Clickatell unfolds Chat 2 Pay for messaging commerce
Clickatell says it has launched Chat 2 Pay for merchants to offer payments and transactions to consumers on chat messaging platforms.
Clickatell says the service solves the last mile of digital transformation by embedding payments in the service stream to simplify digital commerce for consumers.
According to the mobile communications and chat commerce company, Chat 2 Pay lets merchants securely accept payments in chat messaging by sending consumers a payment link via SMS or WhatsApp.
In designing Chat 2 Pay, Clickatell says it has efficiently “orchestrated the complex relationship between messaging, payments, or the order management system (OMS) of their customers, and in the process mitigates the risk of merchants managing payment card details.”
Clickatell says its data shows using the chat channel for interactions and transactions reduces the overall cost of doing business while increasing customer engagement. Hence, the Chat 2 Pay “functionality is so easy merchants simply switch it on and manage”, Clickatell says.
Pieter de Villiers, CEO, and Co-Founder at Clickatell says that “Chat 2 Pay addresses today’s boom worldwide in digital payments – a shift in consumer behavior and response to the impact of the pandemic. It also helps address consumers’ physical proximity concerns, while reducing fraud. Chat 2 Pay delivers a secure, frictionless, and contact-free checkout—with no need to hand credit cards to merchants or read card details over the phone.”
He says that “as chat commerce accelerates, we are innovating to create payment systems like Chat 2 Pay where all brands no matter the size may accept payments in the chat channels consumers have come to love, trust, and use every day.
“By taking the payment capabilities brands have on their websites, apps, and in their call centers, and making them available via chat, simpler payments will further drive adoption of this low-cost, efficient channel for interactions and transactions.”
How Clickatell’s Chat 2 Pay works
Clickatell says it is offering Chat 2 Pay to midsize and large businesses around the world.
The Clickatell Chat 2 Pay solution provides a pay-by-link capability, empowering brands to request and facilitate payments in three easy steps:
A merchant’s customer service or sales representative triggers a payment request from a standard CRM or order management system (OMS) and sends it to the customer as a link.
The customer receives a secure payment link via SMS or WhatsApp. When clicking on the link, it directs the customer to a hosted, responsive checkout page.
A customer then completes details and submits a payment receiving an order confirmation and receipt via chat.
