An improved digital customer experience is an excellent path to increased customer retention.
Conversational commerce not only allows buyers a faster experience but also creates a more seamless and convenient purchasing experience. What were once simple assistants are now intelligent learning systems thanks to AI, able to perform and solve complex tasks. As we all become increasingly more comfortable using tools like chatbots and voice-controlled devices at home and they continue to further mimic human interaction, the active user base and demand for these services will only continue to grow.
Global smart speaker revenues are expected to reach $17.4 billion by 2022 and messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp continue to grow with more than 1 billion active monthly users.
Given this trajectory, what does this mean for conversational commerce? Forward-looking, it is likely that every moment in a person’s life will have the opportunity to become a shoppable moment. Simply wish for something and it will be added to your cart, request more information by speaking to a device and it will be delivered. This process is known as ambient computing, which is the idea of an environment of data/AI/smart devices/humans all seamlessly interconnected.
While we haven’t fully entered that stage of commerce, having a conversational commerce strategy within your eCommerce operation is an important piece of the puzzle to remaining competitive as it is increasingly sought after by buyers. This means creating an interactive environment that compensates for the missing human touch typical of a brick-and-mortar store. What does using tools such as AI chatbots, personalized push notifications, and voice commerce to facilitate sales and increase average revenue per shopper look like today?
Creating a Conversation Commerce Strategy Within eCommerce
Today conversational commerce describes how a customer moves through a purchase using natural language with your brand. This can be various mediums such as text with chatbots, messaging bots, voice via a smart speaker, or even calling AI assistants on the phone. An added advantage is that not only can it facilitate purchases, but also double as a customer-service outlet providing a truly complete shopping experience.
The market size of the conversational AI market was worth USD 6.9 billion in the year 2021. It is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 23.4%, earning revenue of around USD 29.9 billion by the end of 2028. -BlueWeave Consulting
Consider conversational commerce part of your overarching eCommerce strategy that covers two main touchpoints:
- Chatbots: Currently the most used conversational commerce tool on the market. These AI-powered bots provide responses and recommendations for users via messaging channels either web or mobile-based.
- Voice: Data shows this sector is rapidly gaining traction thanks in large part to voice assistants like Google Home and Amazon Alexa. It is also increasingly popular for call centers to take on AI-powered assistants to replace the notoriously inflexible interactive voice response solutions. As technology continues to become more affordable and mainstream, we expect this area to see rapid growth in the coming years.
Want to ensure your conversational channels are introduced successfully?
Conversation Commerce Brings a Low-Barrier to Entry
Fortunately, improvements to machine-learning quality and affordability tools, are quickly emerging to meet the needs of businesses and brands to help them become more conversational at scale. This means artificial intelligence, voice computing technologies, and conversation-automation tools come with a low barrier to entry, helping them quickly become mainstream.
With the vast potential, it is time to consider your brand in the context of conversational commerce. At its heart, conversational commerce is about improving the customer experience- building a trustworthy and agile brand that is front of mind with the buyer. Ultimately, it also brings a personalized, in-store-like experience into the convenience of eCommerce.
Start a conversation with Echidna's experts to discuss putting a strategy in place, with brand guidelines around conversational commerce.
