AI

Top 9 virtual agent software solutions for e-commerce (2024)

August 27, 2024
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by
Iris Dings
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9
mins read

The number of virtual agent software tools has been growing over the last few years, with plenty of solutions available on the market. But how do you compare them, and which one is the best for your business? Look no further—we’ve reviewed the top solutions in the market and will leave it up to you to decide which one suits you best.

What is virtual agent software exactly? 

Virtual agent software, also known as conversational agents or AI-powered chatbots, is a technology that automates interactions between users and a system through natural language processing (NLP). These agents can simulate human-like conversations, responding to user queries or guiding them through tasks, typically via a chat interface or through voice interactions.

What can virtual agent software do? 

  • Automate conversations by answering questions and providing support 
  • Use natural language processing to understand and interpret the human language
  • Use AI and machine learning to improve interactions over time
  • Personalize interactions to align with a company’s brand and tone of voice 
  • Offer multichannel support such as on websites, apps, and mobile devices

Now that you know how virtual agent software is defined and what it’s capable of, let’s explore the best-reviewed solutions on the market and what they are best suited for.

The 9 best virtual agent software solutions for e-commerce support

1. Neople

Neople creates unique virtual agents for e-commerce support teams, enabling them to enhance and automate customer support without compromising quality.

A Neople is an AI colleague that assists by formulating responses and automating repetitive tasks. It’s a premium choice because it guarantees high-quality replies through training on your company data and continuous employee feedback.

Neople can craft responses in the appropriate tone of voice while adding a human touch. It becomes smarter with every interaction, thanks to an automated feedback system. With Neople Studio, the training center for Neoples, senior team members can guide it towards full automation, eventually allowing it to provide autonomous replies.

Neople integrates with company data and existing workflows to deliver efficient, 24/7 support, improving first response times, increasing customer satisfaction, and reducing time spent per ticket—making it an excellent choice for businesses looking to upgrade their support with high-quality AI solutions.

Website: Neople.io

Best for: E-commerce businesses 

Key features:

  • AI-powered answer suggestions 
  • Natural language processing as they are trained on company data 
  • Tone of voice adaptation to match brand style 
  • Automation of various routine tasks like labeling, retrieving order information and handling returns
  • Cross-platform integration with existing platforms such as Slack, Teams, Trengo, Zendesk and more 
  • 24/7 availability and multichannel support
  • Handoff to support teams
  • Neople studio training to move towards autonomous replies 
  • Proactive insights by simplifying complex data into actionable advice 
  • Analytics on AI performance and edited suggestions

“Neople is one of the best solutions we implemented in the last years.” - Gerjan Horstra, Owner & CEO Travelbags 

2. Kustomer 

Kustomer is a customer service platform that integrates AI-driven virtual agents to improve customer support and automate interactions. It offers businesses the ability to streamline customer service by combining human and automated responses, creating one experience across multiple communication channels.

The software provides a 360-degree view of customer interactions via phone, email, chat, text, social, and messaging. It focuses on omnichannel conversations, smart automation, and no-code customization.

Website: Kustomer.com

Best for: Enterprise businesses

Key features:

  • AI-powered customer service for routine inquiries 
  • Omnichannel support via email, chat, social media and messaging apps
  • Contextual conversations
  • Automation of repetitive tasks 
  • Customizable workflows 
  • Insights into trends, common issues and areas for improvement
  • 24/7 availability 

3. Tidio

Tidio is a customer service and live chat platform that integrates virtual agent software powered by AI to help businesses automate customer interactions and improve response times. It combines live chat, chatbots, and AI-driven virtual agents into a single, easy-to-use interface, allowing businesses to engage with customers in real-time or through automated processes.

Website: Tidio.com

Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses across various industries

Key features:

  • AI-powered chatbots such as Lyro by Tidio
  • Multichannel integrations
  • Customizable chat widgets
  • Hand-off from bot to support teams  
  • Analytics and reporting to track customer service effectiveness
  • Multi-language support 

4. Zendesk 

Zendesk is a powerful virtual agent and customer support platform designed to improve the customer experience. It offers a wide array of features that steamline both customer interactions and internal workflows, making it a great choice for businesses seeking efficiency and scalability.

Website: Zendesk.com

Best for: Businesses of all sizes and in multiple industries

Key features:

  • AI-powered answer booths 
  • Multichannel integration
  • Customizable workflows 
  • Handoff to live agents 
  • Proactive triggers for website visitors 
  • AI-powered self-service 
  • Data-driven insights and analytics 
  • Third party integrations 
  • Multilingual capabilities 

5. Freddy AI by Freshworks

Freddy AI is the AI-powered virtual assistant platform offered by Freshworks. It integrates across Freshworks' customer engagement and service products to help automate tasks, provide intelligent insights, and improve overall customer experience by reducing response times and improving support quality.

Website: Freshworks.com

Best for: A diverse audience across multiple industries

Key features:

  • AI-powered chatbots
  • Contextual conversations
  • Automation of repetitive tasks
  • Handoff to agents
  • Predictive insights
  • Omnichannel support
  • Self-service capabilities 
  • Sentiment analysis 
  • Multilingual support

6. LivePerson

LivePerson is a conversational AI platform that enables businesses to deploy AI-powered chatbots across multiple digital channels, such as messaging apps, websites, and social media. It allows businesses to automate customer interactions, enhance engagement, and provide 24/7 support while maintaining a human-like conversational experience. 

LivePerson focuses on creating personalized, scalable, and automated customer support solutions through its AI-driven virtual agents.

Website: LivePerson.com

Best for: Well-suited for large enterprises, e-commerce, financial services, healthcare, and telecom industries 

Key features:

  • Conversational AI
  • Omnichannel messaging
  • Intent recognition
  • Human handoff 
  • Customizable workflows 
  • Proactive engagement 
  • Analytics and insights in customer conversations
  • AI-powered self-service

7. Trengo Helpmate

Trengo Helpmate is a conversational AI solution that enables businesses to automate customer service and internal support through AI-powered virtual agents. Designed to handle a wide range of customer inquiries, Helpmate is integrated within the Trengo omnichannel platform, allowing businesses to provide efficient, 24/7 customer support across multiple communication channels.

It organizes the way companies handle customer interactions by reducing response times, automating routine tasks, and improving overall customer satisfaction.

Website: Trengo.com

Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), e-commerce companies, and customer service-driven organizations

Key features:

  • Omnichannel support
  • AI-powered chatbots
  • Handoff to human agents 
  • Customizable workflows and automations
  • Self-service capabilities 
  • Proactive engagement with automated messages
  • Analytics on chatbot performance and interactions
  • Collaboration tools for team members
  • Multilingual support 

8. Conversational AI cloud by CM

CM.com's Conversational AI Cloud is a powerful platform designed to help businesses automate customer conversations using AI-powered chatbots and voicebots. The platform allows businesses to create and deploy AI-driven bots across various communication channels without requiring coding expertise. The focus is on enabling self-service, providing 24/7 customer support, and reducing operational costs by automating routine tasks and inquiries.

Website: CM.com

Best for: SMBs, e-commerce, customer service teams, and enterprises across various industries

Key features:

  • AI-powered chatbots and voicebots
  • No-code setup with drag and drop interface
  • Omnichannel support
  • Customizable tone of voice 
  • Pre-built conversational flows 
  • Self-service solutions
  • Human handoff
  • Integrates with existing business systems
  • Real-time analytics and insights

9. Ultimate AI 

Ultimate.ai is now part of Zendesk and is a conversational AI platform that automates customer service interactions across multiple digital channels. It helps businesses scale their customer support operations by automating support requests with AI-powered chatbots and ticket automation. 

As a no-code platform, Ultimate enables companies to deploy AI-driven solutions quickly, improving efficiency and customer experience without significant overhead.

Website: Ultimate.ai

Best for: Medium to large enterprises, customer support teams, and industries like e-commerce, telecom, and retail.

Key features:

  • AI-powered bots 
  • No-code setup
  • Omnichannel support
  • Repetitive task automation
  • Analytics and insights into interactions and chatbot performance
  • Integrations with CRM systems 
  • Multilingual support
  • Proactive AI assistance
  • Human handoff 
  • Customizable conversation flows 

What to look for in virtual agent software for e-commerce

When selecting virtual agent software for e-commerce, it's important to understand what key features and possibilities are crucial for an optimal. You want to optimize the customer experience on the one hand and improve the business efficiency at the same time.

Let’s have a look at the different aspects to consider when selecting virtual agent software for your e-commerce business.

  • AI-powered automation: Look for software that uses AI to automate routine tasks such as improving FAQs, retrieving order tracking, and handling return-related questions. This reduces the manual workload and provides instant support to customers.
  • Omnichannel capabilities: The software should support communication across multiple channels like websites, social media, chat apps, and email, ensuring consistent customer service no matter where the interaction takes place.
  • Personalization and recommendations: Make sure the virtual agent can offer personalized responses and product recommendations based on customer information, preferences and the right company data, which improves the shopping experience and leads to increased conversions overall. 
  • Integration with different platforms: The software should easily integrate with your existing e-commerce platforms, CRM, internal communication channels and marketing tools to optimize operations and provide unified customer data for a better experience.
  • Scalability and performance: Choose a solution that can scale as your business grows, handling an increasing volume of inquiries without sacrificing performance or response times.
  • Training and control: The platform should allow for easy training and customization of the virtual agent to align with your specific business needs, helping you to fine-tune responses and control over how the agent interacts with customers.

Looking into the different software solutions and keeping these aspects in mind will help you make an informed decision. This will allow you to select software that improves your operational efficiency and increases customer satisfaction in e-commerce.

Why Neople is the virtual agent that helps you improve support

Whether you’re new to implementing AI in your support teams or have already experimented with generative AI, Neople is here to help.

Many tools are embedding AI into their services, but for customer-facing teams, it can be a risk. You don’t want to put your reputation at stake when AI isn’t providing the right answer or an answer that your human team would typically send.

That’s where Neople comes in. We create a custom Neople for e-commerce businesses. This virtual agent is trained on your company data and team input. Our dedicated customer success managers help you onboard your Neople. And the fun part? Your Neople will eventually be able to onboard other colleagues, too.

A Neople automates repetitive tasks and provides the right answers in the right language and tone. It’s lightning fast and has proven to improve the quality of your support team while making their work more enjoyable.

Businesses that employ their own Neople decrease the average first response time by 42%, increase their CSAT by at least 10%, and reduce the overall time spent per ticket by 35%.

Forget about adding another tool to your stack to improve support—hire an intelligent assistant instead, and boost both customer satisfaction and employee happiness. Book your free demo today.

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