CAMARILLO, USA: A new breed of customer has developed as a result of the downturn economy—a budget conscious, comparison shopper who’s quick to ditch a shopping cart or abandon a website in the hunt for lower prices, a great offer or free shipping. While SMBs are already confronting a myriad of challenges with the recession, this change in consumer behavior presents another hurdle. With so many companies competing over a small pool of consumers, how do small businesses capture their attention in order to win a sale?

Glenn Russell, CEO of UpSellit, the virtual chat technology company, believes the answer is in re-purposing consumer outreach: “Historically, SMBs online have focused most of their marketing and outreach budget on bringing customers to the site, but in this economy they must instead become masters of on-site engagement. Replicate the service and support a customer would get in a store: offer assistance and discounts in order to capture the customer.”

Until recently, this level of online customer engagement has been out of reach for a budget-strapped small business, limited to large businesses such as Amazon.com or Dell. UpSellit, leaders in virtual chat engagement tools for ecommerce and emarketing, use artificial intelligence methodologies and a company’s branded messaging in order to create virtual chat agents that any small to medium sized business can afford.

As small businesses look to reel in those bargain hunting online shoppers, they’re finding the advantage in leveraging virtual chat technologies to proactively engage consumers in order to answer questions, provide intelligent chat communication and offer relevant promotions or discounts to complete a sale. UpSellit’s virtual chat agent, called SMARTsales Agent, is the online equivalent to a sales representative in a brick-and-mortar store, without the overhead or investment that an SMB can’t afford in a downturn economy. By transplanting the offline experience online, small businesses are able to effectively enhance the customer’s online experience and provide this “recession-consumer” with the tools they need to complete the sale.

AllCoolMusic.com, the largest network of access to music, games and software for download, is one small business that has seen the benefit of adjusting their customer engagement. “Instead of feeling hopeless and helpless to site abandonment, we decided to make a change and become more proactive,” said Paschal Rousseau of AllCoolMusic.com. “Using UpSellit’s virtual chat assistant, we are able to strike up a conversation with a customer during that critical moment when they’re on our site making a decision as to whether or not to shop. By giving this little nudge—whether in the form of a special offer or friendly support—we’ve increased sales and conversion rates that would have otherwise been lost to site abandonment.”

UpSellit’s Russell comments, “The days of the impulse shopper are over—according to the most recent survey, nearly 30 percent of customers online leave and abandon their shopping cart to compare prices at another site. SMBs see a 10-15 percent increase in conversion rates when using our virtual chat agent. Now, more than ever, companies can’t ignore this advantage.”