Appier adds omnichannel chatbot platform BotBonnie to its AI-powered solutions to boost conversational marketing

BotBonnie becomes available on Appier today following the acquisition agreement in May

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Media
OutReach – 22 June 2021 – Appier
(TSE: 4180) today announced the launch of BotBonnie, an omnichannel conversational
marketing platform, boosting Appier’s suite of AI-powered solutions that are
designed to help customers intelligently navigate the complex customer journey
on messenger services. The launch today marks Appier’s debut in the
conversational commerce and marketing space, a move that is in line with their
customer-centric approach to full-funnel marketing strategy. BotBonnie is
available across the Asia Pacific markets in English, Japanese and Traditional
Chinese.

According to Gartner¹,
customer loyalty is created when businesses help customers solve their
problems, but at the same time, customer service interactions are nearly four
times more likely to lead to disloyalty than loyalty. Gartner cites the
deployment of chatbots as one strategy to increase digital containment where
customers can self-serve to solve their issues i.e. freeing up customer service
agent’s time to work on solving priority issues for customers. An omnichannel
chatbot platform like BotBonnie is adept at identifying marketing scenarios and
offers great flexibility for customers to implement their chat solutions in one stop across multiple messaging
channels, so businesses can boost sales and build customer loyalty.

By adding BotBonnie
to Appier’s suite of AI-powered solutions, Appier customers can benefit from
the full strength of an AI-informed platform and analytics to navigate the
entire customer journey seamlessly across offline and online environments. Data
enrichment from conversational data analysis can contribute to the learning
capabilities of AI models and enable more robust predictions of customer
behaviour and take personalized services to the next level.

In addition,
BotBonnie can foster Appier’s product synergy from user prospecting and
acquiring, retention and engagement to the transaction. By leveraging
conversational AI chatbot, customers can identify and retarget high LTV
customers through CrossX advertising solutions, then direct customers to the
social media channels like Facebook Messenger, LINE and even Google Business
Messages to continue automatic customer engagement. By analyzing customers’
interactions, AIQUA can trigger personalized web/app pushes or AiDEAL can
deliver suitable coupons to convert new users to customers.

Furthermore,
conversational data analysis allows companies to better understand customer
trends and adjust the level of personalization at every touchpoint. For
instance, customers can benefit from the conversational unstructured data
utilized by AIXON, Appier’s data science platform to generate valuable business
insights and enhance prediction accuracy.

Conversational
commerce is a global phenomenon on the rise as total spend over conversational
commerce channels will reach $290 billion by 2025 globally; rising from $41
billion in 2021. This is a 590% increase over the next four years. The entire
sales process, from product discovery to checkout, can be handled by chatbots².
Gartner³ predicts that by 2023, 40% of enterprise applications
will have embedded conversational AI from below 5% today. BotBonnie’s expertise
in FMCG, chain store, finance, education, automobile and e-commerce will
further speed up Appier’s customer expansion.

“Customers have
fueled the growth of commerce in Asia as the pandemic continues to loom over
this region the past year and a half. Retailers and eCommerce brands have
contributed to the maturity of conversational commerce, and AI chatbots can
lead to more natural interactions for customers to engage with commerce on
messengers,” said Chih-Han Yu, CEO and co-founder of Appier. “Adding BotBonnie
to our product lineup of AI solutions lets us extend our capability to
messenger engagement and our customers can tackle all aspects of the customer
journey in one-stop with Appier. Businesses looking to thrive in the new normal
have to embrace the customer-centric approach and hop on the conversational
marketing train because it has the power to turn a customer into a returning,
loyal customer.”

“There is so much synergy
between BotBonnie and Appier, and today’s launch will truly bring the complete
omnichannel experience for our customers to achieve hyper-personalized
experiences across the entire customer journey from offline to online,” added
Roy Lo, CEO and co-founder of BotBonnie. “Joining Appier enables BotBonnie to
expand our services to the world. Combining Appier’s strong AI and data
analysis capabilities with BotBonnie’s experience in conversational commerce, I
believe our products will really bring to life the power of conversational
marketing to our customers in Asia Pacific and help them succeed and thrive in
the new normal.”

Following today’s
closing of the acquisition of BotBonnie, their employees will now formally be
Appier employees and continue their operations under Appier. CEO Roy Lo, will
continue his role to lead the BotBonnie team, partnering with the team at
Appier to bring greater alignment and synergy to all customers.

1 Improve customer experience to gain loyalty

2 How conversational commerce will make its voice heard

3 Emerging Technologies: Tech Innovators in Conversational AI and Virtual Assistants