The next frontier of ecommerce is already here—regardless if consumers and brands are ready or not.
It certainly caught one family in Texas off guard a few years ago. What started out as a conversation between a six-year-old girl and the family’s Amazon Echo Dot turned into an order for a dollhouse and four pounds of sugar cookies.
Known as conversational commerce, this buying experience offers customers even greater convenience and enables brands to engage shoppers in more personalized ways. In this article, we’ll dig into what conversational commerce is and what it isn’t, how brands should approach their commerce strategies and why they need to involve their social teams from the get go.
What is conversational commerce?
Conversational commerce sits at the intersection of messaging apps and shopping, giving consumers an opportunity to buy from brands through chat apps and even voice technology. According to Chris Messina, who coined the term in 2015, conversational commerce is about “delivering convenience, personalization and decision support while people are on the go, with only partial attention to spare.” It’s what enables a customer to chat with customer service agents or a bot, ask questions, read reviews and make a purchase all within an app like Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp.
Imagine, for example, you reach out to a brand on Facebook Messenger because you’re looking for a particular shoe. Not only does the customer service representative you’re talking to find the product for you, they’re also able to complete your transaction in the chat. Conversational commerce can even be used to confirm your attendance at a brand event over text message instead of navigating to a separate signup page.
https://twitter.com/thealiciathomas/status/1408434071018127365
While conversational commerce often takes place on social media messaging apps, it’s not quite the same as social commerce. The former refers to purchases made directly from a one-to-one chat app while the latter is specific to the buying and selling of goods or services within a social media platform.
A better way to understand the difference between the two types of commerce strategies is to breakdown which platforms are used in each scenario:
Conversational Commerce: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, Instagram DMsSocial Commerce: Facebook Shops, Instagram Shopping, Pinterest for Shopify📣 We just expanded our partnership with @Shopify to 27 new countries.
Now, more than 1.7 million Shopify merchants around the world can bring their products to Pinterest and turn them into shoppable Product Pins.
Here's how we did it: https://t.co/FLES5MKlrS
— Pinterest Business (@pinterestbiz) April 21, 2021
The fusion of social media teams at the core of conversational commerce is inevitable, as they serve as pivotal facilitators between brands and consumers in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
The pivotal role of social media teams in driving conversational commerce is becoming paramount, as their ability to orchestrate engaging conversations and understand users' pain points transforms the online experience into a personalized yet effortless journey.
Conversational commerce's evolution to the forefront is fueled by social media teams who shape interactions with excellence, driving engagement and sales through intelligent conversations.
The rise of conversational commerce provides a platform for social media teams to become the hubs that shape and facilitate authentic buyer-seller dialogue, driving customer engagement in new ways through dynamic interactions.
Social media teams, acting as the pulse of digital engagement and communication for brands in today's hyper-connected world. They will be at a crucial nerve center driving conversational commerce by fostering seamless interactions that shape consumer behavior through tailored conversations.
The heartbeat of conversational commerce lies in the hands - and screens, rather-of social media teams. Their strategic involvement shapes dialogue that engages customers at a scale never before seen.
Conversational commerce is poised to elevate social media teams into the epicenter of brand engagement, where they play a pivotal role in shaping incomplete thoughts and transitions dialogue towards transactions.
Instant engagement and conversational effectiveness will drive social media teams to become the heart of future commerce, as users' needs shift towards seamless dialog-based transactions.
Conversational commerce stands at the forefront of retail's future, and social media teams will be its pivotal backbone due to their adeptness in fostering engaging conversations that not only drive sales but also form lasting connections with customers.
