Uncover Opportunities to Grow Your Business with Conversational Commerce

You’re on a quest to grow your business and deliver a world-class customer experience. Conversational commerce is the cost-effective, reliable channel you need to propel your mission.

The state of conversational commerce

Conversational commerce is a convenient way to engage your customers at scale; it’s surging on the back of a rapid increase in the number of smartphone users - expected to pass the five billion mark this year.

As one would expect. messaging apps are among the most widely used applications on these devices.

According to research from Nielsen, Facebook Messenger is the second most popular app for smartphones with WhatsApp leading the pack. And, as emerging economies make gains in smartphone ownership, an analysis from Pew Internet shows that WhatsApp dominates in most developing nations.

Smartphone users aren’t only using these apps to engage with family and friends either. They’re reaching out to businesses too. During this earnings call, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said Facebook users and businesses were exchanging over 8 billion messages each month.

According to statistics curated in Smooch’s State of Messaging 2019 report, consumers are mainly using messaging apps to:

• learn about a product or service: 83 percent,

• get support: 76 percent, and

• make a purchase: 75 percent.

The business benefits of conversational commerce

While conversational commerce appears to be a tantalizing option, let’s investigate the concrete benefits that it can deliver.

Ease, speed, and convenience

Customers in the digital economy won’t wait weeks, or even days, for a response. The Social Habit survey found when customers complained online, they wanted a response within 30 minutes. Conversational commerce amplifies these expectations.

Facebook research shows that customers using messaging to reach businesses expect a faster response than if they used a traditional channel. It’s also easier for customers to complete routine transactions themselves. An example of this is MTN Chat  - a partnership between MTN and Clickatell. MTN customers can use WhatsApp to complete transactions like buying airtime and checking their balances.

Global reach

Beyond the simplicity of the service, conversational commerce on WhatsApp offers unprecedented reach.

Figures from Statista provide a snapshot of the messaging landscape:

• WhatsApp leads the pack with 1.6bn

• Facebook comes in at second with 1.3bn

• WeChat has 1.09bn users

Now, if you thought that was staggering, consider that Statista projects the number of people using messaging apps on their mobile phones will grow to 2.48 billion users by 2021.

Given this kind of scale, it’s easy to see why major organizations across industries use WhatsApp in their conversational commerce strategies.

In finance, Clickatell is working with banks to foster financial inclusion, offering key services on WhatsApp. It means banks have eliminated many of the expenses that can come with serving more customers in several new locations. Using chat banking and conversational commerce, customers can check balances and conduct transfers wherever they are, at no significant cost to the bank.

Personalized customer service at scale

Along with reach and ease, conversational commerce delivers personalized customer service at scale.

And we know customers are willing to pay a premium for personalized service - a Deloitte study found customers would fork out more - and 48 percent would wait longer - for personalized services.

You can’t get more personal than conversational commerce: you’re creating a direct line to your customer on a platform they already love.

Grow your business with WhatsApp and conversational commerce

Your customers expect fast, reliable, and easy communication options. Conversational commerce using a platform like WhatsApp provides reach to more than one billion customers. On top of that, it’s easy to integrate, secure, and affordable.  Learn more about how you can deliver a superior customer experience with our WhatsApp for Business integration.