At Meet Magento Dubai recently, I moderated a panel about Digital Platforms and their impact on transformation, especially in emerging markets. It struck me that despite the work of some very gifted product people around the world, innovation often comes from the most unlikely sources.
Someone said, (It might have been Tom Peters or Peter Drucker) that:
Innovation is the wrong person using the wrong product for the wrong purpose at the wrong time.
Of course that was in the days before Big Data and having a near perfect view of the customer, but there are still occasions where this happens.
Take Ecommerce. The customer journey is familiar and unchanged from prehistoric times. Search. Add to basket. Checkout. To that end, most of the commerce platforms like Magento and Shopify etc… are commoditised to a degree – which is why they are focusing on a more holistic experience and not just the cart.
But behaviour changes. For over 20 years, every year has been the year of mobile, but the mobile first or mobile only experience is still not taken seriously by many companies. Which brings us nicely to the rise of messaging as part of people’s digital behaviour.
Conversational Commerce
Messaging is not new. The ‘accidental’ SMS industry was built on a need for people to chat to each other, even if its only 160 characters at a time. In 1999, I joined a start-up in London that developed messaging ‘apps’ and ‘bots’ using SMS. Yes. In 1999 it was possible to have a ‘conversation’ with a machine to get things done. However – at 5 cents or 10 cents a message (depending on your plan), it was expensive.
The success of WhatsApp and WeChat makes sense in this context. People what to have a conversation. But does that translate to transacting online?
Several companies, including messaging provider LivePerson are trying to own a new segment called Conversational Commerce. And while they are pushing Enterprise scale solutions, SMEs have already done it – using WhatsApp and WeChat.
View this post on Instagram
#conversationalcommerce … It’s already here. No fancy solutions, just WhatsApp and a fridge magnet.
Yes, the three local supermarkets near me all offer shopping by WhatsApp. Send a message which a photo or description of what you want, have a chat with one of the people in the store. 10 minutes later it arrives at the door with a card-machine or to take payment in cash.
The great thing about this from a customer journey point of view? I already have WhatsApp – I don’t need to download a specific app. Rather than forcing me to change my behaviour, the retailer is changing to serve me better.
Personalisation – sorted. Not through an algorithm, but through good old fashioned customer service and merchandising. Multilingual. Done. Send your message in English, Arabic or Tagalog and get an almost instantaneous response. Some of the stores even send weekly specials and promotions to people who have bought using this ‘channel’.
Now, does it scale? Perhaps not. But would I rather buy from a local store who chats to me on WhatsApp or deal with a slick branded operation for the masses? When it comes to my weekly groceries – the former.