Retail and eCommerce to Account for a Quarter of CPaaS Revenue by 2029

A new study from Juniper Research has found that the retail and eCommerce sectors will generate more than $10 billion in Communications-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) revenue by 2029. This is a substantial growth, from $5.8 billion in 2024.

The growth will be driven by an increased demand for marketing use cases, such as promotional campaigns and loyalty schemes, over mobile messaging channels. To capitalize on this growth, Juniper Research urges CPaaS vendors to develop capabilities that cater to the rich media campaign orchestration, specifically for retailers. The research identified the integration of tools, including AI agents and payment capabilities, as key to meeting the evolving requirements of marketing use cases.

CPaaS platforms must evolve from being just messaging infrastructure providers to becoming full-service customer interaction platforms, primarily to benefit from the growth attributable to the retail vertical. To achieve this, Juniper Research believes that platforms must implement CPaaS technologies under a single platform, which enables smaller retailers to scale mobile marketing campaigns as they grow.

“As CPaaS platforms pivot to customer interaction solutions, the most successful vendors will be those that provide solutions that enable more personalised interactive experiences,” remarked research co-author Sam Barker. Additionally, Juniper Research predicts that retailers will be the first to migrate their outbound messaging traffic from SMS to rich media channels such as RCS. To capitalise on this shift, CPaaS providers must begin simplifying platform onboarding processes and embedding AI-based automation tools to attract retailers to their solutions.