Diegem, May 22nd, 2018 – Ingenico Group, the global leader in seamless payment, and BotBakery, a spin-off of The House of Marketing, announce the launch of Belgium’s first chatbot 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 task without having to open a website. In addition, chatbots are becoming increasingly popular in business, because of their direct, personal and seamless user experience.

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

BotBakery and Ingenico have joined forces to ensure Het Laatste Nieuws 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 Nieuws. 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 the possession of De Persgroep. Ingenico, together with Joinedapp, a start-up located in Palo Alto, California, developed a fully integrated payment solution compliant with all major messaging apps – including Facebook Messenger, Line, Telegram, Kik, Skype, Slack and WeChat.

“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 those 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.

About BotBakery

Botbakery brings together artificial intelligence, user interfaces, personalization and user experience through the creation of bots. This way, BotBakery realizes an optimized user experience and a more efficient personalization for consumers. BotBakery is a spin-off from The House of Marketing, the marketing agency specializing in strategic marketing consultancy and interim management.

BotBakery and The House of Marketing are part of the Quanteus Group.

www.botbakery.eu

About Ingenico Group

Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the world’s largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the world’s best known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise.

www.ingenico.com 

Contacts

Ingenico ePayments / PR
Julie Luppens
Marketing Manager Benelux
Julie.luppens@ingenico.com
+32 476 52 49 74

BotBakery
Dennis Peeters
Master BotBaker
dennis.peeters@thom.eu
+32 472 92 36 36