The Importance of Conversational Commerce

What is Conversational Commerce?

Conversational commerce is the act of connecting with your customers through chat and messaging apps while they’re shopping. And while the name seems simple enough, there’s an art to truly connecting with your customers in this way.

Conversational commerce allows people to talk with a live representative from a company during their buyer’s journey. This intimate option allows each individual customer to get detailed answers to questions, personalised product recommendations, and customer support - all through conversation.

Is Conversational Commerce New?

Conversational commerce isn’t exactly new, but its popularity has been on the rise for the last two years and saw an unprecedented surge during the recent pandemic. 

Prior to the pandemic, chat eclipsed email as the most popular form of communication globally. A study by the research firm Juniper showed that by mid-2016 the number of instant messages sent outnumbered emails, and the trend has only continued.

More than ever, people are entrenched in messaging apps for their daily communication. When the world was shut in, people began relying on chat apps as a pillar of communication. People were using apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp to not only stay in touch with family and friends but also to stay connected to their employers and co-workers. 

Additionally, without the ability for people to visit stores in person, they took the web to buy what they needed. The logical progression was for people to adopt the expectation that businesses would provide a way to communicate with them quickly and easily to emulate an in-store experience. Companies with live chat options thrived, and others fell behind.

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What are the Benefits of Conversational Commerce?

There are many benefits to conversational commerce, but at the top of the list is truly connecting with your customers. 

By making communication dynamic and simple, you’re giving the customer an amazing experience, and you’re more likely to generate more revenue. Think about it: when a customer is conversing with someone from your team, you have their full attention. It’s like having them face to face with a physical employee in a brick-and-mortar store, just online. Customers can ask for help, purchasing advice, and feel more confident in their purchase. 

By making the sales experience convenient for the customer, you’re catering to what people want-- more than half of people who shop online say it’s due to the convenience. 

In addition to those benefits, conversational commerce is one of the easiest ways in the current market to stand out from your competition. But as we mentioned, those days are numbered as most savvy businesses are beginning to adopt live chat as part of their conversational strategy.

Is Conversational Commerce the Future of Retail?

Conversational commerce isn’t the future of retail-- it’s the present of retail. If you’re not implementing conversational commerce into your digital strategy, you’ve officially started falling behind.

In a recent study by 99 Firms, they uncovered that nearly 70% of customers will only buy from a brand that employs live chat. Additionally, the research revealed that by 2022, 85% of businesses are expected to adopt live chat.

As highlighted early in this article, many of the consumer purchasing habits created from the pandemic are here to stay and direct engagement with a brand is one of those habits likely to remain going forward.

Get Your eCommerce Toolkit Now (It’s Free)

Are you ready to take your eCommerce strategy to the level of quality your customers deserve and increase revenue in the process?

To see more in-depth details on the points above you should check out our 2021 eCommerce report.

Even though we use the word “report” this is a toolkit, survival guide, and checklist you can use to equip yourself and future-proof your eCommerce strategy.

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