Cobrowsing for ecommerce
As online shoppers increasingly expect faster, more personalized help, cobrowsing has become a high-impact tool for reducing cart abandonment and improving customer experiences. Cobrowsing for ecommerce replaces confusion with clarity in support interactions and makes retail journeys smooth and reliable.
What is ecommerce cobrowsing?
Cobrowsing is a technology that enables support agents and shoppers to view and interact with the same webpage simultaneously in a session. In the case of ecommerce, agents can see exactly what the shopper is seeing, highlight newly launched products or offers, help them navigate the shop or complete forms, and assist with checkout issues through a cobrowsing solution.
Why cobrowsing is essential for ecommerce
As populations continually shift towards online shopping, it's incumbent upon businesses to nurture their retail experiences and resolve any issues that might hamper customer retention. Some of the key benefits of cobrowsing in online retail include the following:
Reduce cart abandonment
Checkout errors, promotion or discount code issues, and payment confusion are some of the most common causes of cart abandonment. Cobrowsing software can help support teams pick up right where customers have left off and guide them through the entire online shopping process.
Increase conversion rates
Through cobrowsing, product experts can provide instant help for shoppers looking for different options or alternatives by helping them navigate to the right product listings and complete their purchases without hassle.
Improve average order value
Sales agents in cobrowsing sessions with customers can determine if any chosen products require additional parts and recommend essential or complementary products. Cobrowsing therefore helps increase your business's average order value while simultaneously improving your customer experience.
Shorten resolution time
Visual guidance through cobrowsing eliminates long back-and-forth explanations, thereby shortening resolution times and eliminating delays in service queues. Agents then have more time to handle more queries, which enhances their overall productivity.
How cobrowsing works in an ecommerce journey
- A shopper visits your online store and searches for a niche product.
- Unable to find it, they contact support via chat console or call.
- Once the agent receives the query, they will start a cobrowsing session and invite the customer.
- The shopper will enter the session key shared with the invite and join the session.
- Both the shopper and agent can see the product pages and navigate through them in real time.
What are the ecommerce use cases for cobrowsing?
Product discovery and comparison
When visitors find it difficult to locate certain products or alternatives, cobrowsing can simplify the search process. Agents can navigate to product pages themselves and end these searches quickly and efficiently.
Checkout assistance
Visitors caught in checkout complications—such as payment errors, trouble entering coupon codes, or other order placement issues—can easily get over-the-shoulder assistance from support agents through cobrowsing.
Post-purchase support
Support agents handling returns, exchanges, or order tracking can do it efficiently through cobrowsing, where they can guide the customer through the required process without confusing written explanations.
Time or event-based sales
Because seasonal and festive sales garner a lot of attention from shoppers, these occasions also see spikes in service requests. The best way to resolve those urgent requests or time-sensitive queries is to use a cobrowsing solution.
Is cobrowsing secure for online shopping?
Cobrowsing ecommerce software tools like Cobrowse by Zoho Assist are built with TLS and 256-bit AES encryption, and are compliant with GDPR, HIPAA, and PCA regulations. Cobrowse by Zoho Assist enables you to hide elements that may hold sensitive or confidential information like passwords, account numbers, or PII. These elements are then masked during a cobrowsing session to protect your customers' privacy and minimize any risk to your business. Additionally, cobrowsing sessions can't be recorded, so personal data isn't stored in any format. With these control measures in place, cobrowsing is a secure solution for online shopping.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, cobrowsing is a more lightweight solution compared to screen sharing. Known for it's low latency and secure connections, cobrowsing is ideal for ecommerce platforms that offer online or chat support to customers over cart issues, product listings, or platform-related issues.
No, agents cannot control shoppers' browsers; they are restricted to a tab or webpage, where the agent and customer can perform actions simultaneously like scroll, navigate, and enter text in form fields.
No, Cobrowse by Zoho Assist does not store any personal information like PII, passwords, or confidential numbers. Cobrowse by Zoho Assist complies with ecommerce guidelines by not recording any of its sessions.
Yes, Cobrowse by Zoho Assist is designed to work on mobile devices. Touch interactions are relayed seamlessly to the support agent through DOM synchronization, and customers can view annotations drawn by agents. Personal data can be masked by blacklisting elements in the organization portal.
No, shoppers don't have to install anything; Cobrowse by Zoho Assist is a browser-based solution. They can directly join a Cobrowse session by clicking the link sent by the support agent and getting the help they need.
Yes, cobrowsing is secure for checkout and payments because of its data-masking feature and restricted access to webpages. Cobrowse by Zoho Assist ensures secure sessions through 256-bit AES and TLS encryption.