Millions of people around the world connect with each other using mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp, iMessage and Facebook Messenger, and there are now more active users on messaging platforms than email or the internet. Savvy brands are taking notice.
In the past, companies relied on direct mail and phone calls to reach customers. In the digital era, organizations connected with customers digitally via emails, mobile apps and social media. But with digital noise increasing, these methods are becoming less effective.
Enter the chat era, in which brands and customers can connect, interact, and transact with each other on trusted mobile messaging apps. Organizations can not only serve customers better via these messaging channels, they can also facilitate payments without the need for their customers to make payments in physical stores, on websites or another app.
This new ecommerce trend is known as chat commerce or conversational commerce with payment capabilities, and it’s the future of digital commerce. Why? Because there are more consumers on messaging platforms than any other digital interface, and brands can now provide these customers a full commerce experience within their favorite messaging app (SMS, WhatsApp and Apple Messenger, etc.) Just as importantly, this capability enables brands to deliver personalized and seamless shopping experiences that improve customer satisfaction, drive revenue conversion and increase loyalty.
Friction is the enemy of digital commerce
Consumers expect brands to provide simple and convenient shopping experiences. They don’t want to wait in line. They don’t want to be placed on hold. They certainly don’t want to download and learn how to use another app or wait for a website to load. The way many brands engage their customers through digital is clunky and inefficient, and it can be difficult for customers to navigate effortlessly. For example, websites with hidden links, invasive pop-ups and slow load times make transactions complicated and time-consuming, and cause customers to feel frustrated and dissatisfied. Poor digital experiences result in incomplete transactions, and even worse, lead to decreased customer engagement and loyalty. In fact, more than 60% of consumers say they abandon transactions due to poor user experience on a brand’s website.
Messaging apps offer a unique opportunity for brands to engage customers and facilitate transactions in real time. With messaging apps ranking among the most popular social platforms, organizations can connect with users in a highly engaging, secure and trusted environment to deliver the shopping experiences consumers crave.
For example, suppose a brand sends a personalized product recommendation to a customer via WhatsApp. The customer likes the product and clicks on the embedded link to learn more about the recommendation. From there, they purchase the product, make the payment and receive a digital receipt without ever leaving WhatsApp.
Chat commerce helps customers save time and effort, making their shopping experience more enjoyable and efficient. Customers can also ask customer service questions directly in the messaging app and receive personalized support. Fewer points of friction during online transactions decreases the chances of customers becoming frustrated and abandoning their items. Ultimately, a streamlined purchasing process through mobile messaging can help businesses improve customer experiences and drive sales.
3 considerations for supporting shopping experiences using mobile messaging platforms
Messaging apps drive significant revenue in digital commerce, but only if you know how to engage and assist customers. To help your business thrive within messaging channels, you’ll need to provide personalized and frictionless shopping experiences.
Here are three tips to level up your digital commerce strategy:
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Craft relevant messages. If you want customers to engage with your brand, you need to provide clear and concise information that resonates with their needs and interests. By gathering and analyzing customers' purchasing and browsing data, you can offer personalized product recommendations and promotions. When it comes to messaging apps, faster transactions are more effective, so relevant and timely messages are key to driving customer engagement and sales.
In addition to crafting personalized messages, it’s important to consider past conversations with customers. Exchanges within messaging channels are continuous threads of communication, so you should resume a conversation where it ended. Also, customers prefer to receive a variety of messages that peak their interests instead of being repeatedly exposed to the same ones. When your brand shares information that builds on past chats, it enables value-driven and personalized exchanges that increase customer trust and loyalty.
Additionally, this feature can support customer service representatives. Before replying to a customer inquiry, representatives can review previous messages to understand what information has already been shared so they can create relevant and contextualized messages. This means customers receive only the information they need, improving their overall experience with your brand. -
Create a seamless payment process. Customers value convenience and efficiency above all else. Eliminating the need for customers to switch between multiple branded apps or web pages to complete their transaction can help support the customer journey and reduce abandoned shopping carts.
To do so, offer integrated payment options and embed links directly into messages. And make sure to avoid linking to external landing pages, websites or apps because this increases friction points during the checkout experience. Instead, facilitate transactions within messaging apps so customers can finish complete purchases quickly without unnecessary hurdles or delays. -
Implement the right tools. Chat commerce presents an opportunity for your brand to build rapport and trust with your customers on interactive messaging apps. But if you’re not doing it right, your brand can send messages that go unopened or unread. Or worse yet, your messages may annoy customers and cause them to unsubscribe. So, you’ll need tools to personalize messaging, sustain back-and-forth conversations and enable fully in-app transactions.
For example, automated chatbot tools help you answer common customer inquiries and concerns in real time, freeing up customer service representatives to prioritize more complex customer questions. Automated, intuitive, conversational commerce journeys through the convenience of messaging can always be switched by the customer to a live agent when human interaction is needed. Similarly, integrated payment tools compatible with mobile messaging platforms can help you facilitate and accept payments in apps. When you use automated chat and payment processes on mobile messaging platforms, it increases the speed and efficiency of transactions, leading to more satisfied customers.
Unlock the power of messaging apps
Chat commerce is paving the way for organizations to connect and serve customers where they are. As more brands look to innovate and expand their digital commerce capabilities, messaging channels will increasingly provide convenient, frictionless, effortless and streamlined shopping experiences to users.
