The face of eCommerce has changed ever since the pandemic struck. The world of shopping suffered a drastic slowdown in 2020 because of supply chain disruptions worldwide. However, the eCommerce industry rapidly reinvented its logistics and delivery processes to let consumers stock up on essential supplies.
eCommerce today is laced with functionalities capable of dissolving digital boundaries (cross-channel). It has truly made an impact on the consumers’ minds. The modern consumer prefers shopping from a brand that can deliver seamless shopping journeys with high-quality touchpoints and relevant content.
In response, businesses have carved new avenues to interact with customers that provide better outreach and improved flexibility – messaging platforms. Apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are now transforming into a power-packed conversational messaging experience for the customers, thanks to the innovativeness of eCommerce.
Juniper Research predicts that the conversational commerce industry will rise to $290 million by the end of 2025.
Your business stands to gain tangible returns from implementing conversational commerce solutions. Let’s take a detailed look into the top reasons to use conversational messaging in eCommerce.
5 Reasons to Use Conversational Messaging in eCommerce
Conversational messaging commerce constitutes the use of well-crafted digital user journeys, like cross-channel engagement, creating digital storefronts, creating a brand identity through languages, eCommerce integrations, chat flows, and more.
1. eCommerce is Changing
Today, eCommerce is no longer a one-way street. Businesses must actively engage their customers in relevant, guiding conversations that aid their shopping journeys. One Forrester report highlights that over 41% of consumers today expect a live chat or real-time assistance on websites.
Consumer expectations have begun to reshape how eCommerce works: online shopping is rapidly transforming into a dynamic experience rather than just an online store.
Businesses now know that an average user spends 29 minutes a day on WhatsApp and that this app has 2 billion monthly active users. These numbers translate into a highly lucrative channel to gain a new audience, which businesses just can’t ignore.
Thinking in numbers, if you can reach your consumers and pitch to them over such a widespread channel, there is no limit to what your business can do with conversational commerce.
2. Efficacy of Communication
You would be surprised to know the results of a consumer survey conducted by Spectrm. The CEO, Mark Koziolek, highlighted that digital commerce has reached a stage where private messaging (through apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or others) significantly impacts brand affinity.
Consumers seek effective communication and meaningful, one-to-one exchanges with businesses over private messaging platforms. The companies that can provide their customers with conversational commerce enjoy their loyalty. Some even prefer using a multichannel contact center, email, chatbots, and other means of customer support.
It also has a lot to do with how the needs of the consumers have changed after the pandemic. Services like shipment tracking, order status, and resolution of basic queries can be handled through AI-enabled chatbots. Eliminating the needless switching between channels helps streamline the efficacy and quality of the information exchanged between the brand and its customer.
Conversational commerce allows your business to engage its consumers in meaningful communication.
3. Building Brand Reputation through Enhanced UXP
The paradigm shift in eCommerce has positioned customer experience at the center of the online universe of a brand.
According to research conducted by Acquia, it was fou nd that over half (53%) of the consumers felt that brands failed to give them a good customer experience. Now, collate this data with the fact that 78.5% of the CMOs attribute a competitive edge to creating unforgettable customer experiences. It leads you to conclude that the dissatisfied consumer population can be impressed and converted by enhancing their journey across your digital channels.
One trending way to achieve this is by implementing conversational messaging solutions that create a multifunctional bridge between your business and consumers. Whether it be query resolution or payments, shipment tracking, or returns/exchanges, conversational messaging eases the life of your consumers.
4. Two-Way Communication
Gone are the days when customers would either send emails to a business (and wait for days for a response) or call the service center and hold the line. Consumers today are impatient and impulsive. A report by BRP Consulting revealed that for 63% of the consumers, it took only one bad experience with a brand to make them stop shopping with it.
How, then, do you establish a good service system?
Delivering prompt responses and relevant information to consumers is important to prevent customer churn. Conversational messaging allows your business to create a two-way communication line wherein you can engage your consumers in actual dialogue and attempt to understand their queries/problems. The flexibility of the instant messaging platform allows your brand to placate dissatisfied customers with prompt, relevant responses while working with them in real-time to understand their concerns and deliver a solution.
Conversational messaging saves everyone a lot of time. It allows consumers to opt for the “self-service” method if they wish to, where through a menu-based query architecture, they can navigate themselves to a solution. It also allows businesses to cater to them in a hyper-personalized way, with their chat history right in front of the agent.
The functionality of payment through messaging apps is now making the whole ecosystem of conversational commerce even more seamless. There is no need for a consumer today to navigate away from WhatsApp to another app and make a payment for a purchase. Businesses have the tools to facilitate everything – service, product catalogs, payments, feedback, information, etc. – right inside the consumer’s WhatsApp chat window.
Summing up
The new era of eCommerce has been heralded in by instant messaging apps. Consumers no longer want to navigate to a brand to shop for because they expect the brand to come to them. This places instant messaging apps in a pivotal position that can make a drastic difference in the bottom line of any business.
Furthermore, the personalization capability offered by the conversational platform gives businesses a good chance of earning consumer loyalty.
To get a competitive advantage and an expanded user base within reach of your business, consider incorporating conversational messaging commerce into your business strategies. Ready to revolutionize customer experience using conversational messaging? Book your demo with Vizury today.
