Conversable Launches Social Commerce Platform

Conversable, a Texas-based startup, is challenging how consumers shop on their mobile phones with its bot-based ordering platform.

“Bots are easy; conversations are hard,” says its brand’s unique selling point. The platform is offering a message-based, white-label eCommerce platform over IM services, like Facebook Messenger, Twitter and text messaging, which it says keeps the shopping experience conversational.

“Conversable’s goal is to be platform-agnostic and allow brands to deploy conversational experiences for the messaging platforms that are relevant to the particular brand’s customers,” said Ben Lamm, cofounder and CEO of Conversable.

The chatbot platform, which was founded in 2014, has now partnered with restaurant chain Wingstop. The Conversable platform will enable Wingstop’s customers to order food, look up nearby locations and even check on potential food allergens — all through Facebook Messenger or Twitter.

“What I love about this is that, over time, companies can just keep adding new conversation trees to the core platform so that, over time, you can respond to more things without spending years and a fortune building out mobile apps,” said Lamm. “For me, as a consumer, my experience with a brand just gets better and better as I can do more.”

The startup says its platform does not integrate artificial intelligence into its chatbots, which is a contrast to other chatbots in the market. Conversable’s chatbots will only help with brand engagement and improved user experience, TechCrunch reported.

“While machine learning and AI are interesting, brands want to understand more context at the individual node of the question or response. They want to grab analytics and empower the business to understand what people are asking,” Lamm said.

According to VentureBeat, the company is reportedly also working on finalizing deals with three other partners, including an airline, a movie theater company and a national pizza chain.

The company’s enterprise SaaS model will reportedly rely on charging its customers for system integration and an annual license fee.