This bot-powered Christmas, your gift might have been selected by a non-human
53% of Singaporean shoppers are seeking the help of chatbots for holiday shopping
Singapore, 14 December 2017 – Bot-powered commerce is on a tipping point in Singapore according to the new SAP Hybris Singapore Christmas Shopper Survey 2017. This Christmas, more than half (53%) of Singaporean shoppers are enlisting the help of chatbots for holiday shopping. In fact, majority of shoppers who asked chatbots for gift recommendations have actually acted on the recommendation (74%). Businesses and brands however, should not neglect incorporating the human touch.
This is because Singaporeans expect assistance from chatbots to be rudimentary, with 58% viewing chatbots as useful only for basic information search, anticipating that more complex enquiries will need to be handled by a human being. Others feel that talking to chatbots have so far been a frustrating experience and they would rather speak to a human being (21%) and close to a fifth expressed an outright dislike for chatbots (17%).
More than 1,000 consumers in Singapore were surveyed on their use of and attitudes towards chatbots, with the results reflecting that while Singaporeans are open towards engaging with chatbots, they still have reservations. One of the top concerns that Singaporeans have towards chatbots is that their requests might not be understood (61%). A third (35%) are worried that their personal information might be leaked if they divulge too much to chatbots, and 13% say that chatbots are too creepy if they know too much about them.
Commenting on Singaporeans’ attitudes towards chatbots, Nicholas Kontopoulos, Global Vice President of Fast Growth Markets for SAP Hybris said, “The customer experience can make or break a brand. In view of this, businesses need to stay attuned to these concerns and optimise the use of chatbots as one component in a wider omnichannel strategy. While chatbots can proactively offer answers for initial queries on pricing, product features, or book and make reservations, they cannot fully replace the value of human interaction when it comes to building customer relationships. Any hint of customer dissatisfaction needs to be solved immediately, by a human services officer.”
To win Singaporeans over, chatbots need to become more understanding and intuitive – almost half of Singaporeans (48%) say that they will engage with chatbots more often if they are able to make more personalised recommendations on what to buy. Other motivating drivers that will encourage shoppers to use chatbots more often is to offer comparison of prices and products from other brands (47%), assure that personal information will be kept private (38%), provide recommendations on similar and complimentary products (34%) or simply becoming more human-like (18%).
“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. Today’s consumer have higher expectations and businesses need to keep a close pulse on the ever-evolving customer journey in order to react to not just changing consumer preferences but context at point of purchase or even consideration. 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. Armed with these insights, they can then take action to cultivate sales and entrench customer loyalty”, added Kontopoulos.
About SAP Hybris Solutions
SAP Hybris solutions provide omnichannel customer engagement and commerce software that allows organizations to build up a contextual understanding of their customers in real time, deliver a more impactful, relevant customer experience, and sell more goods, services and digital content across every touch point, channel and device. Through customer data management, context driven marketing tools and unified commerce processes, SAP Hybris solutions have helped some of the world’s leading organizations to attract, retain, and grow a profitable customer base. SAP Hybris software for customer engagement and commerce provide organizations with the foundation, framework and business tools to create a holistic customer view across channels, simplify customer engagement and solve complex business problems. For more information, visit www.hybris.com.
*SAP Hybris is a new brand name launched in January 2016 to represent the SAP solutions for customer engagement and commerce as well as the offerings, employees, and business of acquired company hybris AG, which continues to be our legal entity until integration with SAP is complete.
About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable approximately 320,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.
# # #
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
© 2016 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices.
For the LATEST tech updates,
FOLLOW us on our Twitter
LIKE us on our FaceBook
SUBSCRIBE to us on our YouTube Channel!
