Clickatell Announces First Chat-Commerce-Platform-As-A-Service

Clickatell, a pioneer in mobile messaging and Chat Commerce innovation, today announced the launch of the world’s first Chat Commerce Platform as a Service (CCPaaS) that empowers brands to capitalise on the opportunity of chat commerce, the emerging next wave of digital commerce.

This ground-breaking platform enables businesses to seamlessly connect, interact and transact with their customers on the messaging platforms they already use. Clickatell’s April 2023 release of the first Chat Commerce Platform as a Service delivers full, authenticated commerce experiences within the most widely adopted mobile messaging environments, such as WhatsApp, Apple Messages, SMS and USSD.

This next evolution of Clickatell’s Chat Commerce Platform allows businesses to create chat commerce experiences that drive sales and increase customer satisfaction. Businesses stay ahead of the conversational commerce trend by conducting commerce in the world’s largest messaging apps. Clickatell’s CCPaaS also allows businesses to save time and reduce costs by providing relevant, in-context brand experiences and secure payment capabilities to their customers through the convenience of messaging. New platform features include card tokenisation and integration with WhatsApp Commerce functionalities that allow the display of product information and images in the brand’s WhatsApp channel.

New Innovative Payments In Chat

CCPaaS is the first SaaS solution to provide secure payment processing by integrating with leading payment gateways, allowing businesses to efficiently process transactions within the chat interface. With card tokenisation, consumers can securely pay via a link in any messaging channel, leading to a Clickatell-hosted checkout that tokenises the user’s payment information and saves it for future use — making subsequent purchases streamlined for the consumer with ‘one tap pay.’ The platform is PCI-DSS, ISO27001 and SOC2 compliant, ensuring the highest security standards for data protection and privacy.

“The launch of Clickatell’s Chat Commerce Platform as a Service marks a significant milestone in our company’s mission to revolutionise customer engagement and facilitate frictionless commerce within messaging apps,” said Pieter de Villiers, CEO and Co-Founder at Clickatell. “We run our lives within messaging apps; whether arranging a lunch with a friend or scheduling a school drop-off, messaging is convenient and simple.”

He added, “Our new platform enables our favourite brands to serve us in these same messaging platforms with a full commerce experience, such as checking into your next flight and paying for a seat upgrade. As the first of its kind, CCPaaS sets a new standard for the future of chat commerce and reinforces Clickatell’s pioneering position in the industry. We made history in 2000 when we became the first company to connect the world’s fastest-growing commerce platform – the internet – with the world’s fastest-growing communications platform – the mobile phone – via our SMS Gateway. I am proud to see our team continuing the innovation and executing on the vision.”

“As commerce continues to evolve yet again, we are helping brands to engage with their customers in this emerging chat commerce space,” said Jeppe Dorff, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Clickatell. “Our vision has always been to create a chat commerce platform that is focused and built around the key performance metrics that matter most to our customers, performance and operational efficiencies, customer satisfaction and increased business improvements. Our Chat Commerce Platform as a Service not only achieves that vision, it also provides an unparalleled user experience for both brands and their consumers, while fostering digital transformation and in-context communications with the click of a button. With our innovative low/no-code platform, businesses may rapidly implement and customise their chat commerce solutions, regardless of technical expertise.”