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fxbrokersempire · 3 years

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Honest Forex Broker Review - Fx Pro

Fx Pro Trading Brokerage Fully Reviewed

In this summary we are going to make a fully reviewed explanation of Fx Pro trading brokerage in some detail.

About FxPro

Founded in 2006, FxPro has executed more than 500 million orders since its inception and has serviced more than 1.8 million clients in over 173 countries. As of 2021, FxPro lists over $100m in Tier 1 Capital and has more than 200 employees across its 4 offices.

The FxPro brand holds regulatory licenses in the United Kingdom (UK) under FxPro UK Limited, Cyprus under FxPro Financial Services Limited, South Africa, and the Bahamas. Making Fx Pro a highly trusted broker by many retail & institutional traders.

FxPro competes among the top MetaTrader brokers, offering the full suite of MT4 and MT5 platforms with multiple accounts and execution methods. The only drawback to an otherwise balanced forex broker is pricing that is slightly higher than the industry average.

In the below table please take your time to view some of Fx Pro's features & benefits:

Start Trading Like A Pro With Fx Pro

Is FxPro Safe?

FxPro is considered very low-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 93 out of 99. FxPro is not publicly traded and does not operate a bank. FxPro is authorized by one tier-1 regulator (high trust), two tier-2 regulators (average trust), and one tier-3 regulator (low trust). FxPro is fully authorized & regulated by the following tier-1 regulators: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Fx Pro is extremely unlikely to be a scam broker. and has been tried & tested by Fx Brokers Empire.

Commissions and Fees FxPro's pricing is slightly higher than the industry average, putting it at a small disadvantage compared to its peers, such as Etoro or HF Markets, who both also offer the full MetaTrader and cTrader suites just like FxPro does. However what they lose in price is far outweighed with better options & service. Execution method: On FxPro MT4, you can choose either variable or fixed spreads. For the variable spread pricing, there are two types of execution-based pricing: instant and market. Instant execution is subject to requotes but no slippage, while market execution has the potential for slippage but without requotes. Commissions: FxPro offers its most competitive spreads on its cTrader platform, which uses commission-based pricing. FxPro's effective spread to trade EUR/USD is roughly 1.27 pips, based on 0.37 average spread + 0.9 pip commission equivalent on cTrader, using August 2020 data. Spreads: FxPro's floating rate model (variable spread) is available on both MT4 and MT5, with EUR/USD spreads of 1.57 pips for accounts on market execution (1.51 pips on MT5) and 1.71 for accounts with instant execution, as per August 2020 data from FxPro. Fixed pricing: On MT5, there is no fixed spread offering, and only market execution is available. Other platforms such as MT4 and web traders offer fixed pricing models. Active traders: FxPro offers an Active Trader program, & provides loyalty rewards for its longstanding traders. Executing large orders: Without question, FxPro's best feature is its ability to execute large trading orders, which can be placed with no minimum distance away from the current market price. A high liquidity broker which is important for high frequency & big money traders

Platforms and Tools Thanks to offering MetaTrader, cTrader, and its own in built proprietary FxPro Edge web platform, traders at FxPro have a diverse selection of platform options depending on their trading style. Both beginners & experts can enjoy trading and perform with there respective platforms. MetaTrader suite: FxPro offers the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platform for web and desktop. A notable add-on is available for MT4 which is the suite of trading tools from Trading Central that can be rather helpful. cTrader: The FxPro cTrader platform is available for web and desktop. The cAlgo platform can also be used to enable algorithmic trading when using cTrader at FxPro. Proprietary platform: FxPro Edge is a light web-based platform that has robust charts and a responsive design. There are a few default layouts, and users can drag and drop the modules to rearrange them and add new widgets. Overall, there is a good foundation established for the future, especially for such a new in built platform. There will definitely be more updated features to this platform to enhance traders performance. Research FxPro provides great daily market updates and analysis on its blog, along with content from third-party providers. Overall, we found the written articles from FxPro's in-house staff to be of a good quality. More Video content would help fill the gap in research, as FxPro's YouTube channel is mostly webinars, platform tutorials, and promotional videos. FxPro News blog: There are multiple articles per day available on FxPro's dedicated blog, including its 'Market Snapshots' series. These articles provide a daily outlook and are nicely organized, making it easy to consume, understand & apply in volatile market conditions. Traders dashboard: FxPro has a client portal where users can access sentiment data for various symbols and forex pairs, along with the trading session times and a summary of gainers and losers. There is also an integrated economic calendar. Adding trading capabilities to the client portal, or merging these features with the Edge platform, would help to centralize these resources in one place.Fx Pro Education FxPro has a general education section where it provides written materials, along with some educational videos on its website. Overall, FxPro has a good foundation of educational content. Expanding its coverage and adding other videos on some more advanced trading elements would balance out the FxPro educational offering.Written content: FxPro's educational section features mini cards with key information and short paragraphs explaining things like "what is a stop out" in less than six sentences. There are 36 cards in the Psychology section and four other areas, each with a collection of learning cards. There is even progress tracking, so you know which modules or chapters you have finished, which is a nice touch.

Mobile Trading

Alongside providing its proprietary FxPro Direct app for trading, account management, and basic market news, FxPro's mobile lineup is powered by the same third-party providers as its desktop and web-based platforms: MetaTrader (Meta Quotes) and cTrader (Spotware).

cTrader: FxPro's white-labeled version of cTrader is consistent with the web-based platform, offering traders a really friendly & easy to use trading experience with a variety of trading tools. As far as third-party mobile apps go, cTrader is very versatile.

MetaTrader: The mobile versions of the MT4 and MT5 platforms are presented as standard from the developer with default features. In 2021, FxPro is a Best in Class MetaTrader Broker due to a range on smart trading indicators & strong liquidity.

FxPro Direct: The FxPro Direct app is the broker's proprietary mobile app which supports trading for users that have a CFD account, but is mainly optimized for account management. With just a quotes, trades, and history tab, we found that the FxPro Direct app was not very ideal for trading, compared to FxPro's other available mobile platforms. Meanwhile, the FxPro Edge platform is not yet available for mobile.

While FxPro does not stand out for its pricing, FxPro is a well-capitalized, trustworthy broker that offers multiple platform options, multiple execution methods, and, for professionals, can cleanly execute large orders. Fx Pro Trust FxPro scores quite well when it comes to reputation and trustworthiness. Most importantly, they are regulated in the United Kingdom, which is reputedly safer than some regulators in the EU. FxPro also advertises that they have one of the highest counterparty credit ratings in the industry, scoring a whopping 95 on a hundred point scale, where a high score indicates a lower risk of default or bankruptcy. They also participate in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) that allows clients to claim compensation in the event FxPro were to become insolvent up to £80,000. They also offer clients negative balance protection under new EU guidelines that prevent clients from losing more money than they have deposited. So they are clearly not worried about liquidity issues as they have good insurances in place. One negative for FxPro is the absence of guaranteed stop‑loss orders. Some brokers offer this feature for a fee, but this is not offered by FxPro at all. Fx Pro Special Features FxPro offers traders algorithmic trading through cTrader, which is an advanced algo and technical indicator coding application that allows traders to create and build algorithmic trading strategies and custom indicators. This is a smart technological feature that is not offered by many brokers and definitely worth checking out. FxPro also offers a Virtual Private Server (VPS) that enables clients to upload and run MT4 Expert Advisors and algo bots, 24 hours a day, without needing to keep the trading terminal running. These applications also allow for back testing of trading strategies.

Fx Pro Customer Support FxPro prides itself on its "five‑star customer service," specifically its multilingual, 24‑hour Monday‑through‑Friday (24/5) customer service team. Their live phone support operates in several locations with a toll‑free number in the U.K., France, Germany, UAE, and Russia. Live chat is offered for both live trading clients and prospective clients. Unlike other brokers, they have a physical office in London with a reception desk that is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Some social media support is available on Twitter, but this is mainly news related rather than specifically for customer support.

Please Note: The FCA has a ban in place for the sale of crypto-derivatives to UK retail consumers as from 6th January 2021.

Fx Brokers Empire's Conclusion For Fx Pro

We recommend trading with this broker and find it to be a very trustworthy broker. Due to its popularity and multi tiered regulations, Fx Pro is extremely unlikely to be a scam. Fx Brokers Empire recommends using Fx Pro for its high liquidity & execution service. Along with outstanding customer support based on our own experiences & our client feedback. Using there run on line 'Trade Like A Pro' they definitely have weight in there words and offer some decent trading features. We further recommend not to start a investment account with Fx Pro in excess of £25,000 initially until you get used to the platform offered and all its features. Fx Pro is a highly popular trading choice & has a well branded name that delivers results for its traders, across Europe, Asia & most definitely in the UK as a trusted broker.

Fx Brokers Empire rates Fx Pro as a 4.5/5 star broker

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Start Trading Like A Pro With Fx Pro

#fx pro review #detailed fx pro review #fxpro #fxproreview #fxproreviewed #fx pro reviewed #fx pro best fca broker review

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theliberaltony · 6 years

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup.

Poll of the week

President Trump’s tweets often dominate news coverage, particularly on cable news. But let’s be honest: We here at FiveThirtyEight have occasionally written about them too. What is more, well, newsworthy than the words of the chief executive of one of the world’s most powerful nations? And since politicians are known for boring, repetitive, long-winded speeches, what could be a better political platform than one that literally forbids using more than 280 characters at a time? Twitter seems good for Trump, too: As his allies often say, it gives the president a way to speak directly to the American electorate, getting around the media’s filter. Trump’s Twitter account is followed by 52 million people, not that far off from the nearly 63 million who voted for him in 2016.

But some data released this week should give Trump and his supporters pause about the power of his Twitter account in directly reaching American voters — and push the media to think carefully about its coverage of Trump’s tweets. Only 8 percent of U.S. adults say they follow Trump’s Twitter account (@realDonaldTrump), and only 4 percent say they follow his account and regularly read the president’s tweets, according to a new Gallup poll. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 250 million Americans are age 18 or older. So Trump’s Twitter followers, based on the Gallup data, are about 20 million Americans of voting age. And the real consumers of his tweets are about 10 million.

Twenty million people isn’t nothing. Neither is 10 million. It’s more people than read FiveThirtyEight most days or watch any of the network news programs. But it’s nowhere close to the 52 million followers Twitter says he has. And it’s a small share of the roughly 325 million people who live in the U.S. or even the more than 137 million people who voted in the 2016 presidential election.

Of course, the Gallup number is just one poll, but it makes for a more realistic estimate of Trump’s Twitter audience than his official follower count. Twitter estimates that it has more than 69 million total users in the U.S., but we know that many Twitter accounts, particularly those who follow celebrities like Trump, are bots or otherwise fake. Also, remember that people of all ages and people outside of the U.S. can use Twitter. So Trump’s 52 million followers surely include some American teenagers, as well as, say, Brazilian or Japanese citizens who care about his decisions. Third, Gallup’s estimate that 26 percent of American adults have Twitter accounts is fairly close to the results of a 2016 Pew Research Center poll that found 21 percent of U.S. adults were Twitter users.

In any case, here’s why this data matters: If Trump is really speaking to 10 or 20 million American adults with his tweets, then they’re not really a means of directly reaching the American electorate at large. (Gallup estimates that just 15 percent of Republicans follow Trump on Twitter, so he’s not even directly reaching much of his base.) This data argues for treating Trump’s tweets more like presidential statements to elites, the press and other fairly politically engaged people.1

Such statements may still be important. But Trump is not really getting around the media filter via Twitter if so few voters are actually seeing his messages on the platform itself.

The Gallup report makes me think that Trump’s tweets should be covered more — not less — carefully by the press. If Trump’s tweets were just appeals to his political base, one that we know is susceptible to believing falsehoods like the claim that Barack Obama was not born in the U.S., that might argue that the tweets should be taken, well, seriously but not literally. If, on the other hand, these tweets are reaching a fairly small actual audience but are heavily influencing media coverage, that would suggest the actual messages in the tweets matter more. When I covered Obama as a White House reporter for The Washington Post, I was more interested in what he told small, elite audiences (Democratic congressional leaders, for example) than what he told crowds at rallies, as he was usually more candid and described his political strategy in more detail in the former settings.

It’s worth considering whether we think of Twitter as Trump’s megaphone and bully pulpit but it’s really his inside voice — Trump’s version of the off-record meetings with influential journalists that past presidents used to shape the views of other insiders.

Other Polling Nuggets

A poll from the Pew Research Center found that 71 percent of Americans support direct negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea over the latter’s nuclear program. That includes 85 percent of Republicans and 63 percent of Democrats. About half of Americans, however, believe that North Korea’s leadership is not serious about addressing concerns about its program.

The Associated Press, working with Fox News, is launching an interesting new exit poll project for the 2018 midterms: AP VoteCast. Basically, the idea is to get away from the traditional in-person method of surveying voters by adding in opt-in online surveys.

Americans are split on whether they favor or oppose using torture to obtain information from terrorism suspects. According to a YouGov poll from this week, 32 percent are in favor, 36 percent are opposed and 32 percent are not sure. The poll also shows a partisan split, with Republicans more likely to support using torture on terrorism suspects and Democrats more likely to oppose it.

According to the same YouGov poll, 46 percent of Americans approve of the way Trump is handling North Korea. That’s up about 9 percentage points from last December.

Harris Poll conducted a survey of over 1,000 mothers aged 25-39 with infants, toddlers or preschoolers and found that 87 percent believe that maternal and child health care in the U.S. needs immediate improvement; 89 percent of the moms interviewed agreed that access to quality prenatal and child health care should be a right, not a privilege.

Polling nerds unite! This weekend is the annual conference of the American Association for Public Opinion Research. If you’d like to get nerdy about polling, you can follow #AAPOR on Twitter and see what your favorite pollsters are up to.

SurveyMonkey took a closer look this week at Trump’s improving job approval numbers. They found that the number of Americans who perceive him as someone who “can get things done” is up 10 percentage points since its low in November 2017 and is back at levels previously seen at the start of his term.

A poll of Jewish Israelis conducted by the University of Maryland this month found that 73 percent support Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, an additional 20 percent believe he should have waited to move the embassy in the context of a peace plan, and only 5 percent oppose it altogether. A poll conducted in August of last year by the polling firm SSRS showed much more division over the issue among Jewish Americans, with 44 percent opposing the move.

A Gallup poll found that even if driverless cars were common on the roads, 75 percent of Americans would opt for a human-operated car. Just over half of Americans said they would never want to use a self-driving car even if they were certified by government auto-safety regulators.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins this week. A YouGov poll of residents of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt commissioned by Netflix showed that TV viewership increases 78 percent during Ramadan. That’s an average of three extra hours a day of watching TV shows or movies!

Trump approval rating

On Monday of this week, Trump’s approval rating hit 42.4 percent, the highest level since last May, before the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey. It had slipped slightly by the end of this week, to 42.3 percent. On May 7, about two weeks ago, Trump’s disapproval rating was below 52 percent for the first time since last May. It is now up to 52.3 percent.

Generic ballot

The Democrats are at 45.3 percent in the generic congressional ballot, their lowest standing since last June. But they remain about 6 points ahead of the Republicans, who are at 39.5 percent. Polls suggest that about 15 percent of voters are undecided on which party they will back in the midterms, and that bloc is looking increasingly important.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Perry Bacon Jr. and Dhrumil Mehta

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functioningcog · 4 years

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Hitting the bail button

"Commercial television delivers 20 million people a minute. In commercial broadcasting the viewer pays for the privilege of having himself sold. It is the consumer who is consumed. You are the product of TV. You are delivered to the advertiser who is the customer. He consumes you. The viewer is not responsible for programming - You are the end product."(Serra and Fay, 1973)

If it was true of television, it's even more true in the interactive and widespread media platforms of today. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Their brands are omnipresent. You are not their consumer. You are their product, and your data is offered and sold to the highest bidder. I have known this for sometime, but the mountain of reasons not to participate has finally tipped me over the edge. I am deleting Facebook. This doesn't make me better than anyone else, nor am I hear to preach. I just thought I'd share with you my reasons. Do with it what you will. First, a look into the past. Both mine, and ours.

In the fast food documentary "Super Size Me", one of the participants tells an anecdotal tale about cigarette companies of the past. Long before it became socially taboo to smoke, advertising for cigarettes was as commonplace, though maybe not as entertaining, as many ads we see today. Big Tobacco went further though; they advertised directly to children. Children far below legal smoking age were given toy cigarettes. It's hard today to see this as innocuous, but I imagine at the time most people had far bigger things to worry about. Well, those little innocuous toy cigarettes often had name brands on them. The tobacco companies were practicing "brand imprinting" on children as young as toddlers. They would pretend to smoke with their parents, and later on when they were old enough to smoke, they would unconsciously reach for the name brand they were familiar with. The sinister side of marketing, hard at work. It has not changed or improved in the years since.

Once when I was a kid, my father sat me down to have a talk. I wasn't in trouble; just being educated. The topic was Pokémon. The adorable, ubiquitous, trademarked pocket monsters that have dominated their corner of popular media for just about the same amount of time as I have been alive. They exist in many forms, and have evolved with the times. Videogames, toys both stuffed and model-like, card games, TV shows and films, all ad infinitum. My dad told me about the addictive nature of the games; how it's designed to grab hold of your attention, and your pocket book, and never let go. I don't remember his exact words, but the message has never left me. "Pokémon is addictive. I'm not going to buy you addictive things".

Not only is Pokémon addictive, but my father also stressed the fact that it creates a never-ending cycle for itself. There will always be new games, new cards, etc. Many medias that we enjoy have a planned ending to them. Movies, books, most TV shows, etc. They conclude and we move on to something else. We now live in an age where some of the most pervasive means of entertainment do not end. There is no logical stopping point. You can look at memes and posts and photos as long as your heart desires.

Note on Pokémon: I don't think the brand itself is evil. I have played the games in recent years and enjoy them. The lesson my dad taught me about addictions and marketing just happened to feature them. I wish I could say I have continued to avoid addictive habits and tech as an adult, but the battle is a lifelong one. Other addictions, mostly minor, have come and gone. It is the most pervasive and major one that brings me here; "Facebook"

Before I dive more into my own experience with Facebook, I'd like to share with you several of the most important influences that led me here today. The first is a fictional short story told via the anthology series "Black Mirror"; a favorite show of mine. The other two are documentaries, one from last summer and one newly released.

If you are unfamiliar with the show Black Mirror, it is an anthology series that explores the ethics and future of technology in our world through short self-contained stories. I highly recommend it. The Season 3 episode "Nosedive" follows a young woman in a world in which social standing is determined by internet interactions. People like and rate each other based on every interaction throughout their day. On your best behavior? You get some points. Accidentally snap at someone or make an off-color joke? You lose some points. Those points determine what events you attend, what cars you drive in, what jobs you can do, etc. It's not hard to extrapolate from there how our society is already well on its way to this kind of a system. The more addicted to social media we are, the more our lives revolve around the attention we get there. Likes and comments dominate our daily mood; they certainly have mine for years. It made me uncomfortable to realize how much my emotions could be controlled by digital reactions, or lack thereof. As "Nosedive" faded to black, I immediately pulled up my Facebook feed and then froze in place for a minute. "This is it. I'm looking at it". A sobering realization, yet I didn't stop my usage. The addiction continued, but no longer felt wholly innocent. By the by, this technology now exists in China. Look it up.

"The Great Hack" tells the story of a British Company called Cambridge Analytica, and how it developed it's technology to a point which the British government labeled "weapons grade communication". Analytica had contracts with a number of internet companies and groups to collect data on their users and used this data to develop tools, ads and propaganda designed to affect their target audience in highly specific ways. With the knowledge freely and unwittingly offered up by social media users, the degree to which you can predict and direct the users behavior and actions is truly disturbing. It's just human psychology and sociology combined with the newest tech. Cambridge Analytica used this data to influence elections in a number of countries around the globe, most notably the U.S. 2016 and the Brexit campaign in the U.K. They were hired first by Ted Cruz, then by Donald Trump's campaign. At the peak of the election season their American home base was being funded to the tune of over a million dollars a day and by it's end they had created and shared literally millions of targeted ads on social media. Were the ads truthful or reliable? Didn't matter. They were targeted at people most likely to shift their opinion based on the right information. And it worked. I wouldn't say that they single-handedly won the election for Trump, but they played a major part.

Cambridge Analytica was later shut down, but the cat’s out of the bag. I would expect to see both sides playing by these new rules throughout 2020. And that's all without even mentioning Russian hackers and bots, which Cambridge Analytica had nothing to do with. This documentary disturbed me. My own internal arguments and justifications in favor of Facebook were wearing thin. I began attempting to limit my usage, and calling out unreliable news posts when I saw them. But I also kept logging on daily. Repeatedly. My awareness of my addiction was growing more acute. I noticed my own behavior and reactions to the site more than before. The camels back was just a couple straws away from breaking point.

“Screened Out” focuses primarily on the how and why of social medias effects on us as people. The aforementioned psychology of what's happening. Turns out, it was always intended to addict us and keep us coming back for more. It's inherent in the design. Like gambling, like cocaine, our seemingly innocent social media is triggering dopamine reactions in our brain. Every like, every reaction, every notification is designed to draw your attention and satisfy the itch the system itself gave you. It was crafted this way knowingly and intentionally. The most widespread addiction in our modern world is available for all ages and free to top it off. Just like those toy cigarettes I mentioned earlier, the tech companies and marketing developers know quite well that children are more unsuspecting and susceptible to addictive behaviors and media. My childhood was predominantly internet free, and for that I am thankful; my addiction developed as an adult. But many children of today have all the access they want to social media and it's hard to argue it’s a good thing. They are becoming reliant on and obsessed with their image and perception before they even know who they are. Their addiction has drawn many of them into depression, or even suicide. Is being "connected" really worth it at this price?

One of the most common and persistent things I've told myself: "It's a way to stay in touch with family and friends". Yes, it certainly is. When the site was created, that goal was much more front and center and easier to enjoy. It's an admirable goal too, and if it works for you I'm happy for you. From where I'm sitting, Facebook's use for that well-meaning purpose has taken a backseat to what dominates its feed. As I scroll through multiple times a day, 80-90% of what I see is ads for things I don't need, news that I usually could do without or that is outright false, memes I could find elsewhere and people arguing and debating topics that are better discussed in person or not at all. This is what Facebook is for me now. That once enticing prospect of glimpsing the lives of my friends and family surfaces from time to time, and it's still enjoyable. Unfortunately, the bad outweighs the good these days. Again, if your experience is better than mine, please enjoy it and I'm happy for you. Aside from "Screened Out", the last piece of this decision was caused by nature; not human, but microscopic. I already knew about how fake news is created and spread via Facebook and Twitter. Donald Trump showed us just how incredibly effective it is and more evidence is not really necessary. Enter COVID-19. A global pandemic that should unite people of all beliefs in a common goal of defending ourselves from an enemy that has no morals or code. An enemy that has no mind or plan of its own. It simply spreads.

What did social media do in the face of this crises? Everything negative and nefarious about it kicked into high gear and was on full display. False narratives and conspiracies that actually endanger lives in the immediate future spread like wildfire. People arguing about data and statistics that effect us all and are utterly bipartisan. Guys, this is not ok. I do not think it an exaggeration to say that social media is precipitating a partial or total collapse of society. Something must be done to fix it, and I don't know what that something is. But I'm bowing out. This is not a system that can be fixed from the inside. Picture a casino sponsoring a gambling addicts rehab right next to the slot machines. You'd be better served just not going. As I said at the beginning, I don't want to sound preachy. My goal here was to share my decision making process and some information sources that you might appreciate. Maybe you're better at tuning out the bad side of social media than I am. Maybe you have ways by which you limit your exposure to it. I personally have addictive tendencies, and this is my way of addressing one of my longest and most insidious habits. And yes, I know that tumblr is technically another social media platform. My current intention is to use it as an outlet for my writing.

If you read all that, hi-five. Maybe being off Facebook will lead me to write more on my blog. I wish you all well and look forward to talking to you on other platforms or in person. Peace - JCP

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makemoneyonlineprofit-blog · 5 years

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How Conversational Commerce Is Forever Changing the Way We Shop

https://120profit.com/?p=2480&utm_source=SocialAutoPoster&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Tumblr Be where your customers are. That’s long been the first rule of survival for any business. And for the past decade that meant establishing a presence on social networks—Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter—while keeping an eye on the horizon of these public platforms for new opportunities. It also meant delivering excellent customer experiences on mobile devices when 4 out of 5 American consumers shop on their smartphones. But over the last two years, messaging apps have started to outpace social networks when it comes to where we spend our time. Source: Business Insider And it’s not surprising. We go on social networks to discover news and content, to share our thoughts and stories, and connect with other people. But it’s in messaging apps where we do all that plus make plans, come to decisions and become active participants in personal conversations. That’s what makes chat as an interface for commerce—or “conversational commerce”—a natural next step. What is “Conversational Commerce”? Conversational commerce is transforming the “messaging app” as we know it into so much more. Imagine a world where you could open a messaging app—on your choice of device—and type or speak: “I need a prom dress for next week, blue or white, under $200.” In seconds, you get a message back—“Here is your blue dress”—with a link to a personalized product recommendation along with express shipping selected, your choice of color, and your size already accounted for, which you can then pay for, and track the shipping status, without ever leaving the conversation. From a single sentence, your unique needs have been translated into a purchase. What’s more—you couldn’t say with certainty whether you were interacting with a bot or a human the entire time. This is just one example of conversational commerce in action and how it’s changing the way we buy things— the way your business interacts with its customers. Add the Messenger Channel for your Shopify store to create a direct line between you and your customers. Messaging Apps as a Channel to Communicate With Customers Chat is already a popular channel for customers to engage with a business in private. In fact, live chat has a 73% customer satisfaction rate, the highest rated even compared to traditional channels like email (61%) and phone (44%). But as popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger expand their functionality, they will grow to become channels that enable a more seamless customer experience from product discovery to payments to tracking the status of orders to customer service. Companies like Hyatt and Walmart are already testing out the upcoming Facebook Messenger for Business and fielding more inquiries than ever through the platform. Messaging apps create a private line of communication between a business and its customers, which is a lot better than addressing negative complaints in a public forum like Twitter. Within the contexts of these conversations, you can even cross-sell and upsell by recommending products that match your customer’s unique needs, similar to the brick and mortar experience of engaging with a rep who’s an expert on your product catalogue. Access your products from your phone’s keyboard with Shopkey! Download Shopify by Shopify (FREE) and put your Shopify store’s product catalogue in your phone’s keyboard. Share products with customers as easily as you’d add emojis in all your conversations, on any mobile app. Get Shopkey (iOS) Messaging Apps as a Way to Pay Payments are at the heart of all forms of commerce, whether business-to-consumer, business-to-business or peer-to-peer. As such, it’s also one of the areas of focus in this shift towards conversational commerce. Both Facebook Messenger and Snapchat, among others, have been experimenting with payments through chat. Snapchat’s Snapcash, for example, was their first foray into peer-to-peer payments, which let you send and receive money without having to leave the conversation. Facebook Messenger also rolled out its own payments feature in the U.S that works much the same way. While the uses right now don’t stray far from paying a friend back for dinner last night, Facebook Messenger for Business aims to have companies conducting a large part of the experience between businesses and customers—from first touch to point of sale—through Messenger. Messaging Apps as Your Personal Assistant On the consumer side, it’s the new concierge services enabled by conversational commerce that will really change the way we buy. If you’ve ever hired a virtual assistant then you understand what this does to your purchasing process—all the pre-purchase research, placing an order and even making the payment can be handed off to your VA. But the “virtual assistant” as a jack-of-all-trades freelancer has already evolved into a variety of concierge-style services —from Magic, which promises “do-it-all” task fulfillment via SMS, to Zirtual which connects you with one dedicated, skilled VA for your startup. So, what’s next? Using all the information about you—your shipping address, interests, relationship status and more—to further streamline the process with text-based assistants. Facebook’s M, the company’s new Messenger-based assistant, aims to mix human and AI task fulfillment that leverages what Facebook already knows about you, and the context your share with it, to serve your needs better. Unlike Siri, Google Now, Cortana and other AI assistants, Facebook M will also be powered by humans and empowered by Facebook Payments to take purchase decisions from product discovery to placing an order. Let’s say Mother’s Day slipped your mind, and you’d like to order some last minute flowers for your mom. You google around for “flower shops near me”, looking specifically for same day delivery and Dahlias (her favorite). You find a store, and submit your credit card and shipping info to pay. This is what many still do today. Instead, imagine this entire process unfolded as a conversation, not unlike one you’d have with a rep inside a physical store, where you simply say: “I need flowers delivered for Mother’s Day. She likes Dahlias.” Missing information that couldn’t be gleaned through your request could be picked up through the natural flow of a conversation, but at the end of it all you’d have a link to an order that you could pay for through the same messaging app where you’d also get notifications on its shipping status. Now imagine a conversation like this with several brands in the same list of contacts as your friends and family. Messaging Apps as Your Small Business Assistant Messaging apps don’t just offer concierge-style services for consumers. Businesses can benefit too. Through a mix of automation and input from the owner, messaging apps can also carry out tasks between different applications that entrepreneurs use everything. Instead of bouncing between different tabs—your website dashboard and an ad manager—to run a campaign, short-staffed business owners can get an ad out for a new product or sale on the go without having to drop everything they’re doing. Sound too good to be true? While business applications for messaging apps are still uncommon, they do exist. They do work. And they’re helping business owners earn back their most valuable resource: time. Hire Kit, your own virtual employee, for free! Chat with Kit via SMS, Facebook Messenger or Telegram to delegate time-consuming tasks and help you run your online store—from running Facebook ads to sending “thank you” emails to customers. Contrata a Kit, gratis Messaging Apps as a Medium For Content Messaging apps have often been pushed to the side as the epitome of “dark social”: channels where attribution and tracking were inherently difficult, if not impossible. And yet Snapchat has been developing Discover as a way to complement its photo-sharing experience with branded content. BuzzFeed has also been experimenting with WhatsApp share buttons on mobile, which they claim has attracted more clicks than their Twitter share button. But a more interesting example of content consumption in the context of a conversation comes from publisher Quartz, which recently released an app that turns the way you consume news into a back-and-forth exchange. One tidbit of news elicits a response from you, which the Quartz bot replies to accordingly. The chat interface makes reading the news an interactive experience, one that’s likely unique for every reader as it gives the consumer control. And when you consider how sponsored content and native advertising harness content for marketing, you can imagine the potential that exists for brands to serve up personalized, branded content in this format for consumers. But all of this isn’t entirely novel—not on an international scale. Just look at China where mobile commerce has long been a huge part of daily life and where one app rules it all. Messaging Apps as Your App For Everything? We can speculate all we want about the future of conversational commerce. Or we can look east where WeChat—a popular messaging app in China—has already entrenched itself as the go-to app for everything. If you’re among WeChat’s 649.5 million monthly active users, and have tied your credit card info to your WeChat Wallet, then you’re able to do the following without ever leaving the app: Hail a cab Order food Book a flight Pay a friend Buy movie tickets Play games Meet new people The list goes on For a while now, WeChat has been the center of mobile commerce in China and, contrary to its name, much more than “just a chat app”. On Chinese New Year, for example, WeChat gamified the Chinese money-gifting tradition with Red Envelope, encouraging a flood of new users to join the platform and sign up for WeChat payments to participate. While a WeChat-like culture is less likely in countries with a more diverse ecosystem of separately owned apps (Uber, Paypal, Facebook Messenger, etc.), the powerful APIs being built for these apps mean it’s very possible for them to plug into a single interface. In fact, in the U.S you can already order an Uber through Facebook Messenger by clicking on an address. And that’s just one integration that’s shortening the distance between making a plan and making it happen. The Era of Conversational Commerce Is Already Here Conversational commerce is an exciting shift in the world of tech and business. The convenience this affords consumers, from removing the burden of pre-purchase research to making payments only a few taps away, will build upon the already existing foundations laid by mobile and social commerce—in a big way. In a word, conversational commerce is bringing commerce into the familiar and personal context of messaging apps, transforming the customer experience by making it a whole lot more convenient for both businesses and their customers alike. If you’re looking for it on the distant horizon, you’re looking the wrong way. Because the era of conversational commerce is already here. Further Reading: 7 Must-Have Shopify Apps that will help your Shopify store thrive in the era of conversational commerce. About The Author Braveen Kumar is a Content Crafter at Shopify where he develops resources to empower entrepreneurs to start and succeed in business. Follow @braveeenk !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1904241839800487'); fbq('track', "PageView"); 120profit.com - https://120profit.com/?p=2480&utm_source=SocialAutoPoster&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Tumblr

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