Infobip, a global cloud communications platform, has partnered with IDC, a leading IT market research and advisory firm, to conduct the latest market research. The research, titled “Revolutionising Customer Experience through the Power of Conversational Commerce,” focuses on the growing importance of AI-powered conversational commerce and omnichannel communication platforms in the Asia Pacific region.
The InfoBrief emphasises the significance of customer-centric strategies and offers guidance to brands on successfully adopting and leveraging conversational commerce, ultimately benefiting both businesses and customers.
In today’s digital age, customers, particularly digital natives, have higher expectations and greater control over their interactions with brands. This has prompted brands to shift from transaction-based experiences to relationship-based ones. Cloud-based solutions enable brands to provide the end-to-end customer journeys that customers now demand.
As customers’ communication preferences shift, there is a notable increase in conversational interactions. Brands adopting an omnichannel approach and delivering an end-to-end experience are more likely to enhance loyalty and customer lifetime value.
Conversational commerce, powered by AI and utilising Communication Platforms as a Service (CPaaS), has gained significant traction among businesses in the Asia Pacific region.
Conversational commerce relies on CPaaS as a critical tool, allowing organizations to integrate real-time communication features like voice, text, video, instant messaging, and social media into their applications using developer-friendly APIs.
Additionally, Software as a Solution (SaaS) tools, such as cloud-powered smart chatbots, are becoming increasingly popular for delivering personalised interactions and improved customer experiences.
CPaaS and SaaS-based solutions empower businesses to provide a seamless customer journey across multiple touchpoints. Many businesses in the Asia Pacific region are adopting a more conversational theme with their customers, resulting in increased ROI and customer engagement.
Conversational commerce also enables local businesses to expand globally through automated messaging and cloud customer support.
Velid Begovic, vice president of revenue at Infobip, stresses the importance of businesses aligning their strategies with conversational commerce to proactively meet customer expectations, enhance engagement, and establish long-lasting relationships, ultimately staying ahead in a dynamic marketplace.
The upward trend of customer-centric business strategy in the Asia Pacific region reflects the expectations and mindset of customers. The majority of organisations (70%) plan to increase communication platform spending over 2023-24 to cater to the region’s growing social media users, who are predominantly young, active, and influential.
Countries in the region have different motivations for investing in CPaaS and SaaS solutions. Some aim to enhance customer experiences and create new revenue streams, while others focus on improving business processes and expanding domestically and internationally, especially in countries with higher CPaaS adoption rates and thriving retail/eCommerce segments.
CPaaS solutions are seen as crucial catalysts for enabling conversational commerce experiences, with businesses actively partnering with CPaaS platform providers to deliver contextualised customer interactions that boost profitability and foster emotionally fulfilling engagements.
Organisations planning to embark on their conversational commerce journey need a reliable partner with omnichannel capabilities for building meaningful customer engagement. Easy integration capabilities are also essential to ensure a better customer experience and compliance with security and audit policies.
Additionally, CPaaS platform providers must be agile enough to respond to new use cases and technologies that can drive business growth. Infobip stands ready to help elevate businesses through conversational commerce, enabling them to compete with the top businesses in Asia Pacific.
To learn more about the benefits of conversational commerce and its impact on industries in the Asia Pacific, visit: https://shorturl.at/bikCR.
