How is eCommerce currently selling on mobile?
Mobile optimized sites aren’t enough
Many retailers are still transacting sales through mobile optimized sites. These sites aren’t user friendly- making a purchase will usually require the customer to sign in or enter their payment details manually. With the quick rise of other eCommerce technologies and this lack of ease for the customer, only having a mobile optimized site will leave your online sales struggling.
Customers only use a small selection of apps regularly
Plenty of eCommerce specific apps have arisen on the market over the past few years. Some businesses felt it was crucial to build a platform that their users could download and interact with from their smart phones. With a now saturated app market, constant updates and battles for valuable storage space on devices the app momentum has slowed to an almost halt. Consumers are spending most of their time on just a small number of apps on mobile devices. This opens doors for leveraging communication through messengers.
Messengers reach customers on the applications they use most
When eCommerce integrates with messengers a solution to mobile optimized sites and app challenges is found. With at least one of your customers most used apps being a messaging service, it makes sense that eCommerce is beginning to establish itself on these platforms. As more businesses continue to integrate onto messenger platforms, soon having your business available through messengers will not just be a convenience to your customer but they will expect this level of interaction.
And why not take your business right where your customers are? Selling your products and providing customer service through messengers places your business among the same lists of their most trusted friends and family. Everything is familiar to your customer as there is no need for customers to learn how to navigate a new application.
Chatbots can sell your products for you
Perhaps to solve the potential problems of time and resources chatbots for eCommerce businesses have been around for some time but are only now beginning to gain momentum after Facebook’s F8 Conference announcements. Similar to US retailer Spring, the heavily reviewed example from the conference, popular eCommerce giant AliExpress allows customers to shop clothing, gifts and gadgets through their Telegram chatbot. Regardless of supporters or non-supporters for business to be able to sell products based on AI, less human interaction is revolutionary for eCommerce.
For now, whether it is bot or person, eCommerce is making moves onto our well-known messenger platforms and before we know it, all customers will be interacting with businesses in the same way they do with their peers.
