Attentive’s State of Conversational Commerce Report indicates that consumers are increasingly comfortable interacting with brands, as long as they perceive value. The report surveyed over 8,000 consumers from the US, Canada, the UK and Australia and found that 91% of those questioned have opted into the SMS program of at least one brand, or are interested in doing so.
Conversational commerce refers to interactive, people-driven experiences that support the entire customer buying experience, from awareness to post-purchase. The report showed that conversational commerce has been widely adopted in the shopping journey. This approach presents an opportunity for brands to engage with customers and close a revenue gap through personalized, immediate attention. The majority of respondents (88%) would engage in a two-way conversation with a brand about a product, and 87% would reach out to resolve a checkout issue.
The report also found that consumers were willing to spend significant amounts of money on items marketed to them via SMS. Over 61% of US respondents spent between $50 and $500 on such items. Additionally, loyalty begins before the first purchase has been made, with 87% of US respondents who subscribe to a brand’s SMS channel saying they’re likely to buy.
The report also surveyed over 900 brands globally to gather insights into top priorities for marketers in 2023 and the efforts being applied to maximize the effectiveness of their programs. It found that SMS is a direct revenue-driving channel, with 79% of marketers using SMS as a retention channel and 73% stating that SMS drives incremental revenue for their business. Furthermore, 52% of marketers plan to increase their SMS marketing budget, higher than the percentage increase being allocated to the budget of any other paid channel.
Sara Varni, CMO at Attentive, said: “Conversational commerce radically changes how consumers shop in their day-to-day, and SMS marketing is at the heart of this shift. Brands are recreating the in-store experience online, which enables consumers to take an active role in starting a conversation. These two-way conversations naturally lend themselves to invaluable zero-party data collection that amplifies marketers’ efforts.”
