The future of retail

: the role of conversational commerce and its implications on the e-commerce value chain

Abstract

E-commerce has steadily and substantially grown across all European markets in recent years. This can be attributed to shifts in online shopping consumer behavior, for which the Covid-19 pandemic has also been a catalyst. As a result, new entrants, particularly D2C retailers seeking to engage with customers more directly, are becoming increasingly prevalent. This increases competitiveness across all E-Commerce sectors and causes customer acquisition costs to rise.Consequently, incumbents continuously seek out innovative technologies and opportunities to distinguish themselves from competitors and improve market share and profitability. One such opportunity is Conversational Commerce (C-commerce). C-commerce represents a novel and mostly untapped form of conducting online retail by selling goods through an asynchronous 1-on-1 communication via messaging app. This study examines the dimensions of C-commerce using a quantitative customer analysis and expert interviews. Three different strategies for C commerce integration that apply to different types of retailers were identified. Through qualitative and quantitative research, this study found that the retail value chain is positively affected by a C-commerce strategy.

Date of Award	7 Jul 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Peter V. Rajsingh (Supervisor)