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Improve online shopping with conversational commerce.

Digital technology is increasingly shaping how we live, work, and shop. Unlike in the past, today’s consumers don’t have the time or patience to follow multiple steps or make numerous clicks on their smartphones to order food or purchase goods. They want everything at their fingertips. It is where conversational commerce becomes relevant.
The COVID-19 outbreak has made digital technology even more critical. As people stay home and travel restrictions continue in many parts of the world, their dependency on online channels has intensified.

Shopping is one of the few areas where the pandemic has forced a drastic digital change. Offline shopping decreased on a global scale as customers shifted to eCommerce platforms. They now prefer to shop from the convenience of their home office as they continue to work from home.
With customers’ appetite for eCommerce on the rise and competition growing, online stores have their work cut out for them. They have no choice but to work harder than ever to compete, retain customers, and survive.

How to survive in this highly competitive environment.
Modern online shopping is about interactions, conversations, and questions and answers. Customers expect and want brands to answer their questions and address their grievances almost instantly. They look for an offline shopping-like experience, where a sales assistant is at their disposal to answer their questions about products, price, and new arrivals.
Opening a two-way dialogue with online customers has become necessary in this new era, yet many existing businesses have not realized its importance. Conversational commerce can be leveraged to improve the customer experience, and we’re here to show you how.

What is conversational commerce?
Coined by Chris Messina in 2015, conversational commerce refers to messaging and communications technologies to provide customers with friendlier, more personalized interactions. It seeks to connect a brand or retailer with consumers and prospects through messaging apps or chatbots to deliver a more social experience.
Messina, an American blogger and inventor of the hashtag concept, noted in his Medium post that “conversational commerce is growing, and concierge-style services may become the primary way in which people transact on their mobile devices.”

what-is-conversational-commerce
Conversational commerce means delivering convenience, personalization, and decision support while people move.
Brands are expected to shift in this direction to become more subtle in integrating into people’s lives who don’t have much time to spare.
Brands and retailers leverage specific tools to communicate with their customers and prospects in real-time, giving them tailored recommendations that go beyond sending notifications and providing customer support. Such channels enable stores to establish a connection between a brand and its customers and improve the customer experience.
Conversational commerce has gained momentum in recent years.

So, what channels can brands use to engage in conversational commerce?
There are four primary channels: messaging platforms, live chat, chatbots, and voice assistants.

Messaging platforms
Messaging platforms allow customers to interact with a brand wherever they are. Many companies connect with customers through WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram apps. Some brands or retailers have messaging channels embedded in their websites or apps.

Live chat
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Live chat lets customers have real-time conversations with an agent or a bot on the brand’s website or app. It can have significant drawbacks; for example, when a customer leaves your page or has no action for a few seconds, the conversation will end and disappear.

Email
Email is still one of the most powerful conversational commerce options because it is a widely used and understood communications medium. The problem is that making email work like chat can sometimes be tricky, which is why email apps exist that help turn traditional email into a more chat-like experience for company agents.

Voice assistants
Voice assistants are growing in popularity, spurred by Siri and Alexa, and voice assistants by Google and others. One study found that about 55% of the households in the U.S. will likely have voice-powered home assistants such as Amazon Echo or Google Assistant by 2022. It is a prime channel for interacting with customers from a conversational commerce perspective.

Key benefits of conversational commerce
As explained above, conversational commerce is meant to provide a customer-centric shopping experience. In a way, these tools emulate a sales assistant at a brick-and-mortar store who offers personalized recommendations and guides the consumer through purchases.
With these tools in place, a customer can purchase products from their messaging app without migrating to a different platform and following a series of steps.