More and more users are using their smartphones to chat, make plans, and share media through messaging apps. Resulting in more than 41 million mobile messages being exchanged worldwide in a single minute.
As people choose for the immediacy of communicating through apps. Like WhatsApp, Snapchat, and Facebook Messenger. Forward-thinking companies are using this to their advantage as a means to connect with customers. Leading to a marketing strategy known as conversational commerce.
Think of conversational commerce as a face-to-face like dialogue with a customer on a digital messaging platform. It combines our growing fondness for technology with responsive customer service. It enables companies to answer questions, solve problems, recommend products, and even make sales.
In this blog, we will look at the potential of conversational commerce, how it looks in practice, and how companies can implement this strategy to improve customer experience.
What is Conversational Commerce?
Conversational commerce is a link between a customer and a business through digital messaging. A great example of this is live chat with a customer service agent, chatbots, or a combo of both.
Conversational commerce is a fast and easy way of communication. It focuses on being ready to help at any time. Customers can send a message to a company and get a quick reply. The customer doesn’t have to wait for a call or submit a form on the web for the response.
To Keep Your Customers, Keep It Simple
While eCommerce offers 24/7 convenient shopping. Most customers need to navigate online stores on their own. Search inventories for the right product, and find information on things such as return policies. A finely tuned website facilitates this experience. But conversational commerce, when optimized it, takes the customer by the hand and guides them through the purchase journey. Customers can find out about products, get help, and even complete purchases in a few steps.
This strategy is best compared to the personal interaction you get in the store with a friendly sales agent. Having a chatbox on a website or Facebook page gives you the best touch that a digital experience has never had before.
This is what conversational commerce looks like in practice:
- A customer sends recommendations to a local bookstore. After answering a few questions to narrow down the choice. The customer receives links to the products, saving them the time and trouble of browsing for books online.
- A consumer puts a product in his cart but has a question about delivery. A quick question in the live chat leads to a fair reply and the purchase is complete.
Businesses are beginning to see the potential of automating customer conversations on the digital platforms they use most often.
Last Thoughts
Inspired by the growing fame of online messaging. Conversational commerce brings together businesses and customers that use digital messaging. It can take the type of live chat, chatbots, or both, and enhances strategies. Such as email marketing and social media, to engage digital consumers more fully.
Brands use conversational commerce to offer digital buyers personalized customer service through their preferred communication way. Optimized, it allows companies to quickly respond, recommends products, offers discounts, requests feedback, and convert customers within a single channel.
