A new study by Juniper Research has found that global spend for conversational commerce over OTT channels, including WhatsApp or WeChat, will rise from US$13.3 billion in 2022 to US$25.1 billion in 2023. This growth of 89 per cent will be driven by verticals such as retail and eCommerce, which provide increased online presence and product availability as retailers refine their online customer experience. OTT-based conversational commerce enables users to make purchases or transfer money directly in OTT messaging apps.
The new research found eCommerce and retail will account for over 35 per cent of spend via OTT conversational commerce channels in 2023; accounting for US$9 billion of spend globally. However, it identified regional fragmentation in the OTT messaging space as a key hurdle to growth. To overcome this, it urges conversational commerce vendors to onboard each messaging app individually, while adhering strictly to varying financial regulations in each country.
Other issues for conversational commerce vendors include the varying types of payment methods in use across countries. Vendors need to account for these differences and support various digital wallets. This flexibility will enable vendors to offer a complete omnichannel experience by providing payments across OTT apps, chatbots, voicebots and RCS business messaging.
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