How retail brands are using conversational commerce

How retail brands are using conversational commerce

Online retailers can utilise the power of communication to offer their goods and services through conversational commerce, sometimes called chat commerce or conversational marketing. Whether a chat app, chatbot, voice assistant, or messaging platform is used to give the conversational experience to a potential customer, as long as it is tailored, beneficial, and drives the customer through the sales funnel, it achieves its function. Brands may make up for the lack of a personal touch in their online businesses by using conversational commerce. That applies to the kind of content customers receive and the absence of a friendly store clerk.

Business executives from numerous retail companies reported that by employing conversational commerce solutions like WhatsApp, they had enhanced consumer relationships and experiences. They participated in a panel discussion at the Internet Commerce Summit (ICS) 2022, which is taking place in Bengaluru on December 13–14, about “Driving Quality Conversations throughout the Customer Shopping Journey.” More than 100 speakers are anticipated to keep the audience enthralled on Tuesday and Wednesday of the summit’s sixth edition, which began on Tuesday.

“Conversational commerce is all about using chat as a channel of interaction within brands and its users for customer acquisition and support,” said moderator Anila Rao, VP-APAC of Haptik, an Indian enterprise conversational AI platform. “There are 575 million people in India are actively using WhatsApp, and when we speak about chat as a channel, it is always synonymous with WhatsApp,” she added.

TT Venkatesh, DGM Retail, TTK Prestige, explained how his business uses chat, saying, “Right now, we use chat to provide information for clients, so it will allow them to identify stores, find service centres, and contact us.”

The panellists talked about how conversational commerce grew during the pandemic when chat platforms became the primary way businesses communicate with their clients. Conversational “People started becoming more health aware under Covid. We thus reviewed our approach to interacting with the public and educating them about our products and how they can improve their health and hygiene. Sachin Songaonkar, General Manager IT of Jockey India, stated, “We looked at WhatsApp and other chat mediums.

“The conversation, conversion and meaningfulness of a conversation depends on the sector, or the product are you looking at,” said Anil Menon, CIO of Lulu Group India.

Urban Ladder’s Chakradhar Reddy, Head of Digital Product, emphasised conversational commerce’s benefits. Customers depend on businesses to meet their countless requirements. They have several inquiries that need to be addressed. Customers can ask questions and receive answers via chat. His team conducts the pre-purchase process in this manner.

“For us to personalise a conversation, it is important to understand which part of the shopping journey they a customer is going through, and what should we do to close the barrier to make the conversion,” he said.

For the nation’s e-commerce and m-commerce sector, which combines new-age retailers from online retail, brick-and-mortar stores, goods and services commerce, and omnichannel, ICS is the only event of its type. Leaders and professionals from the burgeoning field of internet commerce gathered to discuss the tremendous cross-channel shift and the opportunities and challenges to win over the connected client.