Ingenico launch Belgium’s first chatbot that enables direct payments via Facebook Messenger

Ingenico Group, the global leader in seamless payment, together with The House of Marketing spin-off BotBakery, has announced the launch of Belgium’s first chatbot that processing payments for Belgian news outlet Het Laatste Nieuws via the social messaging platform Facebook Messenger.

„We are at the start of a conversational economy. People are becoming increasingly used to their devices being able to respond to their voice commands, requesting information or carrying out certain tasks without having to open a website. In addition, chatbots are becoming increasingly popular in business, because of their direct, personal and seamless user experience.”, says Ingenico.

So when customers want to complete an e-commerce transaction, why redirect them to a website, at the risk of losing them along the way? Why not just keep customers on the Facebook platform and complete the transaction through the chatbot?

BotBakery and Ingenico have joined forces to ensure that Het Laatste Nieuws (De Persgroep) is the first news media brand to complete new subscriptions, including payment, through their Facebook and website chatbots.

„BotBakery created the chatbot and the integration with the systems of Ingenico and Het Laatste News. Ingenico, on the other hand, guarantees the highest level of payment security. A level as safe as any webshop payment – no credit card data is shared with the chat app itself and the data remain in possession of De Persgroep. Ingenico together with Joinedapp, a start-up located in Palo Alto, California, have developed a fully integrated payment solution compliant with all major messaging apps – including Facebook Messenger, Line, Telegram, Kik, Skype, Slack and WeChat.”, according to the press release.

When we compare chatbots to other channels, we repeatedly see increased engagement levels during interactions with a chatbot. Therefore, we are able to boost mobile conversion rates by eliminating the redirect to a website, instead replacing it with a conversational interface, such as a chatbot”, Dennis Peeters, Master BotBaker at BotBakery, explains. “Being able to complete a transaction is an important step in optimizing the overall user experience. With this technology, we create a real win-win situation: an increase in return on investment and conversion rate for businesses, and a better user experience for consumers.”

„Conversational commerce is at the core of the Ingenico Group’s innovation strategy for the coming years, » according to Gertjan Dewaele, Product Innovation Manager at Ingenico. „The number of consumers that use messaging platforms is increasing, which makes these platforms an interesting new sales channel for online entrepeneurs such as De Persgroep. By incorporating payments into the chatbot, De Persgroep eliminates conversion killers from the buying journey, thus enabling a seamless customer experience.”
The next step is looking into the possibilities of incorporating payments in channels other than Facebook Messenger or company websites.