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Bot-powered Christmas: Half of shoppers use chatbots for holiday shopping

They believe it is highly useful for basic information searches.

Five in 10 (53%) Singaporean shoppers have admitted to enlisting the help of chatbots in information searches for holiday shopping with 74% acting on the bot’s recommendation, according to SAP Hybris Singapore Christmas Shopper Survey

However, this does not indicate that consumers have fully embraced chatbots in the retail scene as 58% view chatbots as useful only for searching information and rudimentary tasks since more Singaporeans still feel that complex inquiries need to be resolved through human interaction.

Shoppers also raised concerns that their requests may not be easily understood by chatbots (61%) whilst 13% believe that chatbots are too creepy if they know too much about one’s profile.

Moreover, information security remains an issue with bots as a third (35%) of Singaporeans fear the leakage of personal information if they divulge too much about themselves whilst 47% have admitted to being open to higher chatbot use only if they are assured that personal information will be kept private.

Thus, bots must aspire to be more intuitive into the consumer’s needs and as human-like as possible to gain the trust of Singaporean shoppers as the survey reveals that almost half (48%) admitted that they would be willing to engage with chatbots if they make more personalised shopping recommendations whilst almost a fifth (18%) are open to chatbot use if they imbibe
more human characteristics.

“Singaporean shoppers have an appetite for deeper engagement with chatbots, but what the results really tell us is that they want a more personalised ecommerce experience. To this end, businesses should view chatbots as more than just an answering machine – they are also a valuable mine of data that offer fresh perspectives into the underlying reasons for sales trends and help brands better understand what their customers are looking for,” said SAP Hybris Global Vice President of Fast Growth markets Nicholas Kontopoulos.

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