How SEA SMBs can win with conversational commerce
Mobile has changed the way small business owners do business in Southeast Asia. It has evolved the way they market products to customers, the way people connect with businesses – most importantly – the way people want to communicate with businesses.
The days of calling a store to check if they have a pair of shoes you like or phoning a restaurant for a reservation are limited. You only need to glance at the stats to realise that messaging on mobile with friends and businesses is now the norm. In Indonesia for example, three of the five most popular mobile apps are messaging apps, according to January 2016 research from market research firm GfK. (Source: eMarketer, 2016)
In Southeast Asia people are spending more and more time communicating via messaging, be it with friends, family, colleagues and more increasingly, businesses. Because of this strong messaging growth, we are seeing a new way of doing business emerge like “conversational commerce” where people directly communicate with businesses through messaging apps like Facebook Messenger. Facebook has developed solutions that help small business owners leverage this trend, taking their Facebook Page to the next level.
The Shop section recently rolled out across Southeast Asia, offering businesses a one stop shop to attract customers and communicate with them. This has simplified the purchasing journey for customers, making it easier for them to discover products they love and then them without having to visit multiple sites.
While this idea of conversational commerce is a trend that is gaining global traction, its greatest push is right here in Southeast Asia. Local entrepreneurs and small business owners are at the forefront of the charge. They recognise that the personalised online shopping experience direct messaging brings is vital to gaining customers’ trust and make them more likely to buy.
Building consumer trust in ecommerce is a big challenge for local businesses. For example in Thailand, shoppers feel more comfortable completing a purchase from a sales assistant rather than an online shopping cart. They spend considerably more time deciding on e-commerce products and can take up to three days to complete an online purchase according to a TNS study.
To drive online purchases in Southeast Asia, online retailers need to embrace conversational commerce and make their online shopping experience personal and user friendly.
Businesses in Southeast Asia are already seeing the benefits of embracing Facebook’s one stop shop for small businesses. In Thailand, J.Q. Puumanung saw total orders on the first day of Songkran exceed THB 1 million after adding the Shop feature. N.IX Studio has also experienced a lift in sales, with more than 50 percent of its customers getting in touch on Messenger to place orders on new products featured in the Shop section.
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