What is c-commerce and why could it be the alternative to e-commerce?

Using this type of trade can help emerging economies

Have you ever bought or sold something through a messaging app? Sure, most have done it or at least contacted someone to find out reports on any type of product; that is precisely having used c-commerce.

This term refers to Conversational Commerce, which is when one of the instant messaging applications is used to carry out a sale or purchase. According to Yalo, a company that specializes in linking brands and customers through messaging applications, c-commerce can achieve much of what e-commerce has not been capable of, which has not been able to remove barriers that prevent potential customers from making purchases online.

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Chatbots will be the sellers of the future and this is why It is not a secret that there is a clear technological gap in Mexico because, according to Joel Muñiz, Managing Director & Senior Partner of Boston Consulting Group in Mexico, “the lack of access to technology and the necessary knowledge to use the applications / devices, it limits the number of people who benefit from the technology ”and that widens these differences.

What is c-commerce?

It is important to make it clear that it is not the same as e-commerce, since to buy through it, the user must use a platform previously established by the seller, be it an app or a page, the most obvious example could be Amazon. One of the great advantages of c-commerce is that it seeks to make the buying and selling process more democratic, since participants do not have to make an investment to update their technology ;that is, they do not have to buy more advanced devices to be able to use certain applications or access Internet pages that consume more data. Starlink: you can now pre-register in Mexico to hire Elon Musk's internet service.

This is because it is enough to use the messaging applications. With c-commerce, both customer and seller can agree on the best way to carry out a transaction, in addition to a potential buyer can clear all their doubts before making a decision. It is a bridge that links transactions between the digital and the physical, since a form of payment and delivery can be agreed with the buyer that gives confidence to both parties.

Why does it have great potential?

According to data from Statista, users spend an average of more than two hours a day looking at their smartphone, while Mexicans spend 4 hours and 8 minutes on phones, which represents an opportunity point for c-commerce, since both Facebook and WhatsApp are two of the main applications most used during that time and they are also two of the main communication channels within this type of commerce. In Mexico, as an emerging market, according to Yalo, 81% of people have never made purchases through e-commerce, which can be an area of opportunity to attract them to c-commerce, which in Asia has a prospect growth of 40% in the next five years, according to company information.