{"id":39286,"date":"2026-07-20T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stocks-future.com\/?guid=320d1696bbf783738345e11b2fcd690a"},"modified":"2026-07-20T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:00:00","slug":"conversational-ai-is-the-new-commercial-imperative-for-retailers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/?p=39286","title":{"rendered":"Conversational AI Is the New Commercial Imperative for Retailers"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Insights from global AI-first cloud communications platform Infobip<\/a> and Retail Economics reveal that the \"broadcast\" era of retail engagement, characterised by one-way notifications, is being replaced by a conversational, AI-driven relationship layer.<\/p><\/a><\/a>

\nWhen consumers are increasingly exposed to great digital experiences, retailers must up their game. With email open rates falling and fragmented attention, the cost of staying still has surpassed the cost of digital transformation.<\/p>

\nRichard Lim, CEO of Retail Economics, comments:<\/b> \u201cA 'one-size-fits-all' approach to communication no longer works. Consumers demand choice, with preferences shifting based on age, income, and shopper intention. While Baby Boomers are twice as likely to want Email, Gen Z has moved toward dispersed channels, with 24% now preferring WhatsApp and SMS for deliveries and returns. WhatsApp, however, is a rare outlier, with consistency in engagement across every age group - a unique bridge across a diversifying digital landscape.\"<\/i><\/p>

\nUnlike traditional push channels where volume drives reach, WhatsApp engagement is driven by relevance. With open rates at 85\u201395% (vs. 32.7% for Email in e-commerce1<\/sup>), the platform allows brands to guide customers from consideration to purchase within a single thread that maintains context over time.<\/p>

\nKim Johal, Retail Specialist at Infobip, comments:<\/b> \u201cThe biggest objection we hear is that retailers can\u2019t afford to answer conversational messages at scale. But we\u2019re no longer building call centres; we\u2019re building decision trees with an escape hatch. By using AI to handle routine queries like \u2018where is my order?\u2019, brands can provide a 24\/7 sales-associate experience that proves its ROI in as little as 60 days.\u201d<\/i><\/p>

\nWhile consumer appetite is high, a readiness gap remains. Recent industry polling suggests 88% of retailers have begun exploring conversational AI, yet 0% report being \"fully integrated\" across the entire journey.2<\/sup> The winners will be those that stop treating messaging as a \"broadcast\" button and start treating it as a value-driven relationship.<\/p>

\nAbout Infobip<\/b><\/p>

\nInfobip is a global cloud communications platform that enables businesses to build connected experiences across all stages of the customer journey, with AI as the driving force of innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n______________________________<\/p><\/td><\/tr>\n

\n1<\/sup> Email benchmarks by industry and region for 2026 https:\/\/www.mailerlite.com\/blog\/compare-your-email-performance-metrics-industry-benchmarks#open-rate<\/a><\/p>

\n2<\/sup> Based on responses from 8 leading retailers to a poll held at eTail Manchester 2026<\/p><\/td><\/tr>\n<\/table>

\n\u00a0<\/p> Contacts<\/b>

\nHighbury Communications<\/b>Sarah Penney\nspenney@highburycomms.com<\/a><\/p>

\nInfobip<\/b>Wendy Schellens\nWendy.SchellensEXT@infobip.com<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Insights from global AI-first cloud communications platform Infobip and Retail Economics reveal that the \u00ab\u00a0broadcast\u00a0\u00bb era of retail engagement, characterised by one-way notifications, is being replaced by a conversational, AI-dr…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infos-businesswire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39287,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39286\/revisions\/39287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stocks-future.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}