Grocery giant Asda teams up with Infobip to become largest RCS traffic sender in the UK
Infobip has announced a partnership with Asda to launch what is pitched as the largest Rich Communication Services (RCS) business messaging traffic in the UK.
The initiative will help to support messaging across the online customer journey, including order confirmation, delivery times and substitutions.
The roll-out has made Asda the first major UK grocer to launch RCS business messaging in the UK.
This brings a mobile app’s functionality into the messaging platform.
It will enable Asda to deal with its customers via native messages apps, with no additional installation or downloading. The messages showcase its logo, brand name, and links.
Martin Coates, Comms Product Manager at Asda, says: “Ensuring our customers receive exceptional customer service is a key focus for us and we’re excited to be the first retailer to offer this innovation to customers.”
“The idea is that that by providing customers with that additional peace of mind, we’ll boost customer engagement and reduce the number of failed deliveries.”
“Infobip's CX workshop helped us identify how to improve Asda’s entire customer journey through automation, AI, rich conversational communication, and a customer first approach, which has led to this first step into RCS business messaging.”
Krešo Žmak, VP Products at Infobip, comments: “Asda is now the first UK grocer to stand out from the competition in this way, elevating its customer engagement and attracting higher engagement rates.”
“The next generation of messaging is here, and it is set to provide consumers the features and functionality they look for in chat apps, in the comfortable confines of their mobile device’s native messaging platform, and from branded and verified sender they can trust.”
Wayve
Asda customers can now receive their shopping via a Wayve self-driving vehicle in what is pitched as the UK’s largest autonomous grocery home delivery trial.
In partnership with Wayve, the year long trial will give the supermarket the ability to autonomously deliver groceries to a catchment area of over 170,000 residents across 72,000 households in London.
The self-driving vehicles will join its existing online delivery operation at the Park Royal superstore in West London and have the capability to drive themselves to customers’ homes.
Asda Park Royal customers can place their next-day delivery orders online as usual, choosing from the full range of online products and selecting a delivery slot that suits them.
The only difference is they could be randomly selected to have their order delivered in a self-driving vehicle.
During the trial, both an Asda colleague and supervising Wayve safety driver will be in the vehicle when making deliveries. Asda colleagues will load and unload the groceries at the customer’s home.
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