For ecommerce brands, digital transformation isn’t a long-term strategy. One might argue that the world is already digitally transformed, and that customers have adjusted. 

It’s time for brands to catch up.

Interestingly enough, for the first time ever, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sales actually declined in 2021. Maybe it’s just a pandemic slump. But, more likely, it means that consumers are spreading out their online spending throughout the year and that having a dedicated day for online shopping is as redundant as the term “ecommerce” itself. It’s safe to say that in a digitally-transformed world, every day is Cyber Monday. 

Problem is, for brands in the highly competitive ecommerce market, keeping up with changing customer needs and expectations can feel like a moving target. But there’s one thing we know for sure: customers want to talk to you more than ever before, and data proves chat is the leading force in how they prefer to interact. The only way to handle the demand is through automated brand interactions. 

Ecommerce brands can create automated conversational flows that empower customers to help themselves. The top retail interactions are basic (think WISMO, product, and payment inquiries), so giving customers the tools to self-serve is a win-win: a VIP brand experience for the customer, while reserving your support agents for high-impact interactions. 

But what do VIP experiences look like, exactly? We’ve pulled the top five ecommerce brands nailing their automated brand interactions. Let’s take a look.

Knix

The underwear and intimates brand designs feel-good products to boost confidence — without compromising comfort. They’ve successfully infused their automated brand interactions with that of their brand persona: vibrant, positive, and welcoming. 

Here are our favorite flows from Knix.

Sizing flow

Knix makes finding your size easy, with a number of options to choose from. With this automated conversational flow, a customer can choose whether they’d like to learn how to take their own measurements, view a sizing chart, or even book a virtual fitting appointment with an expert. 

This gives customers access to quick and seamless solutions that reduce the likelihood of a return, speed up time-to-purchase, and to tap into an “in-store” experience from the comfort of their own home. 

Check it out for yourself. Simply ask the bot, “How do I know my size?” and watch the magic happen. 🪄

Multibot branding

Using Ada, Knix provides seamless and consistent automated brand interactions for both Knixwear and Knixteen. By implementing conditional logic to adjust the content, they ensure customers are receiving the right information for each of their associated brands — this keeps every brand experience relevant to the customer’s individual need, making them feel like a VIP in each interaction.

Case-Mate

Case-Mate offers premium phone cases and covers that protect your smart-phone and tech-accessories from the daily wear and tear of lifetime use. Part of their brand offering is to simplify the shopping experience and make it easy for their customers to find exactly what they’re looking for. And that’s what their bot, Casey, does in each interaction.

Here are our favorite flows from Case-Mate.

Product search

With Casey, customers can quickly find the precise product they’re looking for. You can get as specific or as general as you like. Casey displays the results in a carousel, making it easy to swipe through on web or mobile.

This reduces the effort on part of the customer — and let’s be honest, we all love that from a brand — helping them browse on their own terms and move more quickly to the purchase finish line.

Check it out for yourself. Start by simply asking Casey, “How can I search for a product?” or select this option from the bot’s initial greeting.

Proactive product search

It has to be said: this feature is super cool. Customers can use the search bar on the website and Casey will pick it up from there, proactively reaching out to offer additional help in finding the specific product the customer is looking for. 

This engagement-boosting tactic is not only a creative way to show customers you care, it makes finding and purchasing a product effortless. Online brands today are competing not just on product and price, but on the overall shopping experience. This is why we love how easy it is to find products from Case-Mate.

Ten Thousand

Ten Thousand is a training essentials brand that prides themselves on no BS and no gimmicks. Their perspective is strong: continuous improvement requires hard work, failure, and tenacity. 

Their bot persona, TT, doesn’t beat around the bush. As soon as you land on the homepage, it greets you with, “I’m TT. Let’s get after it 💪.” 

You got it, TT. Let’s jump into our favorite flow from Ten Thousand. 

Find the perfect pair

Ten Thousand makes it fun and easy for new customers to find the perfect pair of shorts. They can use TT to take a quiz that asks about everything from their sport of choice to fit and feel. At the end of the quiz, TT offers a personalized recommendation based on the answers. Nice, right?

With the perfect pair at your fingertips, purchase is inevitable. And TT helps get you there faster.

iHerb

iHerb is on a mission to make health and wellness accessible to everyone. To do this, they have curated the best-in-the-biz health and wellness products, at the best bang for your buck. 

With a wealth of products for international customers to sort through, iHerb needs automated brand interactions that can serve new and their existing customers from around the globe. And with Ada, they do.

Here are our favorite flows from iHerb.

Multilingual

iHerb has a massive, global customer base — this means they need to strike a balance between universal brand values and the interactions that back them up. To stay accountable to cultural differences in diverse markets, they use Ada’s multilingual capabilities to scale VIP experiences to customers around the world.

Using Ada, iHerb can detect the customer’s language and automatically switch up the responses to reply in their preferred language.

You have to see it to believe it.👇

Proactive order checker

Get this: if you’re logged into your iHerb account, the bot will greet you with details of your most recent order. No need to submit a ticket and wait patiently (and sometimes impatiently) for an email response. 

All the details you need are right there when you need it. And if you have a question, the bot is ready to help you get to the right solution in a pinch. 

New signup campaigns

If you love a personalized brand experience, iHerb’s got the flow for you. Using metadata, iHerb’s bot can display offers and promotions that are relevant to your interests and past history with them, whether or not you’re logged in to your iHerb account.

New subscriber or loyal customer, you’ll get the discount that’s right for you by just opening the website. We all love a good promo code. 

Kindred Bravely

Kindred Bravely creates maternity and nursing clothes that are beautiful, useful, and comfortable. Their clothes are designed to make the motherhood journey easier and give people access to an inclusive community of moms.

BraveBot greets you with list options that range from practical (swimwear, size guide) to encouragement. It’s the full brand experience.

Here are our favorite flows from Kindred Bravely.

Bra recommendation quiz

With Kindred Bravely, buying a new bra is easy — and entertaining. They’ve implemented a bra personality quiz with their sister brand, Davy Piper, that matches the customer with the right bra recommendation. From there, the bot presents three options, linking the customer directly to the product page, sizing support, or to take the quiz again.

Fun fact: Kindred Bravely’s bras are all named after historical matriarchs with distinct and infamous personalities. This makes it even more enticing to take the quiz and find your match.

Swimsuit recommendation quiz

Similar to the bra quiz, Kindred Bravely has also launched a swimsuit quiz for their main line. The customer can access this right in the bot, with list options and pictures guiding them through some particularly amusing questions like, “What is your perfect swim destination?”

The last question triggers the swimsuit recommendation with a link directly to the product page. It flows quite swimmingly, if you know what I mean.

Customer encouragement

This flow is the stuff that VIP brand experiences are made of. The bot proactively gives customers support and encouragement in their pregnancy and postpartum journey with encouraging quotes, pictures, and links to the Kindred Bravely blog. 

Need a pick-me-up? Head to their website and try typing “positivity” or “I’m having a bad day” in the bot.

We had a blast combing through the best and brightest ecommerce brand interactions to pull out these shining stars. And it further illustrates our perspective on the future of CX: buzzwords like AI, omnichannel, and personalization are meaningless if you're not acting — and interacting — with authenticity and consistency when people actually need you.