To be successful online, the first undisputed rule for a merchant is to be where its customers are. For this reason, in recent years, this has meant being present on the main social media, giving rise to phenomena such as social commerce and what has been called ‘shoppertainment‘. Among the industry trends, however, there is another that cannot be ignored by eCommerce channel owners in the near future. We are talking about conversational commerce.
What is conversational commerce
The term was coined back in 2015 by Chris Messina, a blogger and product consultant, to describe the intersection of messaging apps and online shopping. In other words, it refers to the direct interaction between end-user and brand through the most popular messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, Messanger, Talk, WeChat, or through voice technology (a trend we also explored in this article) such as Amazon’s Echo, in order to exchange information useful to finalise the online purchase of a good or service.
Who is on the other side of the app?
The end user, depending on the brand’s choice, can interact directly with a human representative or a chatbot, another key trend in the eCommerce market.
The function of the human representative or the chatbot is however the same: to answer the questions and doubts of the potential buyer, give personalised advice, provide reviews and offer the possibility to buy directly from the app, with a simple click.
The benefits of conversational commerce
Conversational Commerce, therefore, not only simplifies and improves the user’s shopping experience by actually reducing the steps needed to complete a purchase, but also guarantees greater customer service and, as a result, more informed and reasoned purchases that lead to a reduction in the number of returns and greater sustainability of the entire sector. In fact, we have explored the risks associated with reverse logistics and the consequent need to find alternative solutions both to reduce the number of returns and to ensure a return process that is as sustainable as possible, such as the use of Lockers and Pick-up Points.
In this regard, if you are still not familiar with the solutions offered by GEL Proximity to integrate thousands of proximity logistics solutions throughout the country, including for returns, click here to find out more.
Furthermore, conversational commerce not only promotes the acquisition of new customers (a Think with Google research study found that 60 per cent of shoppers prefer to choose brands that offer convenient communications such as chat), but also their engagement and, consequently, their loyalty.
The numbers of conversational commerce
According to Juniper Research, conversational commerce channels will reach $290 billion by 2025. In fact, consumer preference for popular messaging apps to buy online has doubled since the Covid-19 outbreak and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. In fact, almost 50 per cent of consumers already use WhatsApp to connect with businesses and it is Generation Z consumers who will further increase their digital engagement (Vonage Global Customer Engagement Report 2021 data).
On the other hand, according to the data presented by Valentina Pontiggia, Director of the B2C eCommerce and Digital Retail Innovation Observatories of the Politecnico di Milano, at Netcomm Forum 2022, in 2022 the smartphone will be confirmed as the first channel for making online purchases, with a percentage of 55% stable from 2021, while new formats such as audio adv, social marketing and connected TV (which we will discuss shortly) are gaining attention, and new sales models and consumer trends such as the one just described are developing.
