Internet businesses came into existence in 1991 when the Internet became a platform for commercial use. The last 5 years have seen a major growth in the on-line sector and on-line shops and e-business are becoming main stream.
Why is it important to support customers online? 
- Support your marketing process= Improve the return of investment (R.O.I.)
Marketing teams typically concentrate on ROI (return on investment) to evaluate how well their marketing campaigns are performing. Most e-businesses are concerned about bounce rates because visitors often come to their site and leave right away. This can happen for a few reasons: they may not find what they need, or they might find the site difficult to navigate. By providing online support like Live Chat and email responses, you can gather important market research data, potentially ‘save the sale,’ and make adjustments to your site to improve user experience.
- Support web designers and programmers = Improve usability
Site Evaluation & Customer Profiling Your team will use various methods to find out if certain pages on your site create more or less engagement, like A/B testing or Google Analytics. Researching the market and analyzing your whole site will assist your web design team in making enhancements, helping visitors stay longer and buy at the end of their visit. An online customer support feature on your site can help you identify design and programming problems.
- Support your sales process = Increase sales
Customers may have enquiries about products or services. It is ideal to provide a self support service on your site, such as a ‘How To’ page; however, users may prefer to interact with a real person in order to gain a better understanding of your products/services and company.
- Support your customers = improve customer experience
If you provide on-line customer support via live chat & e-mail they are more confident and will interact with your sales support team. Their decision to purchase from you has been validated as they are reassured they are buying from a reputable company. You can also increase your customer satisfaction levels by simply having customer agents available to answer questions. A happy customer will add you to their favorites list and will return to your online portal .
If you want to discover more about customer care on-line for e-business check this whitepaper: http://www.callmanagement.ie/landing/whitepaperecommerce/
Read more: What is Sales Support?