Nigeria’s e-commerce platform, Jumia said it wants Nigerian online shoppers to have a more personalised experience when they are on the platform.
To achieve this, the company has recently released a chatbot that is powered by artificial intelligence on the Facebook Messenger.
The Jumia Bot, which is the first of its kind for any e-commerce business in West Africa, allows users to tailor their shopping to the items they actually want to buy.
For instance, when a user goes to shop on the Jumia website, he or she often will need to through a lot of products before making a decision. Sometimes because the options are too many, the user might end up buy more than they actually wanted to buy or in some cases buy something entirely different from they set out. With the Jumia Bot, users’ shopping experience changes in a unique way.
To be sure, a chatbot is an automated program that stimulates conversations, answers queries, and handles specific requests. In so doing, it mimics human thinking and decision making. The technology has been around for while, its uniqueness however lays its capacity to learn and improve.
The customers of the digital era are evolving as they expect lightning response times and want the purchase process to happen in a nice and easy way. Jumia Bot therefore comes as an indispensable tool, providing the company the opportunity to attract clients one-on-one.
Although the bot is still learning so many commands, there basic ones that customers can take advantage of at the moment. Customers can order food, select specific products, plan a trip among other tasks.
To find the bot, users will need to open their Messenger app or on desktop. Once you log into Messenger, the bot locates your details from your account.
The opening conversation could go like this:
“Hey there Frank! I’m Jumia Bot. What can I help you with today?” It follows up with simple queries like “hungry?” “Planning a trip”, and “In a shopping mood?” You then click on any of the queries.
Once you select an option, the conversation continues. For instance, if you chose “Shop Now”, Jumia Bot will ask “What product should I look up?” The conversation will continue until you make a choice and decide the payment channel you will use to pay for the item.
At the point of payment the user is rechanneled to the Jumia website where the transaction will be concluded.
According to Juliet Anammah, CEO of Jumia told BusinessDay the Bot reduces the amount of time customers spend shopping on the company’s website and guarantees ultimate convenience.
