A new customer channel in the digital transformation: should conversational commerce be included in retailing businesses in India?

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to examine the determinants of consumer behavioural intention (BI) to use
conversational agents (WhatsApp, Alexa, etc.) in the retail market in India and develop an extended
UTAUT2 model. The outcomes are based on open-ended exploratory questions posted on Linked-In
Profile and Upgrade SSBM Students WhatsApp group. This study finds that convenience, efficiency, and
anthropomorphism strongly influence BI to use conversational agents (CAs) in purchase and customer
service. However, the perceived risks of conversational commerce are significantly high due to the low
diffusion of technology in India, with the negative beliefs toward CAs being transparency, lack of trust,
security and privacy, limited control, and technical limitation. Overall, integrating the latest security,
intelligent QnA, privacy, better control, and removing AI bias will build trust in CAs shopping and
service. This paper contributes the necessary knowledge on conversational AI agents for B2X digital
transformation strategies in the Indian retail business.