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Gift cards aren’t just for consumers during the holidays, and they don’t have to be sold directly through a retailer’s native app. With the rise of conversational marketing technology, retailers will be able to suggest gift card purchases to consumers on Facebook Messenger and Apple’s iMessage. Through a chat plugin that learns from a conversation, retailers will be able to offer consumers a relevant gift card, Gerry Gilbert, VP of Product at Blackhawk, told PYMNTS in an interview. Read More...

If retailers know which of their customers are likely to churn, then they have a chance to convince those users to stay. Predictive analytics, an application of artificial intelligence (AI), can help merchants and other organizations gain insight into what a customer may do next based on what he’s doing now. Rephael Sweary, President of WalkMe, shares how it works and why this tech is useful for more than just keeping shoppers on branded platforms. Read More...

Voice is already a piece of many brands’ omnichannel strategies, but the tech and user experience still have a long way to go before voice commerce can become a mainstream shopping method. Still, Adam Marchick, VoiceLabs CEO and co-founder, has no doubt it’ll happen — and probably within the next three to five years, he said. He predicts that voice will integrate with, rather than replace, commerce methods that consumers are familiar with today. Here’s how Marchick believes the industry will get from point A to point B, and how VoiceLabs is working to help it along. Read More...