Berlin-based Startup is Bringing 'Conversational Commerce' to Whatsapp; Receives €6.4M ($7.5M) Funding

Lee Mercado, Tech Times 06 April 2021, 08:04 am

Woman Online Shopping by Phone — (Photo : PhotoMIX Company from Pexels)

A Berlin-based startup successfully seeds €6.4 million ($7.5 million) to bring the growing e-commerce trend to Whatsapp and other chat apps.

Charles, the e-commerce startup, was launched in 2020 by Artjem Weissbeck and Andreas Tussing and received seed funding led by Accel and HV Capital.

The two had run a year-long experiment to see how the "Conversational-Commerce" Software as a Service (SaaS) platform could help businesses sell their products.

(Photo : Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Conversational-Commerce: The growing SaaS in a Nutshell

A January 2015 article from Medium first described conversational commerce as a concierge-style service that delivers convenience, decision support, and personalization to people with only partial attention to spare.

"'Traffic' and with it 'conversion' will exponentially move from the streets (retail) and the browser/native apps into chat apps," Weissbeck said. "Thereby, conversational commerce will be the third big pillar of commerce, gluing together all channels and unlocking the full potential of personalization via the unique identification of customers via their phone number."

Accel partner Luca Bocchio seconded Weissbeck and said that conversational commerce is coming to the top as a "critical channel for brands," and is reshaping the way brands interact with customers.

Bocchio added that the conversational commerce platform, which will be offered by Charles, would pave the way for potential new category-defining tools to emerge.

Also Read: Milkman Technologies is here to make e-commerce easier

Charles: How Will The Berlin-Based Startup Make it Happen?

In a Tech Crunch article on Tuesday, Apr. 6, Weissbeck said that Charles plans to connect WhatsApp and other chat app APIs to CRM systems such as Shopify.

Their goal is to make it easier for businesses to meet their customers and bridge the gap between actual conversions that could turn into sales inquiries and support.

He added that their technology would provide businesses with the tools needed to address the challenges brought by the transition to conversational commerce.

When asked how they differ from direct competitors, Weissbeck explains Charles would be built upon a "feed" logic, which would show customer interaction as an ongoing conversation just like how the customers see it.

"When we talk to potential clients it's mostly existing customer service tools like Zendesk who are starting to add chat apps as an additional channel," Weissbeck said, adding that the tools available today are built upon a "ticketing logic," meant to solve a customer's inquiry instead of making a sale.

Tussing further described that Charles would make it easy for businesses to promote their products and make the sale with their "very design-driven and intuitive interface."

He added that Charles does not intend to replace chatbots; rather it will support and put the agent in the center of the conversation with a prospective customer.

According to Weissbeck, Charles would charge businesses a monthly base fee to cover the SaaS' fixed costs and will charge an additional for every conversion made using the app.

TechEU reported on December 2020 that Weissbeck and Tussing received €1 million ($1.18 million) in funding to launch Charles.