You would be surprised at the number of chats e-commerce websites receive in a day.

One of our clients (selling clothes targeting 40+ women) had their sales almost double when we added in a simple livechat widget.

Since I discovered that they actually put helpful people behind those chats I've started to use them. Now I ask questions with all my online transactions. "How is the warranty? Do clients return this product a lot? Do you have any similar products to recommend me?", etc.

Yeh totally agree! I love the chat windows but its annoying when they pop up automatically.. That is just poor design.

And the beeps! I generally turn off all of the sound in my environment, and it's very distracting to hear a beep and try to figure out where it's from.

The worst is WPEngine. I already pay for their service, but whenever I look at an article on "How to do X", I hear beep!, and there's a sales chatbox in the corner.

I've taken to starting a chat, letting them know their site is annoying and I'll never use it again, and then closing the page.

I see this all the time on emerging startup apps and websites. Very annoying. It beeps and pops up and covers the bottom right side of the screen and sometimes covers up content. Worst still, it pops up 10 seconds after I arrived at their site when I haven't even begun to really dig into the information, so of course I don't have questions!

I think the chat boxes are wonderful idea; I've used them more than once to ask quick questions.

The beeping and popping up of some stock image with a 'nice' name is incredibly annoying though.

Chats that offer service are good.

Blame Intercom for this.

We use Intercom, but not on a site that's easily discoverable - our marketing folks reach out directly to potential clients.

But yes, I fucking loathe that little "plink" noise it makes. Please don't play sounds while I'm browsing.