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6 powerful chatbot examples: Transforming ecommerce and customer care in the digital age
May 07, 2021 • 6 minutes
[Updated] Originally posted on May 7, 2021
While AI chatbots excel at efficient customer service, their potential as revenue drivers is transforming ecommerce. These real-world ecommerce and customer service chatbot examples demonstrate how businesses are leveraging AI to drive sales and enhance care.
Example 1: Optimizing direct sales with AI-powered ordering
David’s Bridal leads our ecommerce chatbot examples with Zoey, an AI assistant that demonstrates how automation can transform traditional retail. Zoey revolutionized their ecommerce strategy by handling customer inquiries and seamlessly processing dress orders through their messaging platforms.
When brides express interest in purchasing, the conversational chatbot transforms into a virtual bridal consultant, checking product availability, processing orders, scheduling fittings, and managing delivery updates.
This AI-driven approach proved effective — in just the first few weeks, Zoey generated $30,000 in dress sales through fully automated transactions. More importantly, by handling routine sales interactions, Zoey freed up the sales team to focus on complex, high-touch customer experiences that truly required human intervention and expertise.
Chatbots for transactions: While not every use case in the sales process is a good fit for AI chatbot technology, we can identify those that do make sense to automate (like gathering customer data and assisting with transactions).
Example 2: Streamlining mobile commerce with location-based AI
For innovative chatbot examples in retail environments, Aramark’s “Brew to You” trial stands out. This ecommerce chatbot example transformed the stadium experience at U.S. sporting venues through a simple QR code on seat backs. When scanned, the code opened an AI chatbot conversation through Apple Messages for Business, allowing fans to browse available beers, place orders, and pay instantly via Apple Pay.
The true game-changer? Direct delivery to fans’ seats, eliminating missed moments waiting in concession lines.
Among successful AI chatbot examples, this case highlights how automated commerce can enhance customer experience while driving additional revenue through convenience-based ordering.
Chatbots for more convenience: Build automated customer service chatbots that add convenience for your customers in messaging apps (like buying a drink without getting out of your seat), and you’ll drive increased order volume, revenue, and customer satisfaction.
Example 3: Maximizing lead generation with automated customer interactions and qualification
Open Universities Australia provides one of the most impactful AI chatbot examples in the education sector. Their lead generation system achieved a remarkable 250% ROI through intelligent automation. The customer service chatbot collects and qualifies prospective student information, enabling human advisors to focus on creating personalized recommendations for their education. OUA’s chatbot strategy became even more powerful when upgraded to generative AI agents, doubling lead qualification rates compared to traditional automation.
The transformation streamlined the enrollment process while ensuring human advisors spent their time where it mattered most — helping students make informed decisions about their educational future.
Chatbots for lead generation and qualification: Chatbots can take over redundant activities, such as information gathering for customer queries, terms and condition flows, etc. This means human agents’ time can be used for value-add activities.
Example 4: Balancing artificial intelligence and human conversation for better service (and sales)
Automation is known for delivering efficiency, but the more you automate, the greater the chance of lowering customer satisfaction and negatively altering the overall experience. The key is finding the right parts of the sales conversation to automate while maintaining strong CSAT scores and conversion rates. Just look at Virgin Media O2’s conversational selling approach. Their focus on perfecting digital sales-assisted conversions has paid off for their bottom line: 1 in 5 of their sales are conversational.
The balance of duties begins with bots who start every conversation to identify the customer’s intent. They route the sales conversation to the right human or agent-facing bot that then captures product requirements, shares terms and conditions, or gauges a customer’s insurance needs. Use of these agent-facing bots has successfully reduced handling time by 13.5% while growing sales further. Plus, their after-hours virtual assistants ensure sales aren’t lost when contact centers are closed, adding 10% in incremental sales.
Chatbots for the best sales experience: “Bots are designed for accuracy and speed; humans are masters of empathy and instinct — neither can replace the other,” explained Chris Huggins, now Head of Conversational Commerce Bots & AI at Virgin Media O2. “Together they generate synergy that ultimately drives unmatched business outcomes, CSAT, and agent job satisfaction.”
Example 5: Driving sales growth with AI-powered personalization
Buying a diamond sight unseen? It’s not unheard of at Signet Jewelers, the world’s largest retailer of diamond jewelry, and they don’t limit their white-glove treatment to the physical store. Their approach to the online shopping experience (or, shall we say, conversational shopping) provides great chatbot examples of how to engage customers with almost instant responses that feel tailored to their needs. The secret is data: gathering, summarizing, and orchestrating the best responses from it.
Signet’s human agents use LivePerson’s Copilot, a generative AI agent assist capability, to quickly scan past customer interactions and glean the information needed to provide a quick, personalized response to the shopper. Their intelligent routing also ensures shoppers get to the right person or bot at the right time. And Signet isn’t stopping there. They’ve been able to uncover strong selling signals in their conversational data, which they are qualifying and using to drive more sales with follow-up.
Chatbots for a personalized shopping experience: Using AI to empower sales agents and orchestrate sales conversations in a user-friendly interface earns Signet a 90% CSAT score.
Example 6: Accelerating agent performance with AI assistance
Our final chatbot example showcases how AI can transform internal processes to enhance sales and customer support team performance.
For example, a leading UK communications provider demonstrates an innovative approach to line check procedures. Rather than having agents manually line check results, they deployed LivePerson’s agent-facing automation (now called Copilot) to process data and generate product recommendations in real time. The impact was immediate: New agents reached peak performance in half the typical time, while experienced agents increased their efficiency and accuracy. This example shows how artificial intelligence can enhance sales operations even when working behind the scenes.
Chatbots for agent-facing needs: Think creatively about how your own chatbot could support sales and marketing programs, including how streamlining internal processes can benefit customer engagement.
Embrace AI for better customer engagement
These real-world examples showcase how AI is transforming both commerce and customer care. From automating sales to streamlining operations, conversational AI has become essential for:
- Driving revenue through automated transactions
- Delivering 24/7 customer service
- Improving agent efficiency and satisfaction
- Enabling personalized customer experiences
- Reducing operational costs while maintaining service quality
Each case demonstrates a unique approach to automation, whether through direct customer interaction or behind-the-scenes support. The results speak for themselves: increased sales, improved satisfaction scores, and more efficient operations across diverse industries and use cases.