Why Conversational Commerce Isn’t Just a Buzzword
Conversational commerce empowers online shoppers to engage directly with their favorite brands. Far beyond traditional chatbots, it meets shoppers wherever they are and provides them with what they need in real-time.
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It probably isn’t the first time you've heard about conversational commerce. It has been a trending topic in the world of e-commerce for a while now, as instant communication has become increasingly crucial. What recently changed, though, is the remarkable advancement in AI and LLMs, taking conversational commerce capabilities to new heights.
That's why brands that fail to embrace this trend risk falling behind. Let's take a look at what conversational commerce is, how it works, the reasons for implementing it, and what lies ahead in the future.
What Is Conversational Commerce?
Conversational commerce creates engaging online shopping experiences with the help of AI, machine learning, and natural language processing. It gives e-commerce businesses more opportunities to open a dialogue with potential customers, just like a sales rep would do in a brick-and-mortar store.
Beyond an impersonal pop-up on your website, conversational commerce connects your brand with shoppers at each step of their journey and creates personalized interactions, from product discovery to purchase. This is because chatbots are no longer reactive only. They are becoming proactive and can drive conversions by actively engaging with shoppers in natural language.
How Does It Work?
You can implement conversational commerce through the use of chatbots, messaging apps, or other automation technologies that enable you to communicate with customers in a more natural way. One thing is for sure: to be truly personalized and feel natural, conversational commerce needs to rely on generative AI.
Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can handle customer interactions, offer personalized product suggestions, and respond to specific requests by imitating natural language. Generative AI chatbots are trained on extensive datasets, making them versatile in conversations. They also generate text responses rather than relying solely on pre-programmed or rule-based responses, enabling them to have dynamic and open-ended conversations.
“Generative AI chatbots are game- changers. Previous generations of chatbots forced users to jump through hoops trying to get the bot to understand them. These new chatbots, underpinned by sophisticated AI, have dramatically changed the dynamics. Now, it's the technology that molds itself to understand the user, not the other way around. If you blink you might think you're chatting to a human sales rep, not a computer!” Matthew Gertner, Founder and CEO, Salsita.
Conversational Commerce Is A Win-Win For Shoppers and Sellers
It is clear that conversational commerce streamlines the shopping experience by sparing customers from the tedious tasks of reading long product descriptions, searching through your website, writing emails, or receiving canned answers from a traditional bot. But it’s also much more than that for your own strategy.
By enabling shoppers to engage with a chatbot or messaging platform, you can collect invaluable data regarding their preferences and behavior. There is no better way for you to refine your marketing strategy, personalize the experience, and improve retention than by accessing the conversations they're having about your products and brand.
Moreover, using AI for conversational commerce can help you save on operational costs. By automating tasks, it frees up time for your support team and sales reps to focus on more important tasks that push your business forward.
The Future Of Conversational Commerce
Conversational commerce is set to play an increasingly central role in the shopping experience as AI technology continues to improve and shoppers are getting more familiar with it. First, if we check global spending on conversational commerce, we can observe that it was $41 billion in 2021, but will soar to $290 billion by 2025, showing a remarkable increase in just four years.
Looking at improvements in Generative AI, ChatGPT quickly became the fastest-growing software in history, grabbing a hundred million users within two months of its launch. This sparked a race among tech giants like Microsoft and Google, pushing advancements even faster. Plus, Generative AI gets better with user feedback, and as more feedback pours in daily, it keeps getting better.
On their side, online shoppers have already embraced conversational commerce and won't settle for anything less. Data reveals that 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions, with 83% willing to share personal data to facilitate more personalized experiences. They're also getting accustomed to generative AI chatbots, with 76% open to AI assistants answering their questions.
Transform Your Online Sales with a Conversational Configurator
If you sell customizable products online—be it custom furniture, bespoke jewelry, or custom railings—displaying your product features and options in 3D is essential. In fact, more than 8 in 10 shoppers prefer to interact with 3D when given the choice. On the other hand, 3D configurators can intimidate users with too many customization options.
So, how can you effectively showcase modular or intricate products in 3D without causing user overload? By blending advanced 3D visuals and customization options with live AI assistance, you can turn complex design tasks into straightforward conversations, making the configuration easy even for first-time users.
Salsita unleashes customers’ creativity with conversational configurators, combining advanced 3D configurators with conversational UI to create a compelling user experience. Users are guided by an AI design assistant with extensive knowledge of the product, company, and configurator. The AI actively asks questions, offers recommendations, and provides invaluable help. And with the continued rise of mobile shopping, users can even opt for the voice-activated feature to talk to the AI instead of typing.
Do you want to transform your online sales with Salsita Conversational Configurator? Reach out to us below!
