Originally coined by Uber’s Chris Messina in 2015, conversational commerce—also known as c-commerce or chat commerce—is any online commerce activity that uses a conversational interface to speak directly to consumers.

It refers to the intersection of messaging apps and transactions. It can take the form of a chat box (bot or human), a messaging platform like WhatsApp, or other natural language interfaces such as Alexa. It is unique to all other forms of marketing communications because it is entirely controlled by you, the customer, and your decision to engage with the brand and what you want to know. Essentially, c-commerce can help you and other customers start a purchase journey where you want. Some customers may already know what they need, whereas others are still at a discovery phase and may need more information.

C-commerce is the true definition of a customer-centric approach, as we know the buyer is now in charge of every aspect of their decision-making journey and so instead of assuming their process is linear, we as brands, marketers, and advertisers need to leverage the agility and flexibility that comes with c-commerce to address the ever-evolving complexity of human behavior when it comes to buying.

Conversational commerce has well and truly arrived but what does that mean for brands? How can they leverage this new digital habit and communicate with consumers on a more personalized level?

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