The Power of More Curiously Human™ Digital Experiences in Retail
Retail Dive | June 6, 2022
Conversational commerce — in which retailers deploy text and/or voice messaging in service of meeting consumers’ shopping and customer-service needs — is the next era of e-commerce. According to HubSpot, 71% of people are willing to use messaging apps to get customer assistance.
“The consumer behavior of messaging brands is here to stay,” said Ryan Mannion, Area Vice President of Strategic Retail Accounts at LivePerson. “A few of the top five big-box retailers are literally saving tens of millions of dollars a year and also driving $500 million to a billion dollars worth of revenue through these channels for their e-commerce businesses, so this isn’t a future discussion. If you’re not doing conversational commerce, then you’re missing the boat because your customers already want to communicate with you in messaging channels.”
Already, survey results from LivePerson have found that 83% of customers said they would browse and buy from brands directly in messaging channels and over three-quarters (78%) of consumers said they wanted the ability to securely message any business. But retailers can’t win at conversational commerce without delivering a great customer experience. Customers have come to expect top-tier digital experiences across all their touch points with retailers, and service is more essential to their purchase decisions than ever. According to the 2022 Achieving Customer Amazement Study, 58% of customers said they believed great customer service was more important than price, and the same percentage said they would pay more if they knew they would receive great customer service.
Humanlike digital interactions drive increased value in commerce and customer-care relationships. LivePerson recognizes that for brands to truly win at customer engagement, they need to deliver artificial intelligence (AI) that helps customers feel seen, valued and heard through experiences that are more Curiously Human™.
Curiously Human™ AI leverages vast amounts of data and customer intent information to shape customer-bot conversations and support a great experience. Intent information helps Curiously Human™ AI deliver on customers’ needs. The best kind of conversations, for example, start from a clear understanding of what the consumer is trying to accomplish or get out of the conversation’s intent. “What we’re designing for our customers are really personalized curiously human experiences that make their customers feel like they’ve been heard, that the brand understands what they’re after and that messaging is the best option to help them get what they need,” Mannion said.
LivePerson’s Curiously Human™ conversational AI is a leading innovation driving the next era of e-commerce. And retailers that have yet to begin their journey toward conversational commerce are wise to get started now.