CONVERSATIONAL commerce is among the digital trends that are seen to continue growing this year, a Viber executive said.
In a statement on Wednesday, David Tse, Rakuten Viber senior director for Asia-Pacific, underscored four digital trends, which include the further rise of conversational commerce.
"As we've witnessed on Viber, independent online business owners managed to get back on track and then move forward with more steady steps as they learn more about their customers' online behavior and preferences," Tse highlighted.
He said conversational commerce gained traction to replicate personal service without physical interaction, which increased the demand for chatbots.
"Before the pandemic, customers were used to receiving personalized services in traditional stores and their preference for an individual service shifted to digital and mobile shopping," he added.
Tse noted that Viber's Communities feature has seen a 22-percent growth in the country last year, especially those in business-related Viber Communities.
The feature allows brands and businesses to connect with consumers and have one-on-one conversations with members.
Tse also sees the trend for a person-to-person experience to continue this year, which he said online businesses can do by maximizing private chats with their customers.
"By increasing engagement with customers beyond just customer service support or promotional driven information, Communities allow businesses to create regular content to amplify the interest from the customers on the product category and organically create an interest-focused conversation rather than transactional conversation," he explained.
The digital era, likewise, highlighted more locally made products, according to Tse.
"This pandemic habit is likely to be embedded, as we've realized that going local can be very much part of our day-to-day life," Tse said.
Citing data from the trade and industry department, Tse noted that micro, small and medium enterprises or MSMEs accounted for 99.5 percent of business establishments in the country in 2020.
The segment also contributed around 36 percent to the country's economy in the past years.
Tse said data privacy would also be a priority for the consumers this year.
"Online business owners can better adapt and future-proof themselves by switching to partners that do not collect customer data for profit or by collecting data directly from consumers through conversational commerce, for instance," he said.
Source: The Manila Times
February 10, 2022
