As conversational commerce enters the scene, are you ready?
If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that most everything can be procured, bought, and delivered online. Even as some signs of the pandemic wane, consumers have shown us that they’re much more comfortable shopping online than ever before.
So when it comes to selling your brand’s products or services online? Are you ready? And we’re not just talking e-commerce or social commerce!
Read on to find out how conversational commerce is upping the social media game.
E-Commerce Versus Social Commerce
You probably know what e-commerce is. It’s the act of buying and selling goods online. However, if you partake in e-commerce, you know that the cart abandonment rate is high. In fact, it hovers at nearly 70%!
As we know from our paid media clients, their goal is to bring that number down. With more and more purchases being made online, how can you make your checkout process easier?
Enter social commerce. Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest all now have social commerce features. And more are coming. Essentially, you connect your e-commerce solution with your social commerce platform(s) of choice.
- Facebook Shops
- Instagram Shops
- Product Pins (Pinterest)
Over 50% of consumers learn about new brands on social media. Would a social commerce shop help ease some of those abandoned carts? It’s likely.
Plus, by allowing your community to buy directly from you on the social channels they already interact with you on, you’re reducing extra steps/clicks for them!
More On Social Commerce
First, it’s important to grasp social commerce because it leads into today’s main topic: conversational commerce.
Not only does using social intelligence help you understand your customers better, it can help you with your entire customer journey. Looking at your customer journey on social media, look at all of the places where conversations exist during each state.
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Purchase
- Retention
- Advocacy
- Read our full post on the customer journey here
Additionally, there’s also shopping through your livestream. This is where a video stream and a group chat come together to create what’s being called livestream shopping. I’ve seen this ALL OVER Instagram and can bet that it’s going to be huge for interactive social commerce.
E-commerce is rapidly changing, whether you’re ready or not.
Conversational Commerce
Finally, then, we come to conversational commerce. It’s the natural evolution of e-commerce based on some of the advances, like social commerce or livestream shopping.
If you think about consumers using social media, you also think about them conversing with brands. Many times, they do this by using
- Messaging apps (Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp)
- Voice technology (Alexa)
- Chatbots
From Shopify …
Consumers can chat with company representatives, get customer support, ask questions, get personalized recommendations, read reviews, and click to purchase all from within messaging apps. With conversational commerce, the consumer engages in this interaction with a human representative, chatbot, or a mix of both.”
Conversational commerce is able to bridge the gaps in the customer journey where the consumer requires an exchange. It is why customer care and professional community management are of the utmost importance for brands using social media (and commerce) today.
Conversational commerce can be used to …
- Answer questions
- Read reviews
- Confirm attendance
Ultimately, when used in conjunction with social commerce, conversational commerce can lead to purchases.
Conversational Commerce Versus Social Commerce
Next, a quick note on some differences between conversational commerce and social commerce.
Conversational commerce most often takes place on social media messaging apps. For example …
- Facebook Messenger
- Amazon Alexa
- Google Assistant
- Microsoft Cortana
- Instagram DMs
While social commerce is specific to the buying and selling of goods or services within a social media platform. Examples include …
- Facebook Shops
- Instagram Shopping
- Pinterest for Shopify
Finally, using conversational commerce, you can offer your shoppers personalized recommendations based on the conversation.
Professional Community Managers Are A MUST
Above all, to do conversational commerce right, you will need professional community managers at the ready. Certainly, they know your audience better than anyone. Moreover, brand voice is always at the tip of their tongue. Lastly, if you’re doing social right, they’ve likely seen your brand’s interactions with most customers.
In short, your social media team is more critical than ever if you plan on using social media for purchases.
#ThinkConversation, Even With E-Commerce
Here at B Squared Media, our motto is Think Conversation, Not Campaign. Sure, some may have thought that was marketing fluff. But as you can plainly see, even the future of e-commerce is conversational.
Your consumers already reach out on social media with customer service questions, issues, and feedback. Now, thanks to conversational commerce, you can turn those interactions into sales opportunities.
And who doesn’t love that?!
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