Conversational Commerce

For a very long time the brick and mortar retail could be considered what I would call conversational commerce in that there was a give and take type of interaction between the consumer and the sales associate. This was disrupted with the entry of eCommerce bringing online sales and also a push towards cost savings in the the brick and mortar market that all but eliminated the give and take. Recently though I see a resurgence in in the conversation in the omni market between the consumers and starting to see an increase in the virtual personalized service which leads me to believe that the retail marketplace is on the cusp of a return to the conversational commerce practice. I see the entry of the 5g wireless network capabilities and the growth of the unlimited data as two driving factors that will push this over the tipping point.




In the last few months I have experienced a semi-personalized retail experience with an online retailer that made me rethink the potential for conversational commerce in this omni marketplace with the growth and expansion of consumer utilization of technology. This online retailer uses a combination of email that was personalized based on the service and the potential sale and then continued follow-up using both personalized email with special offers and targeted text messages with special offers. These are not uncommon things by any means, however this retailer used the combinations of technologies to try to create a direct and personalized message. This made me think about the potential available from tools and technology in combinations to create direct and personalized messages to create a conversational shopping and sales experience.




The goal of the eCommerce retailer is the customer return and the ability to keep the customer on the site for a longer period of time. This goal is necessarily expanded for the omni market retailer to encourage the customer to not only return to the eCommerce site but also to return to the store for shopping and purchasing. This enticement to return is much greater when customer is engaged in a personalized conversation with the retailer that is continuously reaching out for reaction and interaction with the customer. This conversation requires a strategy plan to utilize the social networking tools, email and texting in a coordinated manner the engages the customer cohesively across the tools and the channels. This requires an increase in focused customer service human support to both identify and coordinate the conversation topics focused on individual customer shopping and purchasing habits. This is where the big data and AI technologies play a critical role to help the retailer identify the these conversation topics and then to track and revise the conversations based on the responses.




I see this conversational commerce as a coming major disrupter in the retail marketplace and the retailers that have been focused on AI and data analysis will be the retailers that are best prepared. This is another development that does not require a great deal for the initial entry, however the retailers that invest early in the technologies and participate in the early discovery aspects of the conversational commerce will be the retailers that thrive in the coming years. This will also be the retailers that are best prepared for the next wave of change and disruption.