Ulimi Unveils Chatbot to Optimize E-Commerce for Cincinnati Businesses
CIO Applications | Thursday, May 09, 2019
As e-commerce continues to become the predominant driving force in retail, it is crucial that businesses have a dynamic and reliable way to engage with customers. Ulimi has unveiled a new chatbot experience for local Cincinnati businesses that is already making an impact in the digital sector.
Ulimi Facebook Messenger experience provides a new avenue for local businesses and their owners to interact with customers. The new chatbot also provides an automated hub to answer customer questions and drive conversions for new visitors.
"We're so proud to finally be ready to make this tech available to the rest of the world," said Ulimi founder and CEO Nick Dokich. "It's all about creating a fun and engaging experience while also automating the system to better optimize businesses. Our new chatbot acts as the outward face of the company to generate leads and drive conversions while streamlining the entire process."
Ulimi's effectiveness in conversion optimization has been an important contributing factor in the success of one Cincinnati business. The launch of the new product is ready to do the same for many other companies in the Queen City.
Keysocks, the very first knee-high, no-show sock, was the first business to reap the benefits of this new product. The company had plenty of consumer interest thanks to glowing recommendations from outlets like Buzzfeed and NY Magazine, but the next step was optimizing its conversion rates for those prosective customers. The availability of the new chatbot technology was the solution Keysocks needed to make the most of its visitors.
Since adding the new Ulimi Facebook Messenger experience to its website, Keysocks has seen a 90 percent open rate on its chatbot. This open rate has translated to a click-through rate of more than 36 percent and a conversion rate of close to 20 percent. This early success of the new product has given Ulimi the data and confidence to roll out the experience to businesses across the Cincinnati area.
"This client was a great test case for the effectiveness of the new product," said Dokich. "We've been very pleased with the results and are excited to make this technology available to other companies in the Queen City on a hyper-local level."
The new experience is being launched with the aim to connect businesses and owners with their customers. "Our chatbot has been a terrific addition to the website," said Shelby McKee, founder of Keysocks. "But it's done more than just bring in customers, which is great. It's also helped me connect more directly with everyone. Our customers are the most important part of our business, and it's so much fun to use technology to get in touch with them."
A 2018 study reports that 40 percent of large businesses will use some form of chatbot or AI by 2019. The applications of chatbot technology are wide-ranging from customer service to IT, but where chatbots are really making significant gains is in e-commerce.
The industry agrees that chatbots are here to stay, and it's only going to keep getting bigger. A 2017 study estimates that the chatbot industry will be worth $1.25 billion by 2025 with an annual growth rate of nearly 25 percent. Marketing is anticipated to be the sector that will experience the largest growth due to the technology's ability to quickly connect consumers to the resources and services they need.
And it's more than large business that will benefit from the chatbot revolution. Small and medium-sized business can also take advantage of the new technology. In a survey of a staffing firm's employees, Ulimi discovered that almost a quarter of their time was spent navigating menus. This equated to $8,500 in lost time per year for each employee.
Dokich explained that reducing costs and redundancies for these businesses is a driving force in the development of Ulimi's products and the rollout of its newest experience.
"I look around at the current marketplace and there's just so much wasted time on mundane tasks," he said. "By having all of this information in a central, automated hub, we can cut down on wasted hours to reduce overhead costs while also increasing productivity. Now that we have this new bot out in the wild we can really focus on making businesses in our community even better."
Ulimi Facebook Messenger experience provides a new avenue for local businesses and their owners to interact with customers. The new chatbot also provides an automated hub to answer customer questions and drive conversions for new visitors.
"We're so proud to finally be ready to make this tech available to the rest of the world," said Ulimi founder and CEO Nick Dokich. "It's all about creating a fun and engaging experience while also automating the system to better optimize businesses. Our new chatbot acts as the outward face of the company to generate leads and drive conversions while streamlining the entire process."
Ulimi's effectiveness in conversion optimization has been an important contributing factor in the success of one Cincinnati business. The launch of the new product is ready to do the same for many other companies in the Queen City.
Keysocks, the very first knee-high, no-show sock, was the first business to reap the benefits of this new product. The company had plenty of consumer interest thanks to glowing recommendations from outlets like Buzzfeed and NY Magazine, but the next step was optimizing its conversion rates for those prosective customers. The availability of the new chatbot technology was the solution Keysocks needed to make the most of its visitors.
Since adding the new Ulimi Facebook Messenger experience to its website, Keysocks has seen a 90 percent open rate on its chatbot. This open rate has translated to a click-through rate of more than 36 percent and a conversion rate of close to 20 percent. This early success of the new product has given Ulimi the data and confidence to roll out the experience to businesses across the Cincinnati area.
"This client was a great test case for the effectiveness of the new product," said Dokich. "We've been very pleased with the results and are excited to make this technology available to other companies in the Queen City on a hyper-local level."
The new experience is being launched with the aim to connect businesses and owners with their customers. "Our chatbot has been a terrific addition to the website," said Shelby McKee, founder of Keysocks. "But it's done more than just bring in customers, which is great. It's also helped me connect more directly with everyone. Our customers are the most important part of our business, and it's so much fun to use technology to get in touch with them."
A 2018 study reports that 40 percent of large businesses will use some form of chatbot or AI by 2019. The applications of chatbot technology are wide-ranging from customer service to IT, but where chatbots are really making significant gains is in e-commerce.
The industry agrees that chatbots are here to stay, and it's only going to keep getting bigger. A 2017 study estimates that the chatbot industry will be worth $1.25 billion by 2025 with an annual growth rate of nearly 25 percent. Marketing is anticipated to be the sector that will experience the largest growth due to the technology's ability to quickly connect consumers to the resources and services they need.
And it's more than large business that will benefit from the chatbot revolution. Small and medium-sized business can also take advantage of the new technology. In a survey of a staffing firm's employees, Ulimi discovered that almost a quarter of their time was spent navigating menus. This equated to $8,500 in lost time per year for each employee.
Dokich explained that reducing costs and redundancies for these businesses is a driving force in the development of Ulimi's products and the rollout of its newest experience.
"I look around at the current marketplace and there's just so much wasted time on mundane tasks," he said. "By having all of this information in a central, automated hub, we can cut down on wasted hours to reduce overhead costs while also increasing productivity. Now that we have this new bot out in the wild we can really focus on making businesses in our community even better."
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