It seems that a new shopping function will be added on Viber on March 6, 2017. This means that the 800 million global users will be able to browse and share products from participating online retailers.
HINT: In order to complete a purchase, you will be redirected to the retailer website.
Viber users will need to tap a shopping button to browse products from an undisclosed number of retailers that will be integrated in the application. Some of the brands that will be added once this feature will be enabled are: Macy’s Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Bloomingdale’s and more.
According to a Viber spokesman, the shopping integration aims to make it easier for consumers to discuss a potential purchase via the application. In other words, instead of leaving the application to share a link, image or screenshot of the product, they can just tap on the shopping icon on the chat screen and search for a product and send it in the chat. After that, the user will tap “Share in chat” to get her friend’s advice.
In addition, a consumer is able to tap on the “Learn more” button next to the product and it will receive a link to the retailer’s mobile site or application. Also, if the user purchases the product, Viber will receive a commission for it, but the Viber spokesman has declined to reveal more details about it.
We have to mention that Viber is not the only mobile messaging application that has added chat functionality for retailers. For example, Kik has announced in October 2016 that the retailers will be able to add chat bots to communicate with the users. Retailers such as Sephora USA Inc. and H&M have already launched a chat bot on Kit to communicate with their consumers.
What are your thoughts about the new feature that the Viber application will receive soon?
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