New findings from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) claim that merchant integration of technologies such as bots and natural language interfaces will lead to remote goods purchases by mobile totaling $2.1 trillion by 2021. This represents a 100% increase from this year’s projection for spend on physical and digital goods.

The research found that rising smartphone use in digital retail was the underlying cause for stakeholder development in Bots, natural language processing, and disruption at the payment gateway. The new study found that shoppers would be driven away from merchants where keyword search and menu-driven systems were in place.

It suggested that where merchants deployed conversational interfaces, such as bots and natural language search, they would be able to far better understand the consumer’s intent. The North Face, for example, has developed an intelligent digital assistant to help consumers choose the appropriate product. Meanwhile, Facebook, Google and storefronts such as Etsy are investing heavily in similar solutions.

“Product search and discovery is a key stage in the shopper journey,” noted research author Steffen Sorrell. “Offering a conversational consumer interface, then marrying intent with contextual product data will drive merchant differentiation.”

Additionally, the research revealed that substantial activity is taking place to improve the experience at the point of payment. Disruptive players are simplifying the consumer experience by challenging tried-and-tested but frustrating checkouts. For example, Klarna eschews card number entry and usernames and passwords. Instead, shoppers can enter simple-to-remember information, such as their email address and postcode.

Meanwhile, the research examined how machine learning is used to minimize the chance of payment rejection. Adyen, for example, are using the technology to avoid payment rejection due to bad formatting or misrouted connections to the acquiring bank.