’s working properly. We call this human-in-the-loop (HITL) and it’s a key element in a successful e-Commerce chatbot. 

Misconception 4: ChatGPT can handle all languages and dialects.

The Truth: While ChatGPT has been trained on a vast amount of text data, it may not understand every language or dialect, particularly those that are less widely spoken. For e-commerce businesses that cater to customers in various regions, a custom e-commerce chatbot that is designed to understand the specific languages and dialects of their target market may be more effective.

Misconception 5: ChatGPT is a one-time investment.

The Truth: The cost of implementing ChatGPT can vary depending on the size and complexity of the project and there are a few other factors to consider. First, the cost of licensing the ChatGPT technology may be a significant expense. Additionally, there can be additional costs associated with integrating ChatGPT into your chosen platform, training your support team to use it effectively, and ongoing maintenance and updates to keep it running smoothly. If you do not have a well-trained developer on staff, assume that you will also need to foot the bill on that as well. 

The cost of a custom e-commerce chatbot can also vary depending on the level of customization and integration required, but many third-party companies that specialize in creating AI chatbots for e-Commerce now offer a range of pricing options, from basic templates to fully customized solutions. For smaller businesses with a lower volume of sales and traffic, it may be financially viable to go with a third-party company that will provide moderate customization, ongoing support, and in-depth e-Commerce knowledge rather than bankrolling an expensive ChatGPT solution. This is doubly so if you do not have many products or a deep FAQ base to draw from. 

Opting for an e-Commerce chatbot may allow you to better financially plan as most costs associated with development are available upfront.

Misconception 6: ChatGPT will draw customers to your business, leading to increased sales.

The Truth: If you’re looking for a chatbot solution, you’ve probably heard it all before: “Boost sales with a chatbot!” “Chatbots lead to higher AOVs!” Let’s get this out of the way–in most cases, a chatbot itself cannot draw people to your website. A chatbot is simply a tool on your website that aids in sales and customer service. 

That’s not to say that people don’t visit certain sites to play with chatbots. If executed well, a chatbot can become a part of your brand visibility. Think of Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, virtual assistants that have become household names. An e-Commerce example would be insomnobot-3000, the idiosyncratic chatbot from the mattress company, Casper, which experienced virality in 2016. A unique personality can be a viral marketing moment in the making. 

However, implementing ChatGPT for its meme potential can easily go wrong. As we’ve seen from tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, it takes just a couple of hours for the internet to corrupt a conversational chatbot. Your brand becoming associated with slurs and propaganda would be a marketing nightmare. A custom e-Commerce chatbot ensures that the AI chatbot is carefully crafted to fit your brand.

So where do those earlier statements come from? When a chatbot company advertises these claims, they are going off the basis that the customer interacts with the chatbot. You boost sales when your customers talk to the chatbot. You can increase AOV by having the chatbot provide additional product recommendations. The crux of this? The chatbot itself does not change the flow of traffic to your site but it does affect your existing customer base. 

Misconception 7: ChatGPT is a Remedy for Business Woes.

The Truth: While ChatGPT can enhance the customer experience and streamline customer support processes, it is not a remedy that can solve all of a business’s problems. A business still needs to have a solid customer support and marketing strategy in place, which includes providing valuable products and services to a targeted consumer base, good UX design, and responsive customer service representatives. An e-commerce chatbot can be an effective part of this strategy, but it should be viewed as a tool rather than a solution to all customer support and sales challenges.

The Takeaway

While ChatGPT is no doubt an impressive feat for AI, businesses should hold off before deciding to fully invest their customer service strategy into the tech. When it’s not lackluster, ChatGPT can even be an overkill for what an e-Commerce business actually needs. Consider a custom e-Commerce chatbot before diving into experimental tech.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an e-commerce chatbot?

An e-commerce chatbot is a chatbot designed specifically for an e-commerce business to engage with customers and assist them in purchasing products or services. These chatbots can be customized to meet the specific needs of the business and its customers.

What are the benefits of a custom e-commerce chatbot?

There are several benefits of using a custom e-commerce chatbot, including 24/7 availability, increased efficiency for support teams, personalization for customers, and improved customer engagement.

What is human-in-the-loop (HITL) and why is it important for an e-commerce chatbot?

Human-in-the-loop (HITL) refers to a process where human intervention is required to ensure the accuracy and quality of a chatbot’s responses. HITL is important for an e-commerce chatbot because customers need to receive the correct and relevant information to improve customer satisfaction and trust in the business.

How much does a custom e-commerce chatbot cost?

The cost of a custom e-commerce chatbot can vary depending on several factors, such as the complexity of the chatbot, the number of features required, and the amount of customization needed. While some AI chatbots can cost thousands, chatbot companies like Ometrics offer affordable pricing for a variety of businesses, including a free trial and a basic plan starting at just $29/month

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI, designed to generate human-like text responses in a conversational manner. It is powered by deep learning algorithms and trained on vast amounts of text data to understand and generate text in a coherent and contextually relevant way. ChatGPT can engage in conversations with users, provide information, answer questions, generate text, and offer suggestions on various topics. 

What is an AI chatbot?

An AI chatbot is a software application that uses artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning to engage in text-based conversations with users. It can provide automated responses, answer questions, offer suggestions, and simulate human-like conversations, typically used in customer service, virtual assistance, and other conversational interfaces.