The Transformative Influence of Generative AI in Digital Marketing

As we navigate through the current "attention recession" among shoppers and the evolving expectations for a seamless shopping experience, it's becoming increasingly critical for brands to effectively engage customers and guide them towards quicker conversions. Drawing from my experience in fostering meaningful customer connections, let's delve into the concept of shoppable channels and their alignment with shopper demands for personalization.  
 

The Brand Challenge: Optimize In-Channel Conversions

Today's consumers typically interact with a brand around 20 times before making a purchase, with each interaction presenting a potential risk of losing interest. Brands are tasked with making an immediate and lasting impression to avoid losing potential sales.

This challenge is particularly pronounced among younger demographics, whose brand loyalty is diminishing. Consequently, brands must reassess how they leverage any intent expressed within channels to deliver a satisfying experience, ideally leading to a conversion.

Historically, personalization has been the solution: leveraging first- and third-party data to offer shoppers a more engaging omnichannel experience. However, with tightening privacy regulations and the phase-out of cookies by browsers like Chrome in 2024, the need for personalized and efficient in-channel marketing strategies has become more pressing than ever. Brands must either adeptly understand, learn, and deliver a personalized experience to shoppers, or risk losing them to competitors.

Defining Shoppable Channels

Traditionally, digital channel conversions occurred primarily on a brand's website or app, while owned channels such as email, SMS, and WhatsApp served more as push-marketing channels to direct traffic back to the website or app for final conversions. However, this redirection introduced an additional touchpoint, potentially diverting shoppers away from product discovery and conversion intent within the channel, leading to missed conversions.

In response to this challenge, remarkable innovations have emerged in recent years to make these channels shoppable and drive more in-channel conversions. Examples include shoppable experiences on paid channels like Instagram and TikTok. Yet, lesser-known is the potential for traditional owned channels like email, SMS, and WhatsApp to facilitate two-way shoppable experiences, allowing customers to search, browse, add to cart, and shop—all within the channel itself.

Inbox Commerce and Email

Email remains a stalwart for maintaining brand awareness and driving traffic to a brand's website. However, its effectiveness is beginning to wane due to overarching trends.

One advantage of email marketing is its cost-effectiveness in driving website traffic, and its inherent engagement can lead to more conversions if distractions are minimized. Google's AMP for Email is one example of minimizing distractions. Email no longer needs to be solely a one-way push channel. Brands should consider integrating emails with tools that enable shoppers to perform various commerce actions within the email itself, from product discovery to conversion.

Inbox Commerce and WhatsApp

Initially conceived as a messaging app to circumvent SMS fees, WhatsApp has evolved into a platform for direct shopper engagement and commerce. Its early adoption of "click-to-message" advertising, linking Facebook ads directly to WhatsApp, has paved the way for a more integrated, conversion-focused shopper journey. Collaborations such as JioMart have transformed WhatsApp into a shopping destination, enabling browsing, inquiries, and purchases without leaving the app. Notably, WhatsApp's adoption rate exceeds 50% among cellphone users aged 18 to 35 in the U.S.

In my experience, creating a seamless inbox commerce journey from discovery to purchase can significantly enhance conversion rates by reducing friction and improving the shopper experience. While such approaches are often overlooked in traditional marketing strategies, they offer a unique opportunity for brands to drive conversions through personalized, direct engagement.

Inbox Commerce and Product Discovery

Finally, let's consider the traditional website or app conversion channel. Regardless of how a shopper arrives there, typical conversion rates hover around 3%, a figure that's becoming tighter due to weakened personalization linked to the deprecation of cookies.

Similar to innovations in email and WhatsApp, significant strides have been made in predictive and affinity-based segmentation. Brands can now deliver more personalized in-session experiences based on shopper behavior, combining AI-enriched product catalog data with personalized shopper behavior to predict intent in real-time without manual intervention. This privacy-friendly approach benefits both shoppers and brands by efficiently guiding shoppers to what they need without distractions.

The Shoppable Future of Every Channel

As shopper behavior continues to evolve, brands will likely face increasing challenges in cultivating loyalty. While shoppers hold the reins, brands can play a pivotal role in delivering superior experiences when given the opportunity to engage. By viewing every channel of brand interaction as shoppable, brands can gain a competitive edge in this era of shopper attention scarcity.