Conversational Commerce - Why is it going to be the next big thing

One of the most prevalent manner of fulfilling your needs is through the online and mobile shopping. This mode of satisfaction implies personalized content recommendations, personal shoppers and technological improvement but still feels very impersonal.

The brands which are highly focused on gaining the experience have found a new tool which allows them in creating a personal relationship with their customers at large scale. They understand the psychology of their millennial customers that they value the experience as much as they do the price.

What exactly is Conversational Commerce

The name of this concept is not self-explanatory. It creates a bridge between the marketers and the customers close together and builds a communication gap between the brand and its customers. It enables the transactions of buying and selling to happen between the brands and their customers. The connection is built between the two with the help of messaging interfaces such as SMS and even these days through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and many other messaging platforms.

It is a type of a modern approach that starts a conversation between the brands and their customers with the online customer’s journey as a sailor. Digitalization has led to an increase in the usage of Internet and mobile devices which has resulted into the bringing a new change the way people interact with each other and with companies. There are billion and billions of smartphone users all around the world and they are getting addicted to the Smartphone and the screen time is increasing at an alarming rate. It provides the advanced customers a very reliable and an easy platform for internet shopping which in saves their time and make them relaxed and feel better.

For a much clear understanding, if you go to purchase meat. You stand on the opposite sides of the counter and chat about what you want. When you are done with your order, the butcher cuts your meat and gives to you. In the same manner, with an addition of technology mix the same process occurs. The procedure is the same but the only difference is that instead of chatting across the counter, you are chatting across text messages.

But, the real challenge comes when you have to perform this at a large scale.

Like the traditional butcher does, it is very easy to serve one or two people at a time. But   when we talk about the online trading it means when we consider the hundreds or thousands who want to browse and order, there a need to deliver the benefits arises which that technology will bring to the table.

Conversational commerce is a new natural progression update for Google, which has entered in the lives of billions of people like a sky shot. This wireless connection between the buyer and the seller is one of a great way for eCommerce stores to let the consumers know about the latest products or sales.

In the near future, a complete dependency by the consumers on their mobile devices will be observed. Mobile phones will be more in demand so as to ask questions or buy goods as the queries are kept in front of a sales associate. The reputed brands will be also seen attracting their customers majorly which in turn will result as an increase in sales. This will be implemented only by the proper planning, by integrating the existing systems and by bringing in the help form the technology. All this will be executed by a simple measure of chatting with them with the help of chatbots.

Conversational commerce platforms have become a real priority for some of the world’s biggest companies like Facebook, WhatsApp, and so much more.

Why should brands add Chatbots to their strategy

These biggest companies act as a pool helping the brands in increasing the customer satisfaction, and in reduction of the costs to improve the ability to engage the customers across the world. Web sites and applications use the facility of messaging and that is the reason the technology is being adopted globally.

There is a messaging platform in China named ‘We Chat’. It has stood out for a great number of years as a leader. This platform has enabled businesses to engage with their customers in this race of online trading. The popular brands are starting to implement the big face that it the conversational commerce into their marketing and customer service strategies. All this because, the experiences are far more reliable than it was earlier.

In the traditional old days, SMS and MMS were limited in what they could communicate. But times have evolved and the fast upcoming technology has changed the market and the new opportunities have emerged. Facebook, Kick, WhatsApp are some of the trending messaging platforms which has enabled its users to interact with businesses on their platforms. This pattern of trading messaging is known as application-to-person (A2P) messaging.

Are these chatbots a good fit for your brand?

Chatbots, a popular yet a relative new technology in the market which provides various opportunities to most of the consumers who have most of the consumers interaction with bot. Chatbots have shown the promising results in many scenarios, but the conversational commerce concept may not be right for every business.

But the main feature of chatbots is the engagement of the customers, and improving an overall shopping experience for them. Thus, making the market businesses more accurate and efficient.

The consumers across all the world use technology such as SMS messaging 24x7 to connect with the brands. There are over 50 percent of consumers who are interested in dealing or trading with the businesses via messaging. Consumers are really comfortable these days in using the electronic conversation platform for operating of business, whether it is a text messaging app or Facebook Messenger.

The shoppers have evolved too for solving their own problems through the self-tutorials and frequently asked questions (FAQ) pages. This change in the era has made the shoppers more confident in the usage of the current technology.

How Conversational Commerce impacts shoppers

When a person makes the decision of making an online purchase, they go through lot many stages before and even after clicking on that checkout button.

The five distinct steps in the customer purchase journey are awareness or the need recognition which means the customer should be well aware of what he or she is looking for. After this they find out the options available to them. It is when the Research or the search for information stage arises. When the customer is done with the research stage, they start making the options available to a consideration which also involves the evaluation of alternatives.  Then comes a stage when they make the decision of making a fair decision of buying which is the purchasing decision. At the end comes the post – purchase evaluation which makes the customer to talk upon the recommendation stage.

The conversational commerce platforms help the businesses in creating a sense of need for their products to potential customers. In the conclusion, it can be said that conversational commerce is a new, innovative way for the brands and the brand partners to make the purchasing and selling part of the customer journey completely frictionless and fun.

Looking for help with your eCommerce, mCommerce or web needs? Get in touch.