Chapter 1

Meet consumers in their moment of need with distributed digital storefronts

What is a distributed digital storefront?

A distributed storefront brings the best of brick and mortar and e-commerce together, giving consumers the ability to engage with brands 1:1 and discover, explore, and eventually purchase products on any channel they happen to be using. For example, a traveler could message a hotel to ask about accessible rooms. A newly married couple could message a bank about which account is best for them. A teen could get recommendations for which skincare products are best for their needs through Instagram. These consumers no longer have to visit a business’s website or app to engage with them.

For businesses, distributed storefronts offer the opportunity to scale while still allowing the personalized engagement that consumers desire.

And how do we know this shift to distributed storefronts is happening? Because people are asking for the end-to-end storefront experience to be brought to them within their messaging channel of choice, and businesses who want to keep up with demand know they need to deliver.

Whether consumers are looking for a product or service, having an easy, accessible way to interact with a business makes the consumer experience more efficient and delightful. Getting questions answered helps consumers make decisions with confidence. Advice and recommendations lend personalization to the buying process. Just by having a human interaction, the everyday exchange of greetings and thank-you’s, can elevate a purchase from transaction to relationship.

Offering conversational messaging allows businesses to have these personal interactions in the channels where consumers spend their time. In this way, they are expanding beyond just physical and digital storefronts — like e-commerce sites and mobile apps — to build distributed digital storefronts.

Our research shows consumers already want to engage with businesses, move their buying process forward, and even complete purchases, all within messaging channels.

More than three-quarters (77%) of consumers want to use conversational messaging to get help with the early stages of buying, as they are learning more about a product or service. Delivering answers at this point in the journey can help guide buyers toward a decision faster.

And, for 71%, there’s a desire to use conversational messaging to help them when they are further along in the buying process.

Messaging with someone, where questions and answers don’t have to fit predetermined templates, helps remove friction. In fact, 74% of consumers believe that using conversational messaging would make the purchase process simpler.

Consumers want to use conversational messaging at various stages of the buying process.
67% of consumers say that they have completed a purchase after contacting a brand through a conversational messaging channel.

Bringing in added context through zero- and first-party data can help brands further personalize their engagement across all stages of the buying journey. Information like purchase history, demographics, and preferences allow agents to understand customers better, provide targeted recommendations, and have more contextual, productive conversations. There’s good evidence that productive conversations lead to spending, as 67% say they have actually completed a purchase after contacting a brand through a conversational messaging channel.

Finally, 58% of consumers say they would want the option to make purchases directly through conversational messaging channels, if available. Clearly, conversational messaging is not a niche interest — it’s rapidly becoming a preferred and common experience for consumers.

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