Marketing channels like SMS and Facebook Messenger are becoming ideal destinations for seamless ecommerce checkout. Enabling checkout through these channels can more than double your conversion rates. Interested in learning more? Keep reading.

What Is Conversational Commerce and Conversational Checkout?

Conversational commerce is the process of buying goods and services over messaging channels like SMS, Messenger, Instagram Messaging, and WhatsApp.

While Conversational commerce refers to the use of messaging channels to engage the user throughout the e-commerce journey - starting from an ad all the way to post-purchase support, conversational checkout specifically refers to the use of messaging channels to facilitate the purchase action. Conversational checkout allows consumers to purchase goods within messaging channels like SMS or Facebook Messenger without ever having to leave the app. This is in contrast to redirecting users to a brand’s website to make a purchase.

Conversational Checkout: A Seamless Ecommerce Experience

Fifty-six (56) percent of customers indicate that they're likely to shop at a retailer that provides a shared cart across digital channels (for example, a mobile device and desktop). 

Mobile phones have become the primary device used by consumers to interact with e-commerce brands. Worldwide, more than half (about 55%) of web traffic comes from a mobile device. In 2021, about 54% of all retail e-commerce is expected to be generated via mobile commerce.

Channels like SMS and Facebook Messenger have become the most important channels to reach and connect with these mobile users. By 2022, it is estimated there will be 3 billion mobile phone users accessing messaging apps to communicate. 

These channels already have some pretty amazing engagement rates. For example, in our experience, SMS response rates range between 10% and 30% (depending on vertical, use-case and promotion type. Other industry data shows the average SMS marketing conversion rate is 29%.

But the problem is that most ecommerce marketing campaigns within these channels redirect users to the brand’s website for the actual checkout. And, unfortunately, the checkout experience on a mobile device is full of friction. 

Research shows that mobile devices have a cart abandonment rate of about 86%. The average conversion rate on a mobile phone as of Q2 2021 was 2.2%, according to Kibo Commerce. That is compared to 3.9% on a desktop device.

Enabling a frictionless checkout experience inside channels like SMS or Facebook Messenger solves this problem. 

For example, users who already have their payment information saved with you (like repeat customers) can place an order by just replying to your marketing notification as opposed to having to go to your website, then login and then check out. 

In our experience here at Radiance Commerce, this can more than double the conversion rate of your marketing campaigns.