Messaging apps will be the new sales channel — here’s why

The Chinese giant of mobile text and voice messaging communication, WeChat, is now one of the largest standalone messaging apps in the world, with over 963 million monthly active users. The company started in 2011 as a simple messaging App but is now much more than that, allowing people to do anything and everything in China. The list of different things that are now possible to accomplish on WeChat is endless, from transfer money, to buy movie tickets, order a cab, order food or book train and plane tickets.

The company has put considerable focus in the area of payment and WeChatPay can now be used to transfer money between WeChat users, make seamlessly in-app purchases or even offline payments with participating retailers. The result is that WeChat, originally a Messaging app, has become a natural and widely used way to shop and book services.

Today China, tomorrow the world?

It’s expected that in mobile-first, mobile-only markets, such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand the model of WeChat will gain traction and people will use Messaging apps to make payments. It’s unsure if Europe and USA will follow the same trend. Messenger and WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, are the predominant messaging apps and Facebook’s messaging strategy appears to be a few steps behind where WeChat is at right now.

Despite the few steps behind, Facebook is on a similar path to WeChat and the first step was given at the beginning of last year when Facebook launched chatbots in his Messenger platform, allowing automatized interactions and giving the option for people to do payments directly through a credit card added to Messenger. Facebook is now announcing a similar path to WhatsApp.

Will people be willing to press the ‘buy’ button?

WhatsApp is taking its first steps with business-driven solutions, but the 1-and-a-half-year of chatbots in Messenger allow us to draw some conclusions. Since Facebook launched chatbots in Messenger, none gained worldwide traction, but many chatbots are showing signs this is the way to go and that users prefer to contact businesses through Messenger instead of more traditional methods. Among the benefits of a chatbot are:

• People don’t need to download an app;
• There’s no need to learn a new user interface;
• Frequently asked questions can be answered instantly;
• It’s easier to deliver a truly personalized user experience;
• It’s easier to re-engage with users;
• It’s always possible to handoff to a human agent, if necessary.

At HiJiffy we’ve been working with chatbots in Messenger for more than a year and we can clearly say that people are engaging more and more with chatbots. Even users who are using chatbots for the first time are willing to make reservations and pay directly on Messenger. We are still in the early days, but our day-to-day experience let us say with confidence that chatbots will be a key sales channel for companies.

Some stories showing why selling in Messaging apps is going to succeed

HiJiffy

HiJiffy offer hotels a conversational booking engine within their Facebook Messenger branded page. Since the booking process happens in a messaging app, it’s a new channel where guests are able to clarify their doubts, check prices & availability and book their stay. The company already launched chatbots for more than 100 hotels.

HiJiffy hotel chatbots are delivering almost 50.000€ in bookings every month, turning Messenger into a relevant channel for hotels.

SnapTravel

SnapTravel uses a combination of artificial and human intelligence to find a hotel via SMS and Facebook Messenger from 200,000+ hotels worldwide, based on budget and preferences, searching in the process more than 100 sites. All you have to do is send the bot a private message with basic travel information, such as destination, dates, and budget. The bot will then respond immediately with a number of options.

SnapTravel has seen $1 million in hotel bookings in less than a year.

Sephora

Sephora is is yet another company finding success with its Facebook Messenger bot, with one of the first beauty retailers to use a bot for Messenger to create better client experiences. The brand wanted to make its booking experience faster and easier as part of an effort to drive in-store visits, creating a bot for Messenger helping people book a makeover appointment at a nearby Sephora location in as few as 3 steps.

Sephora saw an average incremental spend of over $50 from clients who have booked an in-store service. The Chabot has resulted in 11% higher booking rate through Sephora Assistant versus other booking channels.

NB: This is a viewpoint by Pedro Gonçalves, co-founder at HiJiffy. HiJiffy brings chat to the hospitality industry, enabling guests to effectively connect with Hotels through instant messaging apps.