Why Video is the Best Customer Experience for Conversational Commerce

Conversational Commerce is a popular retail trend that refers to the use of messaging apps, chatbots, and other artificial intelligence-powered technologies to enable consumers to interact with businesses. From a commercial standpoint, the idea is known by similar names such as conversational marketing, conversational shopping, etc. However, the cornerstone of conversational commerce is founded on tried-and-true tactics — having a conversation and thinking of the client first.

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The Age of User Experience

Consumer retention in today's age is directly linked to a nice user experience. Deloitte’s 2022 retail tech report explains “Digital tools must elevate the consumers' human experience. For an interaction to lead to loyalty and drive future business, it must create a positive and rich memory."

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Conversational Commerce in 2023 

The global spend for conversational commerce across OTT platforms, such as WhatsApp or WeChat, will increase from $13.3 billion in 2022 to $25.1 billion in 2023, according to a recent analysis by Juniper Research. Retail and eCommerce verticals who are prioritizing the next level of online customer experience, will be the driving forces behind this rise of 89%.

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Conversational Commerce is growing so much in popularity there are subsets to it. One of these subsets is “human conversational commerce”. 

Human conversational commerce refers to the use of human-powered conversations to facilitate online transactions and customer service interactions. This can include live chat or video chat with customer service representatives, as well as social media interactions with brands. Human conversational commerce has the advantage of being able to provide a more personalized and human-like experience for customers, as human agents are able to understand and respond to customer inquiries and concerns in a way that chatbots and other artificial intelligence-powered technologies may not be able to. 

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A Match Made in Heaven 

By utilizing both human and artificial intelligence-powered technologies in their conversational commerce strategy businesses create an optimal user experience. This will provide a more efficient and personalized shopping experience for their customers.

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Video Commerce 

1:1 video commerce refers to a shopping experience in which a customer is connected with a personal shopper or sales representative via video chat in order to receive personalized assistance with their purchase. This can include product recommendations, post-purchase help, virtual try-ons, and other interactive features that enhance their shopping experience. 

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Conversational Commerce + Video Commerce 

Combining conversational commerce with video commerce can provide a more interactive and personalized shopping experience for customers. Here are a few specific ways in which businesses can combine these two approaches:

1. Chatbots or other conversational AI technologies can be used to handle routine customer inquiries and requests, freeing up human agents to handle more complex tasks and provide a more personalized shopping experience for customers.
2. Live video support: Chatbots or other conversational AI technologies can be used to categorize a customers need and connect them with the ideal agent for live video support. This can allow both customers and businesses to have an efficient shopping experience.
3. Using chatbots or other conversational AI technologies to provide product recommendations and assist with the purchase process. Uptok’s intelligence is able to highlight which consumers on your website are “serious shoppers” vs browsing. Once a customer shows high interest in products associates are able to connect via live video chat to showcase the products and provide demonstrations. 
4. Enhanced conversational commerce experience: When customers are able to connect with a human agent through video chat, you will see them give a sigh of relief. More times than not customers want to simply speak to a real human, there is value to AI but a conversation between people is unparalleled– add a face to that conversation and you're on another level with customer experience. Video chat can help to build trust and credibility and create a more personal connection with the brand.
5. Provide personalized product recommendations to customers based on their preferences and purchase history, as determined by a chatbot or other conversational AI technology. Enabling customers to have live face-to-face conversations with product experts to further assist customers with their purchase. Leading to a seamless customer brand experience and increasing brand loyalty.   

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