Chat Retail Solutions for Increased Sales and Exposure

“It’s 2019 and the term “omnichannel” is still bandied around in retail circles. This is simply because it’s the future of the retail industry. As already mentioned, consumers no longer distinguish between online and offline shopping. They may start shopping in one and checkout in either.” – Finances Online 

There’s no doubt that the past few years have impacted consumer behaviour. And with the dust settling somewhat, trends in retail are starting to become more evident. Brand loyalty is not what it used to be as customers now look for convenient experiences over familiar but laggard processes, which means that companies need to keep up with emerging technology. As a McKinsey report on shopping behaviour notes, digital shopping is here to stay, and with consumer spending on the rise, companies need to offer an effective retail digital experience – like Chat Commerce!

What is Chat Commerce?

Chat Commerce takes the benefits of conversational commerce and advances it for a better customer experience. While both Chat Commerce and conversational commerce allow you to connect with your customers, respond to questions, make suggestions, and process commercial transactions, Chat Commerce allows transactions directly in the mobile messaging app. Clickatell, who developed the world’s first Chat Commerce telecommunications solution, has enabled Chat Commerce for retail, baking, and so much more. All payments made through Chat Commerce are convenient and completely secure.

What are the benefits of Chat Commerce?

 “What truly makes for a good experience? Speed. Convenience. Consistency. Friendliness. And one big connector: human touch—that is, creating real connections by making technology feel more human and giving employees what they need to create better customer experiences.” - PwC

 As consumer spending increases, so does consumer discernment, which means that there’s massive competition to provide customers with the best retail digital experience. Here’s why Chat Commerce is meeting that need. 

• Personalisation: With Chat Commerce you’re able to engage with customers through personal messages. This connection makes for a much more immersive shopping experience that will build brand loyalty. 

• Automation: Free up your call centre agents by automating information that is required repetitively. Your product information, order notifications, and payments can be placed on autopilot for a more seamless customer experience. 

• Contactless commerce: With Chat Commerce, customers benefit from in-chat purchases, product information, curb-side pick-ups, and real-time transactions – all through the mobile phone.

• Cost savings: The automated features and seamless transactions will lower the costs of running a business.

• Partnerships: With Chat Commerce, you can enable partner offerings such as digital goods. 

• Mobile-friendly: Your customers are already searching for products and prices on their phones, so why not let them buy there as well? Chat Commerce is a completely mobile-friendly solution.

• User-friendly: You don’t have to be tech-savvy to understand how to use WhatsApp or SMS, which is why Chat Commerce is ideal, taking your customers from product search to sale on the messaging apps they already use every day.

How to increase sales with Chat Commerce

These incredible benefits will bring your business into the digital age, providing the customer care and support needed to drastically increase your retail sales. But how you use Chat Commerce is what makes all the difference. So to get you started, here are some tips for using Chat Commerce. 

1.  Provide recommendations

One of the best ways to set yourself apart in retail is to provide useful insight into your products and offerings – all of which can be done through Chat Commerce. By guiding customers on what you offer, you’re bringing them that much closer to purchasing the product. 

2. Promotions and discounts

You can let customers know about the latest product promotions and discounted offers as a way to drive sales. Consider sharing limited time offers, particularly ahead of the busy season like Black Friday and Christmas. When you’re using the Clickatell Chat Commerce platform, you’re also able to gather data related to your customers so that you can tailor the promotions for higher sales.

3. Keep customers updated

When your customers have made their purchase, you can then use Chat Commerce to keep them updated on product shipping, delivery times and more. This real-time communication is particularly important when there are any sudden changes like weather-related delays and more.  

4. Quicker response to customers

The competition in retail is extremely tough which is why you need to give customers what they want when they want it. That means using Chat Commerce to respond to any customer queries, whether through automated FAQ responses or live responses.

5. Encourage customer feedback

Use Chat Commerce to find out what your customers like, what they don’t like, and what you could be doing better. Nobody understands the customer experience better than the customer, so you should really be using Chat Commerce to send quick after-sales surveys for better decision-making.

Why choose the Clickatell Chat Commerce platform?

As an industry leader in mobile commerce, Clickatell enables you to create an omnichannel retail experience that increases sales and exposure. Chat Commerce can be implemented from simple SMS to advanced messaging using chat apps like WhatsApp. The Clickatell Chat Commerce platform allows you to:

• Send notifications at scale through SMS API: Using SMS API you can reach a global audience, providing customers with real-time notifications, updates, alerts, promotions, and OTPs. 

• Advanced messaging allows you to provide a more engaging customer experience by sending relevant, helpful, actionable messages and automating certain business processes. 

• Resolve queries without the hassle of a phone call through Clickatell’s automation solutions. This means that your customers can get the necessary support in the way they prefer – anytime and anywhere. 

• Get transferred and chat with a real person where necessary. This reduces the frustration of dealing with call centre queues or automated responses that aren’t giving customers what they need.

The Clickatell Chat Commerce platform enables a convenient and contact-free chat payment experience, that makes finalising that sale so much simpler. It offers an end-to-end solution, in partnership with Visa Cybersource, that creates a superior customer journey by enabling payments with a simple, quick link sent via SMS or WhatsApp.