Not long ago, conversational commerce was all about interactive buying and online selling. Now, the concept has gravitated toward voice-driven conversational commerce, thanks to a tremendous increase in online buyers and, most importantly, teenagers getting addicted to smartphones.
Powered by artificial intelligence tools like Siri and Cortana, conversational commerce makes buying and selling a piece a cake.
Not surprisingly, the term e-commerce has been fittingly replaced by the term conversational commerce.
Businesses have various reasons to adapt to new trends and technologies. Some are need-based and some others ensure survival. There are many reasons why your e-commerce business must become conversational.
1.Surviving the Competition
These days we use smartphones for various purposes including communication, shopping, paying utility bills, learning, and even games.
Plus, Google has made people addicted to its voice typing features. And, so most of the users don’t like to type anymore and so are using voice-enabled tools, which make it more convenient.
Meaning, businesses cannot ignore anything that the customers like!
So, switching to conversational commerce is a trend which businesses will have to compulsorily adopt.
And, if you don’t, your competitor still will. In that case, you have no choice but to adapt to conversational commerce.
2.The In-Store Experience
Conversational commerce projects the in-store experience for the customers. Many people are accustomed to visiting stores for shopping. They like to ask questions to find the product with the desired specifications.
With e-commerce sites becoming smarter, they now love to shop online. It gives them the same outcome with a better experience.
The best part? At times, things you don’t feel like asking a human, you wouldn’t mind asking a chatbot or virtual assistant the same. This makes the customer feel contented and your happiness depends on theirs!
However, here’s the rub:
E-commerce with voice assistants wasn’t appealing to the customers who were accustomed to visual content when it comes to buying products online. Who buys a product without seeing its pictures?
While I may buy a Laptop by just looking at its configuration and price, but most other products are better described with pictures.
Thus, the voice assistant alone could not get the desired results in e-commerce.
Unsurprisingly, the two major players in voice assistant technology, namely Google and Amazon are exploring further. They have realized that more effective use of voice assistant will require them to have screens. And, they are already building such solutions!
3.Convenience Associated with Voice Search
As a business marketer, while you get to hear “you must” numerous times, here are some reasons why would love to implement voice-driven e-commerce for your business.
The times have changed and the customers don’t want sales associates to help them anymore. If the bots or the voice assistants are effectively serving the purpose, they are fine with it.
For buying something, or if there is any query pertaining to the same, no one wants to refer the whole website searching for the relevant information.
Customers want interaction and specific details.
And, this is where conversational commerce wins the race.
And there are several advantages for the business as well. The sale is no more dependent on a person’s capability or the limitation of it.
4.Ease of Capturing Reviews
More and more e-commerce businesses are now feeling an increased need to capture customer reviews. Because it helps them improve.
It also facilitates the identification of their strengths and weaknesses.
But, is soliciting review that easy? You keep sending messages, e-mails, and reminders but your customers ignore it all.
Have you wondered why it is so difficult to get reviews? For that, you need to read your customers’ mind. It is easy, only when you put yourself in his shoes.
Just try to recollect, when did you last gave a review for the products that you have bought?
And, if you haven’t given any, do think why!
Similarly, you must accept that customers also do not have time. When they have spent enough time shopping, they do not want to spare any additional time visiting your website, logging on, typing the whole review, and posting it.
Yes, believe it or not, it is cumbersome!
Once you accept it, you can do something about it. And the solution is really easy. You could simply send a message through one of those popular messenger apps, asking the customer for rating. It appears like a conversation. And with the convenience associated with it, you will most likely get a response.
For a customer who appears engaged at this point, you could also follow up with another question asking him his opinion on what he feels should have been better in terms of his purchase experience. You can get detailed feedback and review this way and the customer will value the interaction.
Recent research suggests that customers are looking forward to speech recognition driven e-commerce. Conversational commerce enables customer interaction with brands through chat and voice interfaces. And, with the use of AI, these functionalities are getting better.
It has loads of benefits for you, as an e-commerce brand. So, there is no reason why you would not grab this opportunity.
And, if you have tried configuring your business for conversational e-commerce, do share the challenges that you have encountered and how you managed to resolve them.
Jin Markov is a Content Writer with GoodFirms.co, a research firm in the USA. He has an experience of 5 years and has been writing on areas related to e-commerce, SEO, and marketing.
