Clickatell, a pioneer in mobile messaging and Chat Commerce innovation, announced significant momentum in 2024, driven by surging demand for its Chat Commerce platform. Clickatell's AI-enabled Chat Commerce Platform meets a growing need among businesses to provide seamless, real-time support and transaction capabilities to their customers through popular chat apps such as WhatsApp and Apple Business Messenger. By allowing consumers to complete tasks such as boarding a flight, paying a friend, filing a claim, and accessing customer support without needing to update a provider’s app or switch between websites and call centers, Clickatell addresses the challenges of fragmented customer journeys and high service costs.
Clickatell has achieved remarkable performance milestones, with its AI-enabled Chat Commerce Platform recording a 224% year-over-year growth, establishing the company as a leader in conversational commerce. It boasts a 21% market penetration among economically active South Africans, positioning it as the top Chat Commerce provider in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Clickatell’s solutions power seamless customer interactions for major brands across diverse sectors, including ABSA in banking, FlySafair in airlines, Pick n Pay in retail, Dis-Chem in healthcare, Europcar in travel, Telkom in telecoms, Tiger Wheel & Tyre in automotive, Woolworths Financial Services in finance, and Discovery in insurance. Recognized as a top Business Service Provider for Meta in the region, Clickatell’s platform adheres to rigorous security standards like PCI-DSS, ISO27001, and SOC2 Type 2.
Additionally, it underscores its commitment to social impact through B-BBEE Level 3 compliance. "We are thrilled with the exceptional growth of our AI-enabled Chat Commerce platform," said Pieter de Villiers, co-founder and CEO of Clickatell. "This momentum signifies the increasing importance for brands to meet their customers where they are and to invest in the largest digital engagement platform that exists today—chat. With the upgrades to our platform and our strong commitment to compliance and security, we are well-positioned to further empower businesses and consumers across South Africa and beyond."
Clickatell continues to advance its Chat Commerce Platform with enhanced AI-powered capabilities to drive global scalability across various use cases, including Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Airlines, Retail, Automotive, Telecommunications, Hospitality, Education and Healthcare. These enhancements include the following:
Clickatell AI
Clickatell AI offers generative AI capabilities that improve customer service and support. Features include Gen-AI-enabled smart responses and suggested responses to live agents, as well as recognizing customer intent in natural language, leading to more efficient and effective customer interactions. By utilizing a private and secure large language model (LLM) trained on customer data, Clickatell ensures personalized and contextually relevant responses while maintaining data privacy and security. This feature enables businesses to scale their customer service operations, increase conversions and revenue, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce costs.
Data and Analytics
Clickatell’s Data and Analytics services offer dashboards and reporting tools, accessible via a user portal, that provide a comprehensive view of Chat Commerce campaigns and performance. To ensure complete data control, raw information can also be fed into the enterprise’s own data lakes, ensuring all analysis and history are maintained in their proprietary environments. This data is delivered at different levels of granularity, allowing businesses to make informed decisions and derive insights about customer behavior. The service includes a data dictionary, manifest files for data reconciliation, and self-healing capabilities to ensure data integrity and reliability.
Broadcast Messenger
Clickatell also launched an updated version of its marketing messaging tool, Campaign Manager, now called Broadcast Messenger, which helps businesses connect with their audiences through chat. This enterprise-grade messaging web app is designed to streamline the creation, management, and delivery of WhatsApp and SMS messages at scale. With a user-friendly web interface, customers can personalize messages, add rich media such as videos, images, and locations, and schedule campaigns. Broadcast Messenger supports sending promotional messages, exclusive content, discount codes, event invitations, and newsletters, enhancing customer engagement and improving communication efficiency. This tool provides an easy way for businesses to start their Chat Commerce journey.
Clickatell's success aligns with South Africa's growing mobile-first landscape. According to Kepios, as of January 2024, nearly 99% of South African internet users connect via mobile devices, highlighting the vast potential of Chat Commerce solutions in the region.
Clickatell is at the forefront of this exciting transition, driving innovation and seamless mobile communication experiences for businesses and consumers alike.
