Conversational Commerce - Here's what you need to know about it

Conversational Commerce, as the name suggests, is a way of shopping while having a conversation with a virtual assistant. The term was coined by Uber’s Chris Messina in 2015 and has gained huge momentum since then. Imagine walking into a Shoe store and the sales executive assisting you with the right size, shoe style, and heel height. Sounds like a regular shopping experience, right?

Now, imagine all of those services provided to you on your mobile screen, without even having to leave the app you're using. This is what Conversational Commerce typically offers. The method integrates the dynamically evolving technology of AI, Chatbots, Virtual Assistant, etc, in the shopping experience. Apps like Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp ChatBot and many others are giving a way to conversational commerce. Let's dig deeper into this newly introduced sales method and how it can benefit your brand.

A Closer Look Since Conversational Commerce is an interactive form of selling, it gives an edge to businesses that are looking to empower their customer engagement. But there's more to it; here's a simplified breakdown for you:

Pros The instant conversation gives space for collecting feedback, making recommendations, and closing sales immediately. Your customers can always buy your product/ service at any time without making a physical visit to the store. These chatbots are highly affordable, 10 times more efficient, and replace traditional IVRs as well. It's easier to convert leads as you have the customer's contact and solve their inquiries effectively. Cons Building the initial database and infrastructure can be a minor challenge for some businesses. If you are opting for a Whatsapp Chatbot like Easysocial, you will not face this roadblock. Hesitating to ditch the traditional selling methods and adopting the new and improved ones can be difficult for some established businesses. How are big brands doing it? 'The future is AI,' we all have heard it multiple times, but here's a thought - the 'presence' is AI, and it's here to stay. Over the past 4-5 years, we have seen multiple brands skyrocketing their sales game with the integration of conversational commerce, and their experiments are inspiring! The brands have started seeing lesser abandonment of carts by their customers ever since they've started shopping through the virtual salesperson.

Before we move on, let us tell you that there can be multiple types of Conversational commerce facilitators. These can be Live Chat, Voice Assistants, Chatbots, Messaging Apps, etc. Now, let's see how your favorite brands made you love them even more with one smart move!

1) H & M With a huge customer base, H&M surely made a mark in their sales by introducing a Chatbot that personalizes their customers' experience at length. The user can chat with the bot on KiK, and based on the customer's preferences, the bot makes personal recommendations to them. This is based on the customers' preferred style, color, choice of clothing, and much more! Basically, a Digital Stylist, that too, for free! It's surely a win-win situation.

2) Starbucks Brands like Starbucks, which are already winning at their connection with their customers (name on the cup), are taking one step forward. Starbucks has an in-app chatbot that helps people streamline their morning coffee routine. Their bot is called the Barista Bot, and it understands people's agony of standing in long queues, waiting for their coffee, and getting late for work. Using the Barista Bot, people can place an order, even through voice command, make the payment, and get notified when their brew is ready to serve. It's doing just what coffee is supposed to do - make lives easier.

3) Amazon Alexa Every Alexa owner loves to have fun with this Smart Device in their own way. Amazon Alexa is, hands down, a super addictive virtual assistant who does it all for you! Change your room lights, order your grocery, play your favorite song, or ask her to do calculations for you. This form of Conversational Commerce can also be seen in Google Assistant, Apple's Siri, Cortana, amongst the famous ones.

4) SlackBot It's always nice to have some work-related conversations taken care of. Slackbot aims at making your workspace more interactive and responsive by doing it for you. It can auto-reply to some messages, remind you of your calls and meetings, give you a hilarious laugh by telling a joke, and update teammates' status for you to keep track. There's much more that can be done with it. Although the bot is not entirely human-like as of now, it keeps the workflow going and does wonders for professionals using Slack.

5) Pizzahut Now you can enjoy your cheesy, crusty delight at work or home without worrying too much about looking up new offers. Pizzahut enables its customers to place an order via Twitter or Facebook Messenger, reorder with a touch of a finger, ask for promotional codes, and even answer the customer's frequently asked questions. Making pizza a comfort food in all senses, isn't it?

Here's how you can benefit from it So now you have a decent amount of information on conversational commerce and how brands are leveraging this technique. Now the real question is, how can your brand benefit from it, and do you really need it?

Here's how Conversational commerce can be a gamechanger for your business:

1) Fuel sales conversion - There are as many as 70% of carts laying abandoned on the internet, and you don't want to be a part of that statistic. Getting a chatbot can help you offer your customers live support, new offers, and take follow-ups on their purchases.

2) Close hot leads - A sale is just one decision away! Your chatbot will help your customers make that decision. Customers can get all the details of their order, respond to their concerns immediately, notify them of revised prices, and hand over the chat to agents if more personalized assistance is required.

3) Collect feedback - Reviews, testimonials, and feedback are extremely important for a brand to improve its product, services, and customer satisfaction. Bots will collect feedback from your customers instantly after their purchase without making it too pushy.

4) Customer engagement - Virtual assistants are far more affordable, efficient, and proactive than IVR call centers. Customers tend to respond to them and like them more than a human agent calling incessantly. It's crucial to keep a check on your customer engagement, and it can be easier with a great conversational commerce facilitator like Whatsapp Chatbot.

5) Upselling - Introducing an upgrade feature or a new product to your existing customer can be tricky business. But these bots can do it by giving them a quick heads-up of the new product, reminding them to restock their product, or a nudge of discount to close the deal. So now you have learned enough to get yourself started with a conversational commerce method. If you are looking for a Supercharged Whatsapp Chatbot that can do the aforementioned jobs for your brand, then you're at the right place. Click here to get a demo of EasySocial now and see how these bots can change your brands' customer engagement game and crush the sales numbers!