Chat commerce is becoming mainstream as efficient, AI-driven customer engagement becomes a reality to position businesses to meet market demands effectively and capitalize on new opportunities. CMO Council Executive Director, Donovan Neale-May, interviewed Pieter de Villiers, CEO and Co-Founder, Clickatell, on chat commerce and the rise of the conversational commerce market.

NEALE-MAY: What makes chat commerce a transformational innovation in digital consumer engagement, high-velocity eCommerce, and legacy contact center modernization?

DE VILLIERS: Chat commerce empowers businesses to meet their customers where they are, in chat messaging channels. Our technology makes chat the simplest, most convenient, and most effective way for customers to interact with a business, whether for purchasing products or accessing customer services and support. Communicating by chat is common in countries across the globe, and we’ve seen these channels outperform other customer communication channels time and time again. We can send an SMS to almost any mobile device on the planet, making chat “larger than the internet” in many markets, while messaging platforms like WhatsApp, WeChat, Messenger, iMessage, etc. have billions of monthly active users worldwide.

Chat is where people spend most of their time when they are on their mobile device. It’s their primary use: smartphones are mostly used to chat and send messages. Chat has up to 5x the reach compared to a brand’s own mobile app, and far better retention too. Customer adoption of these solutions is rapid and impressive - we see opt-out rates of less than 1%. With open rates around 75% and click-through rates at 40%, you can start to see why this is such a powerful proposition.

Chat commerce is a game-changer because it combines the power of modern AI, real-time communication, system integration, and payments to create more engaging, efficient, and personalized user experiences. It transforms how businesses interact with their customers, how they manage and deliver their eCommerce journeys, while modernizing legacy contact centers, to drive growth and customer satisfaction. It helps businesses drive engagement, revenue and loyalty in convenient and beloved digital channels, and we help ensure that their brand is where their customers expect it to be: in chat. Specifically:

1. Digital Consumer Engagement:

• Personalization: Chat commerce allows for highly personalized interactions, tailoring messages and offers to individual consumers based on their preferences and behaviours.
• Real-Time Contextual Interaction: Immediate responses enhance the overall experience, building stronger relationships and trust with the brand.
• Convenience: Accessible on mobile devices, in an app already on the phone, it increases the likelihood of consumer interaction and engagement.

2. High-Velocity eCommerce:

• Seamless Transactions: Integrates the shopping experience directly into the chat interface, reducing friction and speeding up the transaction process.
• Automated Assistance: AI-powered chatbots handle a large volume of inquiries simultaneously, providing instant support and guidance.
• Upselling and Cross-Selling: Intelligent recommendations and personalized offers increase the average order value and drive higher revenue.

3. Modernising the Contact Center:

• Efficiency: Next-generation AI chatbots handle routine inquiries, freeing up human agents for more complex interactions. AI can also be used to assist human agents to better serve customers.
• Cost Reduction: Automating repetitive tasks reduces operational costs.
• Enhanced Customer Experience: Faster response times and 24/7 availability improve customer satisfaction.
• Data-Driven Insights: Chat interactions generate valuable data for continuous improvement, which can be amplified with AI.

NEALE-MAY: What types of digital businesses and market sectors could most benefit from deploying and scaling chat commerce through mainstream messaging channels?

DE VILLIERS: We have seen chat commerce bring value to a wide range of businesses and market sectors, but here are a few verticals with chat commerce use cases to illustrate the kinds of simple, convenient user experiences that can be delivered:

• Retail and eCommerce: Personalized shopping experiences, instant customer support, and direct sales promotions.
• Financial Services: Banking, insurance, and investment services through secure and efficient chat interactions.
• Telecommunications: Customer support, plan recommendations and upgrades, and service notifications.
• Travel and Hospitality: Bookings, reminders, check-ins, tickets and passes, instant customer service, and personalized travel recommendations.
• Automotive: Vehicle information, service scheduling, and customer support.
• Healthcare: Appointment scheduling, telemedicine, medication reminders.
• Entertainment and Media: Content recommendations, subscription management, and event notifications.
• Real Estate: Property listings, customer inquiries, and virtual tours.
• Education and E-learning: Course enrolment, student support, and personalized learning plans.

NEALE-MAY: How quickly and effectively can Clickatell's new platform-as-a-service be activated to optimize customer experience, value, retention, and monetization?

DE VILLIERS: Our platform is designed for rapid and efficient activation, tailored to the complexity of the use cases and the level of integration required with existing systems. For example, our broadcast messaging tool can have you sending messages within days (given that numbers may need to be acquired or transferred). Setting up more advanced workflows and training bots may take a bit longer, but our goal is to have you ready for launch within 30 days of contract signature. We employ a phased approach to project implementation, with most of our customers seeing measurable value within the first quarter.

As part of our offering, we provide robust onboarding, solutioning and support services to ensure chat commerce project success - we want to understand your business, and help you deliver user journeys that drive engagement. We provide advice on messaging best practice, supply training on our applications, and make detailed user guides and documentation available for efficient self-help.

NEALE-MAY: What examples do you have of early adopter success in the chat commerce sector worldwide?

DE VILLIERS: One of the things that really excites me about chat commerce is seeing how creatively it's being used around the world, and I've got some fascinating examples to share. Before I do, I should mention that these examples are drawn from publicly available sources and represent implementations or work done by us or through other providers. All trademarks and company names belong to their respective owners, and I'm sharing these examples purely to showcase the incredible potential of this technology, and to illustrate how chat commerce is being adopted in the market, and not to lay claim to any of this work:

• FlySafair: This low-cost airline in South Africa uses WhatsApp to offer seamless check-in and issuing of boarding passes, along with real-time schedule updates and the ability to purchase extras like additional baggage in the same chat thread. This simplifies the travel experience with possibly the quickest digital check-in experience in the world, and demonstrates FlySafair's commitment to convenience and customer experience.
• Absa Bank: This innovative multinational African bank introduced a chat-based digital wallet, transforming how people access banking services, addressing barriers to traditional banking and offering a secure, accessible convenient solution for managing finances, all without needing to download a banking app.
• Hyundai: Hyundai's WhatsApp-powered car sales campaign in Brazil allowed customers to ask questions, find dealerships, and schedule test drives through chat. This approach maximized reach and effectiveness by leveraging the familiarity and convenience of WhatsApp with the personal touch needed to sell an expensive item with a long consideration phase.
• Uber: Uber expanded access to its ride-hailing services in India by integrating with WhatsApp, allowing riders to book rides directly through the chat platform. This feature effectively eliminated the need for the Uber app and enhanced accessibility for a broader audience.
• Adidas: It’s not every day a world class footballer rocks up to play for your team. Adidas helped 6-a-side teams across London solve the problem of unreliable teammates, by providing some of the best signed players to those in need, including appearances by stars like Kaká. A WhatsApp hotline connected players with teams, all while promoting the new impressive Predator20 boots. The campaign went viral in 6 days.

NEALE-MAY: What are the opportunities for channel partners and platform-as-a-service providers to integrate chat commerce services from Clickatell into their offerings?

DE VILLIERS: The integration of chat commerce services across a business presents a significant opportunity for platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providers to enhance their offerings and capitalize on the growing trend of chat-based consumer engagement. By incorporating our innovative solutions, partners and platforms can deliver better value to their clients, to drive growth, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Clickatell also provides the tools to monetize customer interactions, opening up new revenue streams. Digital commerce is not a singular experience, so traditional eCommerce is still relevant, as are branded mobile apps, but chat commerce gives brands the opportunity to deliver the most personal, most relevant, most helpful experiences when the end user turns to the business to communicate.

Deploying chat commerce across a business should not disrupt operations, but actually unify efforts to improve customer satisfaction, gain insight into the customer and your business, and increase overall efficiency. Clickatell has a number of integrations to other platforms, such as Salesforce, Shopify, Zendesk, etc., to ensure business continuity and to deliver better value and ROI to our customers.

By embracing this transformational technology, channel partners can provide clients with cutting-edge solutions that improve customer engagement, streamline operations, and drive revenue. They can help large businesses develop customized chat commerce strategies that align with specific industry needs and business goals, as this technology helps address challenges in digital consumer engagement, eCommerce acceleration, and contact center modernization. Chat commerce will help partners position themselves as leaders in digital transformation by introducing clients to innovative solutions, helping them deliver superior customer experiences, leading to stronger market positions and brand loyalty.

As chat commerce becomes more mainstream, and we guide our customers in transforming traditional customer comms and outdated contact centers into efficient, AI-driven customer engagement, the ability to offer best-in-class solutions like those from Clickatell will position businesses to meet market demands effectively and capitalize on new opportunities.