Conversational commerce has rapidly gained popularity in recent years. With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the shift to digital channels, eCommerce businesses have been increasingly turning to conversational commerce to provide a more seamless and personalized shopping experience for their customers.
This approach utilizes messaging and chat interfaces to facilitate online shopping and transactions. By integrating conversational commerce into their eCommerce platforms, businesses can provide a more seamless and personalized shopping experience for their customers.
Buyers in B2B increasingly expect conversational commerce options on eCommerce sites. As consumers, they have become accustomed to messaging and chat interfaces in their daily lives and are beginning to expect the same level of convenience and engagement from eCommerce businesses.
In fact, a recent survey found that over 80% of consumers expect real-time assistance from businesses, and nearly 50% of consumers prefer to communicate with businesses via chat or messaging platforms. By offering B2B conversational commerce options, manufacturers can meet expectations and provide a more personalized and efficient shopping experience for their customers.
B2B Conversational Commerce: Use Cases and Benefits
B2B conversational commerce is an efficient and effective way for eCommerce businesses to engage with customers, streamline the shopping experience, and gather valuable data insights.
Personalization and Convenience
Businesses can engage with their customers in real-time and provide tailored recommendations based on their preferences and purchase history with messaging interfaces. This is particularly valuable in the B2B space, where businesses often have complex purchasing needs and require a high level of customer service.
B2B transactions often involve multiple decision-makers and require a high degree of customization, which can be difficult to achieve through traditional eCommerce channels. With messaging interfaces, businesses can engage with their customers in real-time and provide tailored recommendations and pricing based on their specific needs.
Based on buyer purchase history, preferences, and behaviors conversational commerce can also provide smart recommendations. This information can be used to identify opportunities for cross-selling and upselling and target marketing messages accordingly. For example, a B2B eCommerce business could use a messaging interface to recommend complementary products or services to a customer based on their previous purchases. Additionally, businesses can use conversational commerce to reach out to potential customers and provide them with personalized product recommendations.
Customer Support
By offering a messaging interface, businesses can provide their customers with quick and efficient support for any issues they may encounter. This can include troubleshooting technical issues, providing product recommendations, and addressing any concerns about pricing or shipping.
According to a survey conducted by Twilio, 9 out of 10 consumers want to use messaging to communicate with businesses, and 66% of consumers have made a purchase after a messaging interaction. These statistics demonstrate the potential for conversational commerce to drive sales and improve customer satisfaction in the B2B eCommerce space.
Customer Insights and Data
In addition to its potential benefits for customer service and sales, conversational commerce can also help businesses to gather valuable data on their customers. By analyzing the conversations that take place on messaging interfaces, businesses can gain insights into their customers' preferences, pain points, and purchasing habits.
Businesses can identify future opportunities in R&D or for cross-selling, upselling, and targeting their messaging accordingly. For example, a business might use a messaging interface to recommend complementary products or services to a customer based on their previous purchases. This can help to inform product development and marketing strategies, as well as improve customer retention and loyalty.
Inventory Management and Order Fulfillment
By integrating messaging interfaces with their inventory management systems, businesses can provide customers with up-to-date information on product availability and delivery times. This can help to improve transparency and reduce the risk of order cancellations or delays.
Conversational commerce can also be used to improve the efficiency of order fulfillment, providing their customers with real-time updates on their order status, answer any questions they may have, and address any issues that may arise. By automating routine tasks such as order processing and tracking, businesses can free up their support staff to focus on more complex issues. This can help to reduce response times and improve overall customer satisfaction.
According to a report by Juniper Research, the use of chatbots in eCommerce is expected to result in cost savings of over $7 billion per year by 2023. This highlights the potential for conversational commerce to reduce operational costs and improve efficiency in the B2B eCommerce space.
Considering B2B Conversational Commerce?
As more businesses look to expand on digital to meet the needs of their customers, conversational commerce is likely to become an increasingly important part of the B2B eCommerce landscape. If your company is exploring the possibilities of conversational commerce and needs expertise on integrating with your current commerce landscape, reach out to the team at Echidna to start a conversation.
