Instant Commerce: Shorter Intent to Conversion journey

Recently Snapchat and Amazon partnered together to form an amazing partnership which will have nearly 200 million users use Snapchat to buy things on Amazon by just clicking an image. Its a matter of time before Snapchat is bought over by Amazon. There is no other way. Its a perfect fit just like Shazam and Apple Music. But that discussion is for another day. What I will try to cover here is what are the other technologies available for a similar shopping experience that shortens the journey from intent to actual purchase. The click happy generation has options.

With advancement in AI, camera technology and internet, the next frontier of e-commerce war has opened up. Its not limited to just the way Snapchat and Amazon are planning to do. There is more.

Social: Facebook and Instagram has the might of numbers with them with over a billion users each. What they are struggling with is a solid e-commerce engine in the background. So, they are harnessing the power of the small time sellers and the fragmented e-commerce sites. With the launch of Facebook Pixel, they can track users. The most interesting product they have is their Instagram shopping which is presently available in only 44 countries. Shopping on Facebook isn't as seamless. The click through has benefited the early adopters like Lulu who has had more than 100K sessions through this. This is a very non obtrusive way of prompting the consumer to buy instantly. Even if they don't buy immediately, Facebook Pixel helps in re-marketing, run effective ads and track conversion. Oh yeah! They will stalk you.

Visual AI: Although Google with its AI (which in a few years will be a pre install on all Android phones) and image search algorithms with location is leading the next frontier. At this point, the options of what you can buy is limited. High on relevancy, but low on options. Google Ads will help you target those who showed interest in a category. Pinterest continues its journey in trying to be the search engine of images. Its chrome extension last year was a step in that journey. But it has had limited success. Then there are other companies like Slyce.it, Flashwell and Simplifai who are doing a mix of various options and bringing businesses closer to conversion by the use of visual AI. Interestingly, Slyce calls itself the want engine. Couldn't be more apt.

Augmented Reality: Well, you can't expect Microsoft to be far behind in this. Their moves can be termed as baby steps at best. Microsoft with its Holo Lens (which seems forever in development) will have some niche uses in enterprise, education sector buying based on specific use cases. The need for hardware will stop it from mass adoption. There are some other mentions like Preksh which claims itself as the first AR solution for retail. But this mode of conversion will be very slow. It sounds and looks cool, but struggles in ease of adoption and scale.

You take your pick. As a category, Instant Commerce, is finding its early adopters. This will take another 3-4 years before it finds mass adoption. Some interesting collaborations like Google with top retailers will bring in faster adoption. I haven't even covered voice search. That will add spice to this experience. Happy shopping!