A Digital Future: #convcomm

Many brands I work with ask me how they can upgrade their current marketing and email/mobile campaigns in order to become aligned with the current digital curve of heightened personalisation. One of the trends I currently consult on is ‘conversational commerce’ - a phrase used to describe retailing in messaging apps, a process enabled by artificial intelligence bots that can suggest products, services and solutions to the customer.  

Personalisation is key to online consumerism, brands such as Kate Spade are now creating content for each segment of their target audience (which will only be displayed to that intended audience). Facebook dark posting and email marketing segmentation being around for a while now, the next stage as more data is becoming available to marketers will be conversational commerce.  

Why is this something ecommerce fashion brands should embrace? 

The technology is now available to jump on this new form on commerce. With customers already using whatsapp or facebook on a daily basis, the next step to hyper-personalisation is to communicate with a consumer on a platform you are guaranteed they are using. Major businesses such as facebook announced this month that it would support chat bots on its messaging app and China's WeChat, where people already use bots to shop, book a restaurant or cinema tickets, and pay bills. 

Case Study: 

Sephora is a brand who consistently adopts new trends in social media and digital marketing to stay ahead of the curve. Now they have taken the jump to conversational commerce with a hint of social commerce by using KIK. The approach distinguishes them as a brand that is aware that it is still sitting in a social space, and it is also avoiding turning users off with a hard sell by aligning more with its own social platforms and content by taking an educational and product discovery route. When users ask for details of a product, it directs them to video and image-driven tutorials on how to get the perfect blow-out or the latest innovations in a product category.