A new study from Juniper Research, finds that the retail and ecommerce sectors will generate in excess of $10bn in Communications-Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) revenue by 2029. This is a substantial growth, from $5.8 billion in 2024, and will be driven by an increased demand for marketing use cases, such as promotional campaigns and loyalty schemes, over mobile messaging channels.
To capitalise 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.
An extract from the report, Global CPaaS Market 2025-2029, is available as a free download.
Scalable CPaaS platforms are needed to support small retailers
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.
Research co-author Sam Barker says: “As CPaaS platforms pivot to customer interaction solutions, the most successful vendors will be those that provide solutions that enable more personalised interactive experiences.”
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.
