The Definition and Meaning of Conversational Commerce

It is almost impossible to go anywhere in this world without hearing about conversational commerce, but what is it exactly? It is a phrase describing a future piece of technology driven by voice and messaging interactions that transcends all modern communication systems. While it is a convenient moniker, it is also quite confusing as it doesn’t follow a specific trend.

Instead, it refers to several trends that overlap to varying degrees. The branches of conversational commerce which we will carefully explain below include:

• Bots
• Advanced notifications
• Chats in Apps

We are all used to getting timely alerts through push, email or instant messaging services as we interact with apps and companies. Whether it is confirming a delivery or a message notifying you that your flight has been canceled, constant proactive notifications are an effective and simple method of boosting the way to communicate with different companies.

Now, thanks to conversational commerce, sending these notifications is getting more interesting. They can include maps, directions, contacts, social media and even boarding passes. Here, every announcement is an invitation to a conversation.

Bots continue to attract the attention of both the geeks and developers. We now see many people creating bots of different kinds. Shockingly though, these bots have been around for over 50 years. However, the improvements in the messaging services, the success in machine learning, and the emergence of large data sets have created a perfect platform for conversational commerce bots to grow. The most popular ones are the following:

• Command-line bots - These interfaces usually put a robust command shell on everything. They are designed to perform different tasks like ordering an Uber, extracting data from Google Analytics, and more.
• Chatbots - These bots offer a two-way conversation system. They have received both positive and negative attention, mostly because of their deep learning ventures. Their primary objective is to ensure that when you run a business, you can easily talk to your customers at affordable rates. 
• Personal assistants - Another considerable stride in conversational commerce is the emergence of bots that can accomplish tasks for a person, answer different questions and respond to various commands.

Chats in apps offer a conversational commerce platform of complete functionality. One thing you will notice with this technological innovation is that every conversation is smart and valuable. That is because they already have a clear idea of the services you need from the app.

When you use an Uber app, they know who you are and what you need when you contact your driver. It is also important to mention that the ‘chats in apps’ platform is different from other messaging services. When the chat is in the app, the only person you talk to, as a customer, is the company. This ensures the credibility and efficiency of this remarkable conversational commerce system.