As technology continues to evolve, so do the methods of conducting business. E-commerce has transformed the way we shop, making it easier and more convenient than ever before. However, even as e-commerce has grown in popularity, it has become clear that there is still room for improvement. The rise of conversational commerce is one such improvement, which has the potential to revolutionize the way we shop online.
Conversational commerce refers to the use of chatbots, messaging apps, voice assistants, and other conversational interfaces to facilitate communication between customers and businesses. By integrating conversational interfaces into e-commerce, businesses can provide personalized and frictionless experiences to their customers, enabling them to interact with brands in a more human-like way. This approach is particularly useful for e-commerce, where the customer journey is often fragmented and complex.
Revolutionizing Customer Experiences: Walmart’s Move into Conversational AI
One company that has embraced conversational commerce is Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. Walmart has been experimenting with conversational interfaces since 2015 when it launched its chatbot on Facebook Messenger. This chatbot enabled customers to search for products, place orders, and track deliveries through a conversational interface. In 2017, Walmart expanded its conversational commerce efforts by partnering with Google to offer voice-activated shopping through Google Assistant. This allowed customers to add items to their Walmart shopping cart using only their voice.
Walmart’s conversational commerce efforts have had a significant impact on its e-commerce business. The chatbot on Facebook Messenger has been particularly successful, with over 40% of customers who interact with the bot making a purchase. Additionally, Walmart has reported that customers who use conversational interfaces spend on average 2.5 times more than those who don’t.
Unlocking the Power of Conversational Commerce
One of the key advantages of conversational commerce is that it enables businesses to provide a more personalized shopping experience. By using data analytics and artificial intelligence, conversational interfaces can learn about a customer’s preferences and behavior, and use that information to make personalized recommendations. This is particularly useful for e-commerce, where customers often have to sift through thousands of products to find what they’re looking for. With conversational interfaces, customers can simply ask for recommendations and receive tailored suggestions.
The ability to interact with customers in real-time is another benefit of conversational commerce. By using messaging apps or chatbots, businesses can provide instant service and answer customer queries quickly and efficiently. This is particularly useful for e-commerce, where customers may have questions about products or delivery times. And by providing real-time support, businesses can significantly reduce customer frustration while increasing overall customer satisfaction.
The purchasing experience in an online store can be confusing and complicated. Conversational commerce enables businesses to streamline the customer journey. By using conversational interfaces, businesses can guide customers all the way through to checkout, providing step-by-step guidance through the entire purchasing process and making online shopping easier and more intuitive.
Choosing the right AI assistant platform
One of the most exciting developments in conversational commerce is the emergence of AI-powered conversational agents like Alan AI. Alan AI is an AI-powered conversational agent that enables businesses to provide personalized and conversational experiences to their customers. By using natural language processing and machine learning, Alan AI can understand customer queries and respond in a way that feels human-like.
Alan AI is particularly useful for e-commerce, where customers may have complex queries that require a human-like understanding. For example, a customer may ask about the availability of a particular product in a specific color and size. Alan AI can understand the query and provide a personalized response, enabling the customer to complete their purchase in a seamless and frictionless manner.
The key advantage of Alan AI is that it is multimodal and enables businesses to scale their conversational commerce efforts quickly and efficiently.
