Text Commerce

Driving customer engagement and economic gains using text-based commerce.

Text Commerce typically is the use of text-based messaging to interact with a brand to browse, explore, and buy products. There is no denying that most people around the world today use smartphones for buying things. And this is where marketers have an opportunity to consider text-based message ordering to re-imagine deliver value. As a cost-effective, impactful, intimate, and under-utilized medium, chat-based commerce is gaining rapid traction. Industry players such as Flipkart Ping, Shopo, Quikr Next, and Helpchat, among others have already paved their ways into this future commerce business model.

By capitalizing on the potentials of SMS, WhatsApp, and other text-based messaging applications, retail businesses can establish more authentic customer relationships. As these chat-based tools are increasingly becoming a new phenomenon across the retail arena, they have the potential to bring more personalized experience available in-store to online customers by simply connecting them with sales managers. Domino’s Pizza, for instance, already leveraged text messaging allowing its customers to place orders just via chats.

On the other side, for the new promotion of Adidas and Alexander Wang “Season 2” line, the company placed eye-catching posters in various locations in New York City with writing “TEXT TO BUY” along with the number. Through this, customers just need to send a text message to the number and a chatbot will place their orders and even arrange delivery. Tech giant Apple also has a Business Chat product which allows its consumers to message businesses using Safari, Maps, Spotlight as well as Siri through their Apple device.

According to the company, users can ask for information, schedule appointments, and even make purchases right in Messages via their iPhone or iPad. With the integration of Apple Pay, the messaging experience now also enables customers to pay with just a click. Burberry, British luxury fashion house in London, England, in September 2019 announced it was commencing a messaging feature in alliance with Apple. This lets its potential customers to text sales associates to make appointments, ask for recommendations, and even purchase products.

Conventional shopping websites that are merely product catalogs, loaded with specifications, and a buy button, which may exhaust customers and impact their shopping decisions. Unlike this model, the chat-based commerce interface directly addresses consumer needs and go into making a purchase decision. Integrating chat into retail and commerce businesses will certainly draw enhanced customer retention and lifetime value.

Although text messaging is not a new business approach, it has revolutionized a personal communication channel to a business and commerce channel. There is no wonder that texting is the most widely used functionality on a mobile phone as over 6 billion texts reportedly are sent every day. Thus, to drive more value, reap the biggest revenue and competitive edge over their peers, businesses must begin exploring text messaging as a way to engage customers and enable them to place an order simply via chat.