With today’s innovations in technology, the business world continues to evolve. More and more avenues for businesses are popping up, and operations are no longer confined to physical stores. Shopping has been taken into the online world. Online stores and online business websites are gaining more and more popularity. It is imperative now that your business has an online presence. And in recent years, the business and technological industries have come up with another way to reach customers. It is not enough to just have a website anymore or even have accounts on different social media platforms. Studies say that their messaging apps have surpassed the time spent by consumers on other social networks. This is where conversational commerce comes in. It is a new innovative way on how to do business. This article will tell you all about conversational commerce, what benefits it provides for your business, and show you some samples.
What is Conversational Commerce?
As previously discussed, conversational commerce is a combination of messaging and shopping, or in your case, online selling. From the term itself, it involves conversations between you and your customers. This is a new way to market your products and serve your customers. Instead of just having a website for your business, you start and build a relationship with your customers through conversations. While it is usually done in different messaging apps, there are also other ways to do it. The premise of this marketing strategy is that you bring the business to your customers. That is, your primary way to sell your products is to personally reach out and/or accommodate your customers. You give them a chance to converse with you or your company representatives privately. You can address their concerns, answer their questions, get support, and eventually purchase through simple conversations. You can hire human resources to do all these things for you. Or you can program chatbots or artificial intelligence programs to accommodate your customer service requirements. Nevertheless, the whole point is that there are many conversational commerce platforms that you can use and take advantage of in your business. Finding what works best for you and your customers can significantly increase your customer satisfaction ratings and earn your more customers in the long run.
Why Conversational Commerce Is Helpful To Your Business?
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
There are many benefits of conversational commerce that we can enumerate to you. But basically, you want to be involved in it for one simple reason: You want to keep up with the latest trends in the industry. This isn’t just about staying “in” or fitting into the business world of today. Keeping up with the newest trend first and foremost means that you are adjusting your way of thinking and your way of doing business to better accommodate your customers. You do not do it just to stay trendy and be part of the popular crowd; you aren’t in high school anymore. You do it because it is the best choice for your business.
See, conversational commerce is gaining popularity because it provides such a convenient and satisfying experience to the customers. The fast and instant responses make customers feel the importance and prominence that they deserve. They do not have to go through all the trouble of scouring for information themselves, but rather, they could simply ask from you what they need to know. They also do not need to go through different steps and/or pages on a website to finally purchase the product they want. They could simply click, negotiate, and buy. This quickly encourages them more to go through with their transaction. This is only one of the many benefits of conversational commerce.
Conversational commerce also allows your customer access to virtually a personal shopper of theirs own. Because the products you or your representatives are tailored to the preferences of each customer, it can seem like they are personally assisted every time they want to make a transaction. You can also streamline your marketing efforts. That is, you can customize the advertisements you show to your customers based on present and previous conversations you had with them. This makes it easier for you to build up marketing plans. This can reduce the time and attention and even the costs of your marketing initiatives.
Becoming involved in conversational commerce also gives you the benefit of building long-lasting relationships with your customers. It helps you to more effectively earn their trust and loyalty. You are making them feel that they can rely on you and your help whenever they need it. This makes gathering customer feedback and reviews easier. You can quickly check in with them and gain insight into how their overall experience was. You can also ask them if they would potentially promote or recommend your products to other consumers.
Examples of Conversational Commerce
There are many conversational commerce platforms and initiatives that you can use for your business. These are a few suggestions of how you can reap the benefits of conversational commerce.
・Chat/Messaging
Images taken from Strikingly User’s Website
Customers enjoy being taken care of. They enjoy browsing through a collection of products that are tailored to their needs and preferences. One of the most prevalent conversational commerce platforms answers to this desire. Incorporating chatbots into your website or using messaging apps to sell and market your products put you in a prime position to realize the benefits of conversational commerce. You can use messaging apps like Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, and the likes. You can bring your store directly to your customer. A good feature that your customers enjoy is not having to leave these messaging apps to complete their purchases. They can browse and complete their transactions right there and then. Thus, your conversations go from promotions to a potential long-lasting friendship.
・Product Recommendations
Images taken from Strikingly User’s Website
Another conversational commerce platform you can use is to provide your customers with product recommendations. This presents your business as accommodating to a diverse customer base. If you can give your customers access to consult with experts and sales associates of your products, you can easily provide them a sense of comfort and safety. You can do this by displaying the brands associated with your store or with which you have a relationship. This would tell your customers what they can expect going in. You can tailor your website or your AI messaging to ask their style, preferences, or needs and customize the collection of products you show to them according to the category they chose. By making them comfortable, you can easily build relationships with them that would last for long periods. Building a loyal customer base is yet another one of the many benefits of conversational commerce.
・Customer Support
Image taken From Strikingly Product
The customer support industry has been growing tremendously in the last few years. It is not all too surprising since customers appreciate being heard and listened to whenever they have concerns. Yet another conversational commerce platform that you can utilize is incorporating a Live Chat feature in your website. With website builders like Strikingly, you can add this feature easily to your website. A customer support feature is much like having a customer service counter on your website. It allows customers to reach you or any of your representatives should they have any concerns, problems, or questions. You reach out to them and help them in going about your business website. Which ultimately translates to them as you taking care of them - your customers. You can even program AI chatbots to do this for you, so you can take advantage of these benefits of conversational commerce without much human interaction.
・Notifications and Updates
Image taken from Strikingly Product
For our last example of a conversational commerce platform that you can use, we go to your customers’ choice to receive notifications and updates. Do you know how online businesses usually ask for the email address of their customers for them to send updates regarding their new products or their services? Well, conversational commerce tells you to take it to the next level. Imagine how satisfying it would be to customers for them to choose the platform where they can receive these notifications. Doing so would give your customers the power and authority. They would feel like they are in control of their activities. This can help you build a sense of trust. This can also give you a much wider reach for your audience. If they let you in their accounts, it would only be right for you not to disappoint them.
Conversational commerce is one of the many innovations in the industry that you should really take advantage of. You can easily incorporate and use different conversational commerce platforms for your business that can help you reach more customers and significantly expand your business. And now that you have some background knowledge and information about conversational commerce and how it can help your business, you can get started on getting on that train to success. You can easily incorporate the examples of conversational commerce that we have given you in any of your Strikingly built websites. Sign up now and reap and enjoy the benefits of conversational commerce!
