The Power of Chat Debrief spotlights how transactions are being embedded in the chat interface
We share images, updates and locations over social channels to remain ever-connected to our peers, but the most efficient and effective way to successfully reach someone is by shooting them a text. All day, every day, people of all ages are affixed to their personal devices for business and pleasure. Should we have known that the only communication tool we really need is the most standard messaging feature on our phones?
The Power of Chat Debrief from PSFK Labs looks at how digital communication tools, text in particular, are being leveraged by brands to offer range of services to their customers. Given our mobile-first lifestyles and longstanding messaging habits, it’s no wonder that the ability to complete transactions is one of the latest features to emerge. Through the chat window, today’s shoppers can purchase international flights, last-minute birthday gifts or a unique furniture item with a command as simple as ‘send.’
Research spotlighted in the report illustrates how embedding text-to-shop tools allow for customers to make planned purchases and impulse buys with the click of a button.
The usefulness of SMS-based shopping is capturing attention among companies and customers alike; the universal UI provides a direct line between the acquisition of products or services. Take Magic, for example, a service that delivers any request via text message. Users text their needs (a ride to the airport, food supplies for a BBQ or artisan coffee for the entire office) to ‘83489,’ and will receive their order within an hour without ever having to open an app.
The text-based personal concierge becomes the middleman to services such as Uber, Postmates or Instacart, taking care of the interactions and reducing the dependence of managing multiple apps simultaneously.
While Magic proves the value of a simple and familiar interface, other services are using playful UI to ease friction throughout the purchase path. Fooji lets hungry New Yorkers order food delivery by tweeting a single food related emoji to the service. After one-time use of the service, Fooji saves the user’s purchase information and cross-checks delivery locations to find the best nearby restaurant to send each new lunch order. By saving user profiles, Fooji can offer their customers a more curated menu selection while providing the shortest window between order and check-out.
What’s important to note in these various ways people are interacting with brands is that it’s possible to capture someone’s attention outside of business hours, even late at night.
Drunk Shopping is a service designed to message intoxicated subscribers ‘outside-of-the-box’ product suggestions every Saturday at 2am. Short and humorous messages are also sent to the inebriated recipient to further entice purchasing. To opt in, users text ‘heyyyyyy’ to 551-333-7865 to kick off the interaction and all subsequent dialogue, conveying how a service can use language and channels to create context.
The attractiveness of chat is also how familiar people have become with it: a study about American Smartphone usage in 2015, conducted by the Pew Research Center, found that 100 percent of smartphone users aged 18-29 use a text-messaging function on their phones every week, with 98 percent usage among those between 30-49 years old and 92 percent for those aged 50 and up.
When we want to get in touch with a friend, we exchange texts before we would send an email or make a call. This concept is being applied to the way people are communicating with brands: why wouldn’t consumers take the most direct route to make and confirm a purchase?
Brands could leverage new opportunities that give customers the option to text-to-shop, allowing them to text ahead for more seamless payments while allowing for a more curated product selection and personalized customer service.
Learn more about future of chat trends in The Power of Chat Debrief, which tackles how SMS, messaging and chat are once again prevalent and even integral to delivering best-in-class brand experiences to customers.
