13 min read

What does conversational commerce mean?

Conversations
Campaigns
Chatbots
Conversational Commerce Guide
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In this article:

  1. Definition of "conversational commerce"
  2. What is the difference between conversational commerce and social commerce?
    1. Sidebar: conversational marketing
  3. The evolution of conversational commerce
    1. The corner store is conversational commerce 1.0
    2. From corner store to online store
  4. What channels are used for conversational commerce?
    1. WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage, etc.: the next stage in c-commerce
    2. Chatbots
  5. Voice assistants
  6. Why is conversational becoming so important for businesses?
    1. 1. The rise of e-commerce
    2. 2. Advances in artificial intelligence
    3. 3. The rising popularity of voice assistants
    4. 4. The end of tracking cookies
    5. 5. Customers are frustrated with their current shopping experience
  7. These are the benefits of conversational commerce for your business
    1. C-commerce expands the e-commerce target group!
    2. Provide better customer experience and increase loyalty
    3. Get more valuable customer information
    4. Receive better feedback
    5. Reduce costs
    6. Increase sales
  8. Examples of conversational commerce
    1. Wish: Shopping inspiration through a WhatsApp chatbot
    2. Women's Best
  9. Wrapping up: e-commerce becomes c-commerce
  10. Your software for conversational

Many experts are talking about the beginning of  the conversational era, or the "age of conversational". Conversational marketing, conversational commerce, and conversational shopping are often used as terms in this context. However, what do we mean by "conversational", what role do messaging apps like WhatsApp or voice assistants like Alexa play in this, and where is this trend headed? An overview!

You've probably heard the term "conversational" in the context of voice assistants, such as Alexa or Siri. Apart from verbal conversation, the written word, for example, a chat via WhatsApp or with a ChatGPT, also counts as conversational interaction. And it is precisely this type of dialogue-based digital conversation that is becoming increasingly important for e-commerce.

In this guide, we'll look at why that is, how conversational e-commerce works, and why it is relevant for companies.

Definition of "conversational commerce"

The term "conversational commerce" has been around since 2015. It was UX expert, Chris Messina, who has worked for Uber and Google, who first floated the phrase in a blog post.

In it, Messina defines c-commerce as follows:

Conversational commerce is about delivering convenience, personalization, and decision support while people are on the go, with only partial attention to spare.

Conversational commerce emerges thus at the intersection between shopping and conversation. It is important that to note that the idea of "conversational" is for the exchange between customer and company to be dialogue-based. It is therefore not a one-way communication from the companies to the customers like an ad banner, but a two-way exchange.

Whereas typical advertising messages sound like: "Buy this, buy that!"; conversational commerce sounds more like: "What do you need today and how can I help you find it quickly and easily?" This approach doesn't only sound more pleasant and customer-friendly, it actually is!

Surveys among consumers show:

  • 91% of consumers want help in real-time
  • Live chats can increas