Consumer engagement platforms are fast emerging as the new icons for brand marketing across MENA – and also globally – with their market size in the MENA region projected to zoom to $6 billion by 2030 from an estimated $1.5 billion currently, a new research said.
Popular chatting channels such as WhatsApp and conversational AI will be the biggest gainers in the surge in consumer engagement market, predicted to garner as much as one-third of the market share.
The sudden expansion in the market is also pushing transformative cloud-based solutions such as ‘Communications Platform as a Service’ (CPaaS) and ‘Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) to the forefront for empowering and revolutionising businesses on how to connect and engage with their customers, amid the transitioning of MENA’s digital economy from the acquisition phase to a new era of customer retention, research by the new-age tech-focused advisory firm RedSeer Strategy Consultants said.
“CPaaS and CCaaS platforms are redefining how companies connect and engage with their customers, and help them to adapt to the ever-evolving consumer landscape, providing customisable and full-stack solutions to meet cross-industry needs,” the study said.
MENA’s rising daily user-hour digital activities – estimated at close to two billion currently – is aiding the spike in the importance of these consumer engagement channels, it said.
Engaging the digital-first consumer
The study said MENA consumers are spending close to half of their daily awake time for personal digital activities, making it paramount for brands to engage with them online.
Significantly, this comes at a time when the region’s digital economy is transitioning from the massive acquisition phase to a new era of customer retention.
“In this backdrop, industries across sectors must anchor their strategies around delivering superior customer support and engagement across channels,” RedSeer said.
“Low pricing or occasional discounts might cause an abrupt surge in order volumes, however consumers now prioritise smooth day-to-day experiences and prompt responses to their concerns and queries which will bear dividends in the medium to long term,” it said.
Akshay Jayaprakasan, Associate Partner at Redseer, said companies and brands now face the tougher task of maintaining customer loyalty and retaining them in the long run.
“Customer engagement is critical in this context, and this is why we see CPaaS companies’ solutioning for these needs seeing exponential growth, while other digital economy sectors see only slight moderation,” Jayaprakasan told Arabian Business.
He said the last 2-3 years saw massive organic customer acquisition across digital sectors which helped companies save millions of dollars that would have otherwise been spent on creating awareness, education, and customer acquisition.
Empowering direct connections
The RedSeer study said the staggering growth projected for consumer engagement platforms highlights the industry’s recognition of the crucial role that effective customer engagement plays in driving success and customer loyalty.
“While the usage of such solutions was concentrated among the large BFSI sector and the digital economy in early days, we see a much more widespread adoption across numerous sectors, such as retail, healthcare, education and even government, in recent times,” it said.
RedSeer said brands no longer view customer engagement platforms as an additional cost as they have started to realise the revenue upside that can be generated through seamless and direct customer engagement regardless of their locations.
Confirming the trend, industry experts said platforms offering full stack customisable solutions are being sought after by companies and brands to help them gain a competitive edge in customer service.
“We’re disrupting how businesses and customers talk to each other. In an era where consumers are digitally connected, we’ve tapped into the pulse of the changing market dynamics, providing a connected customer conversation platform, thereby breaking silos,” Udit Agrawal, VP & Global Head of Marketing at Exotel, a leading full stack customer engagement platform, told Arabian Business.
“This helps in building contextual, seamless, brand-customer interactions,” Agrawal said.
WhatsApp and conversational AI are at the forefront of this growth
The study said WhatsApp and conversational AI, which together currently represent 5-10 percent of the customer engagement platforms market, will be the growth engines over the next 5-8 years and represent more than one-third of the spending by 2030.
“In a rapidly evolving business landscape, the focus is shifting from mere short-term profits to long-term and sustainable customer relationships. WhatsApp and conversational AI are at the forefront of this transformative growth, with messaging now taking up a bulk of online time spent by MENA consumers,” the study said.
Pankaj Gupta, CEO and Founder of EnableX, a leading CPaaS platform, said WhatsApp in particular helps brands be present where customers are already spending time.
“Understanding customers’ inherent needs based on data from the first transaction onwards, you’re adding context, which makes conversations richer for both customers and brands,” Gupta told Arabian Business.
“We’re seeing phenomenal traction with brands building experiences using WhatsApp’s latest features, and as client-side analytics grows, the possibilities will be endless,” he said.
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